I pull the bucket up, and it isn't hard, because the bucket isn't very big or heavy, but it takes a moment to do because the bridge is so high above the river. I lean over and look, to see how close the bucket is to the top. When it's close, I swing a little more to lift it up over the bridge's parapet, and then look at the water-barrel backpack.
"In there?" I say.
The water-seller nods.
The top of the barrel is open, so I pour water inside. Then I look at the edge of the bridge again. "Do I just drop it over?" I say.
"Gently," she says. "Lower it. So it doesn't swing and break."
I look down, and see what she means. We're quite close to one of the bridge's support pillars, and those are as huge as the rest of the bridge, and made of stone. I lower the bucket down, carefully, to almost the end of the rope, and let it land in the river, and fill with more water. Then I start pulling it up again.
Lexi just stands there and watches me.
I pull up the bucket, and I'm thinking about water. I can smell it, if that makes sense. Like that wet watery smell you get near swimming pools and drinking fountains, which I suppose isn't actually the smell of water itself, but dampness on warm stone. I'm smelling that now, anyway, from where water has spilled as we refilled the water-barrel. I can smell that, and it's making me terribly thirsty. My mouth is unpleasantly dry, and I desperately want a drink, now I'm smelling that smell.
I lift the bucket up over the parapet, and am about to tip it out into the water barrel when I decide I can't wait.
"Can I drink this one?" I say. "I'll refill the rest of the barrel as soon as I've had a drink, I promise."
The water-seller shrugs. She doesn't seem to care.
YOU ARE READING
Eden
FantasiaAshlin dies, and then wakes up, very surprised that she has. She remembers dying, remembers it precisely, and is completely certain that she did. She is equally certain that she hadn’t expected there to be anything else afterwards. But yet, here som...
