Water, Water by Cary Fagan

Author:Cary Fagan [Fagan, Cary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tundra
Published: 2022-03-22T00:00:00+00:00

As he sang, Rafe managed to scoop up three dozen more cans, including ten flat tins of sardines. He didn’t love sardines, but he knew they were full of protein and that sardine oil was good for him and Buddy too. He also caught a large bottle of lemon juice that was three-quarters full. Rafe had once read that sailors on long voyages who didn’t have enough fruit and vegetables drank a little lemon juice to fend off scurvy. He started to take a tablespoon a day. It had a nice, tart taste.

He also scooped up a rubber ball (a good toy for Buddy), a television remote control and a Tupperware container of old family photographs.

He got sidetracked for a full day by the photographs. Most were in black-and-white. A man and woman standing in front of a big car. Two teenage boys in bathing suits lying on beach towels and smiling. A birthday party with little kids in paper hats. A portrait of a woman in a wedding gown with puffy sleeves. But there were color photographs too. A girl playing with a dog in a backyard (he showed that one to Buddy). A high school basketball game. A trip to the zoo. Studying them, he could follow kids as they grew up and adults as they grew old. He saw people who resembled each other and must have been brothers and sisters or cousins. The people in the photos weren’t his family, but they were a family. He spent a long time with them before placing the photographs back in the container and putting it under his bed.

And then he went back to the window. And miracle of miracles, he caught a can of paint.

It wasn’t a big can, but it was enough to make some difference. It was purple, a color that Rafe had never liked. But as long as it was dark enough, he couldn’t have cared less.

He didn’t catch the can until late in the afternoon, when the sun was already going down, but he didn’t want to wait another day in case he missed some other floater. Nor, despite the episode with the tent, did he stop and think again about whether his plan had any flaws. He knew that he ought to, but he had to do something. So he got out the ladder, hooked it onto the roof, and then standing halfway he used a homemade brush made from a Nerfball tied to the end of a Harry Potter wand. In large letters he painted:

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