His Sand Water Doom

"So you sold our perfectly good camel for those date seeds and not at the bazaar like I told you to?" I could see my father shudder in anger. My pleading eyes were blocked by curtains as my sisters and mother ducked back into the corner. "But father, you never heard of Jack and

the Beanstalk?” I asked. “These date seeds might lead to a magical land!” My father glared. “And our camel could have brought us enough money that the landlord would let us stay here another month,” he said. “As it is, we have to be out in three days.” I gave him a pleading look.

Three days, three seeds. Just like in the story, I thought. Why, if I just got to planting right now, who knows what might change in three days. Perhaps there would be a giant’s castle full of gold, and then we could pay the rent, or even buy a new house of our own!

The following day, during a brief moment of respite from the vivid hallucinations, he somehow found the energy to lift his head and through his mental fog noticed that the vines holding the raft together were beginning to loosen. The tiny island was a mere speck in the distance.

He started shouting. "No more water!"; he didn't care about pirates listening to him anymore - he was free! Getting up from the floor, he tripped on the bucket but started walking excitedly towards the steering.

“It’s all water, man! Look around you! We haven’t seen land in 4 years now. We may never see it again. It’s mackerel and mermaid for us!

The captain took off his hat and placed it over his breast. He looked toward the heavens and prayed silently to the water gods, tears welling up in his eyes. We are surf ‘n turf folk now he thought while coronating himself with a mermaid bone necklace. Of neither land nor sea.