tight and Iâm not breathing quite right. But I canât walk into thewater to free the basket, because then Iâll be stuck in the same situation I was afraid of to begin with.
I canât make up my mind. Now weâre both stuck, the baby in the rushes and me just watching the little basket. It bumps into some reeds, which turns it so that it bumps into some more. Thankfully, the river makes a decision for me, because I see the basket start to edge out to where the current can take it.
Once itâs past the rushes, I start to follow it. The current must be really comfortable, because the baby doesnât cry at all. That makes me mad, because he never stopped crying at home, which was the reason weâre here in the first place.
âWere you trying to get put out here?â I say, even though I know he canât hear me, and that even if he could, he wouldnât be able to answer.
The water moves pretty slowly, so I walk along, not even needing to jog to keep up. It starts to get really boring. Nothing is happening. The basket doesnât even get pulled into the middle of the river. It just knocks along the banks. Some mud has started to stick to the bottom and sides, which is hard to see because of all the tar, but I can tell, because it looks bumpier than before. Amma had been really careful with it. She had smoothed the pitch out with a giant leaf over and over. At the time, I didnât understand why, but now I see that she must have thought the basket would float betterthat way.
It doesnât seem to be making a difference. The basket keeps floating along. I walk beside it. It floats. I walk. The sun is out for real now. The baby is probably nice and cool in the basket, but Iâm getting hot. Flies keep buzzing around my ears and hair, so I spend a lot of time swatting them away. Now Iâm bored and irritated. I start kicking pebbles as I walk. I even bend down to pick a few bigger rocks up so that I can throw them.
Iâm really good at throwing, and these rocks fit perfectly in my palm. I stop, point to where I want the rock to land in the water, pull my arm back, and fling it over my head. It lands far out in the river with a splash and sinks right away.
Iâm about to throw another one when I look around and see that the basket has floated up ahead of me. My chest tightens up again. I lost track of why I was here. Amma and Baba would be so mad if they saw me. I feel terrible and sprint to catch up. The basket hasnât gone very far, but I drop the rest of the rocks out of my fist anyway. I canât throw them while Iâm walking, and Iâm afraid Iâll fall behind again.
Itâs a good thing I do catch up, because the current starts to speed up a little. I can see bigger ripples on the surface of the water. The color changes, too. Itâs always brown and muddy, but itâs darker now. The basket picksup speed. Iâm loping along beside it now, which is better. Not so boring.
Thatâs when the basket moves away from the bank. I have to run to keep up now. The basket tips from side to side more in the water. I get scared that it will tip so far that the baby will fall out, and then all of my Ammaâs work will be for nothing. Worse than that, Iâll have to go back and tell her what happened, and sheâll get mad that I didnât save him even though she knows that I canât swim.
All the rocking must be scary for the baby because he starts to cry. I look around, afraid that someone will hear and figure out that this is a Hebrew baby. Then theyâd find me and know for sure. I stand on my tiptoes to look around, but thereâs nothing to see. The river must have carried the basket, and me, along the shore far enough that weâve reached a spot thatâs completely empty. No houses, no roads, no people. Itâs pretty here, with lots of trees. Their leaves hang over the ground and water, so I can walk in the
Terry Spear
Allan Leverone
Saud Alsanousi
Braxton Cole
Megan Lindholm
Derek Robinson
J.D. Cunegan
Veronica Henry
Richmal Crompton
Audrey Carlan