breathe deep--

Sophie was in the middle of the 15-foot-wide, 1-foot-deep creek, dressed in a dark pleated bathing skirt, with enough ruffles and lace to go around her thin determined body at least half a dozen times. She had three historical romances, two glasses of iced lemonade, and a once-hot mint tea on delicate bone china scattered along the grassy bank and haphazardly perched on convenient stones. As Amy approached, Sophie waved to her.

"Come on in," she called out to Amy. "The water's fine."

"You up there, you too! Take a deep breath and come on in," Sophie was shouting to the crowd now gathering near the bank, watching her paddle about in the shallow stream.

It was good advice in Boulder, Amy thought, catching her own breath as she ran up to rescue Sophie. At 6,000 feet, you need to breathe deeply, to feel the sparse molecules of air enter your lungs. Why the family still held on here in the dry Colorado highlands instead of moving to a warm, simple climate like Florida after Sophie sold the farm, she didn't know.

Perhaps it was Boulder Creek that kept them here, the sharp shallow sides of water cascading down slick rocks, rushing past into what it thought was a bright future and what she knew was only down to Denver's greedy municipal water system. Perhaps the Mizunami family needed to embody the spirit of the scarce water, to make sure that it stayed in one place. This is what Sophie would have told her in a dream, she thought. Certainly not in the daytime when reality mattered. But perhaps at night.

Breathe deeply, she told her grandmother, watching Sophie's tiny chest move up and down in the too-fast stream.

in water / breathe deep-- / understand / that there can be / no differences between / air and water / symbol / and symbolized

the word is / the sound / of water / dripping from/ ancient symbols / tiny particles / of merging / realities

Follow us all: Amy/Anna, Sophie/Yuki, Kit/Richard, minor characters or sift through water leavings and river journeys.