CHAPTER 1
Dorp and Sam Meet
Sam was on the plane this first Monday morning in June.
Or should I say
he was on the outside of the plane, hanging on for dear life?
As he
slid towards the back of the plane, traveling five miles high in the
air, he wondered why he agreed to this adventure.
But let me back up to the beginning.
Sam
was going east to his grandparents' house for a month. At the
airport, he said goodbye to dad, mom, and hugged his baby sister,
Abby. He then left with the attendant and went through airport
security and boarded the plane. The attendant took him to his seat
and helped him stow his bag in the overhead compartment.
As the tug
pushed the plane backwards away from the gate, Sam wondered why a
vehicle this big didn’t have a reverse gear. Even Grandpa Ed’s
old red pickup truck had a reverse gear.
“Oh
well,” Sam thought, “As long as the plane can fly, it doesn’t
matter how we get to the runway.”
The plane taxied to the end of the runway and waited their turn to takeoff.
Sam
thought, “Even airplane pilots have to wait their turn.”
Soon
enough, the big engines on the plane roared and they sped down the
runway. The plane lifted off the ground and they were airborne. It
was a foggy San Diego morning. Water had collected on the skin of the
plane. Sam watched the drops smear across the little window by his
head. The businessman next to him had kindly offered Sam his window
seat so the boy could see the sights out the window. Sam was happy to
switch and properly thanked the man. Sam was really looking forward
to this trip. He turned twelve years-old this spring, and Grandpa Ed
said he would teach Sam how to drive the red pickup - in his field.
Sam
watched the water slide across the window thought to himself; “I’m
glad I’m not a drop of water. I would hate to get smeared around
like that.”
Sam
was getting sleepy. He was too excited to get much sleep the night
before. Sam could feel his head falling over to the side but
couldn’t stop it. He conked out and began to dream.
Suddenly,
Sam felt something on his knees. He woke up and sat up straight.
There was a huge drop of water, about 10” tall, standing in his lap
with its hands on its... hips?
“Wh-who
are you?” stuttered Sam.
“I
am Dorp.” said the little creature in Sam’s lap.
“Why
are you here?” asked Sam.
“I
have been sent to teach you about my kind; I am water”.
“Sir,”
Sam said, “You are a very large drop of water.”
“I
am not a drop, Sam. I am a Dorp. Drop
of water is what
English-speaking humans call us.
“I-I’m
glad to meet you. You are a big drop, er dorp. But I have studied
water. A dro-dorp of water is made of many molecules. Which one are
you?”
“It
is good that you know something about my kind. A Dorp is
1,670,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1.67 sextillion molecules of water),
give or take a few million. By myself, I am only one molecule. When
Dorps are formed, the molecule that has traveled the most and the
farthest is the head of that Dorp.
Sam
then asked: “How old are you?”
“I
was formed as a water molecule,” Dorp recounted, “from one atom
of oxygen and two atoms of hydrogen during an electrical storm over
China in 2050 BC, during the Xia Dynasty, which corresponds to the
11th
Dynasty in Egypt,
when they were still building pyramids. My first
job was to quench the thirst of a bronze worker in Yanshi, China.”
“How
did you get to America if you were created over China?”
“I
traveled, Sam. I can only move as natural forces propel me. Natural
forces have taken me around the world many times. Even so, it only
takes a few weeks to circle the globe, if things go just right.
"Water
has three major states: liquid, vapor, and solid. When I am a liquid,
I am usually moving around as rain, in a river or part of an ocean
current. If I am a vapor, I am moving in the wind currents around the
globe. You also see my kind in solid form as snow, hail, sleet and
ice, like you just had in your soda. The ice was made in San Diego
and will leave your body somewhere in the Midwest. That is how water
travels."
“That’s
pretty neat!” Sam exclaimed. “Then you are always going somewhere
and doing something.
Wait, how do you know my name?”
“I
have been to your house before, and I have a certain gift.” I have
been given certain senses for the sake of this assignment.”
“What
assignment?” puzzled Sam.
“To
get you interested in water. You could be a great hydrologist. You
just need a little guidance. Food is not the only thing that can be
in short supply as this earth becomes more populated. Water is going
to become scarcer because more people will have to drink from the
same canteen, so to speak. Now, we need to get this process under
way.”
