The
Great and Wide River
When water
first formed and flowed across the earth, there began a path made of a tiny and
consistent drips that began to find a way down a hill and puddle in a leveled
hollow. As time inched on, the drips became
greater, the path became wider, and the puddle spilled over and met the puddle
that had formed below it. Soon, they grew
together and thickened, etching a way down the mountain, finding the easiest
path to the bottom.
As the eons
passed, the trickle became a stream, then a river, wide and deep and living. The Living River made of a million trickles,
of a billion drops, made its way to the sea.
On either
side of the Living River were two peoples.
On one side were the Yutes and on the other, the Emes. Neither ever took their eyes off the other, and
even during relatively quiet periods of peace, they always held their rocks in
hand, ready. Every once in a while, they
would face off, and with the Living River between them, would yell and throw
stones at each other. As the great,
uneasy numbers would swell, the crowds would press against the shore, and the usual
shouting would change to threats and curses and screams. Suddenly, one voice from each side of the
river would rise above all others and shrill, “The Living River must change, it
must change, it must change… and only I can make it do so.” Of these
two, one silenced the other, and the masses pushed the loudest screamer into the vast, wide
and wild Living River. There was a horrific
splash, and then, the multitude would sneer and scoff and turn away
from the water. The Living River would
continue its course.
This went
on, back and forth, forth and back, until, once in a very long and simmering while,
the Yutes and the Emes would became so angry with the Living River, that they stopped
yelling at each other and cursed the water itself. On these rare days, the masses attacked the
river and rushed into the violent waters.
As the people trampled one another and crawled over each other, many drowned. The dead bodies drifted with the current, some
catching on brambles and stones, damming the river in parts. And for a time, the river flowed around the
obstructions and found new ways around the hitches, and for a long while, the
people believed the Living River had changed.
As time
finds its way and as the dead, bloated bodies dislodged and washed away, the
Yutes and Emes forgot the rage they had harbored towards the Living River. They felt the stones they still held in their hands and paced the shore uneasily. They waved their arms and screamed until one voice on either side rose above the others...