“What
process?”
“You
have the opportunity to travel with us, young man. I have permission
to change you into a molecule of water and absorb you. The plan is to
take you along with us so you can see what water does. We are going
to travel around your country so you can see how water is used and
abused in America.”
“But
I have to be at my grandparents’ tonight!” Sam protested.
“Sam,
if I have the power to turn you into a molecule of water, I can also
suspend time. When we come back in a few months, you will pick up
right where you left off on June 2nd.
I will put you back on this
plane just after it crosses the California-Nevada border. Okay?”
“Wow!
I suppose…” Sam found himself saying.
“OK,
here goes!” Dorp said.
Sam
could feel himself shrinking. Dorp began to get very heavy in Sam’s
lap. Suddenly Sam was so small that Dorp was straddling him. Then
Dorp picked up Sam, and held him to the side of his, er…head
thingy. Then there was a slurrrpy-snap and Sam became a part of Dorp.
Sam was gone, except for what stuck out of the side of Dorp.
Suddenly,
the whole Dorp, including Sam, was outside the plane, sliding down
the side of the plane, being pushed by the wind. The water tried to stick to the side of the plane, but the force of the wind
was too much.
Sam
began to scream louder than he had on any amusement park ride. He was
really scared. He knew he would fall. He was over five miles off the
ground, about to drop to earth.
“Sam,”
Dorp admonished, “Don’t be scared.”
Sam
screeched, “I’m scared to fall. It’ll hurt!”
“No
it won’t Sam. Water can’t be hurt.”
“Why
is this plane still moving?” Sam stuttered. “I thought you were
going to suspend time.”
Dorp
said,
“When we drop off the plane, human time will stop for you.”
“I
don’t have a passport,” Sam moaned.
“Sam,
you are now water. You don’t need a passport.”
“I
forget. I’m new at this.”
Dorp
shouted to Sam,
“Ready to fall? Let’s go!”
Dorp
went to the last window of the plane, and then off they went.
Dorp
began to fall, and Sam with him. At first Sam was very scared of
hitting the ground. They were still over California.
They fell at 14 miles per hour. This means it would take 23 minutes to
hit the earth. The time went slow and fast, all at once. Sam really
dreaded this. He hadn’t fallen so far since he jumped off the high
board at the swimming pool.
“Oh,
OOOOOOh!” Sam yelled. “We’re going to land in a field!”
“Technically,”
Dorp said, “Into a pasture in Nevada, near a city called Mesquite.
We are about to land. Prepare for landing, please place your seats in
an upright position, and extinguish all smoking materials.” Dorp
said, imitating a flight attendant, except he did not wear the
airline uniform. In fact, Dorp didn’t wear anything at all…
“Extinguish
all smoking materials?” asked Sam. “How long has it been since
you’ve been on a plane? My dad says tobacco was banned from planes
years ago. And you said nothing about shutting off all electrical
devices.”
“True;
it’s been a while since I’ve been in a plane. The last time was
1967, I believe, and people carried no electrical devices onboard a
plane, except transistor radios. Land approaching!”
“What’s
a transis-“
PLOP!
They hit the ground. Actually, they hit a desert dandelion leaf and
rolled down the leaf and onto the ground next to the plant. This leaf
design helps each plant bring rainwater closer to itself, putting the rainwater in a place that its roots can better grab the moisture. As
they percolated
down into the ground, they wetted the dandelion root. The root began
to absorb the water. Dorp began to disintegrate as the dandelion took
bits of the water up through the thirsty roots.
“Mr.
Dorp! We’re coming apart! We’re losing molecules! What do we do?”
“Sam,
we can do nothing. Whatever happens, happens. We don’t control
anything. We just are. But you and I will always stay together this
on this trip. When we re-form as a Dorp, we will probably have
different molecule-associates than we had on the plane. That’s the
way it works. Every event changes us. “
“Does
this mean we’re supposed to ‘go
with the flow’?” Sam
snorted.
“I
suppose it does, Sam. I can already see what kind of trip this is
going to be.”
dorpwet.com
Desert dandelions
photo: summitpost