I find myself in the barrenness. Hot, solitary, looking for rest. One foot, the other. The sand scorching with every step. No matter what direction I look, it all looks the same. No view is different. I lose my sense of balance and orientation. I keep walking, where is the end? It will be a long walk. I prepare my mind. I sit down and ponder. If it's all the same, what direction is one better than the next? Out of the darkness of night it comes. I am walking, I can see it. At first it doesn't seem real. I look, take it in and smile. If it is real, just a drink. I can't stay long. I sip, pour it over my body and feel it run. Every line and corner it finds. Cooling, comforting. Another sip and then I must go.

I need to find the way out of this vast emptiness.The water, it feels so good! I take more in. Another splash to my parched face. A trickle down my neck, it finds my heart and seeps in. The refreshing is almost too much. Surely I will awake tomorrow and find it gone. If it will be gone, should I dive in? It looks so peaceful. To feel the water surround me, saturating, taking the heat and the sting of sun away. What will happen when I have to go? Walk on and find a way out of this desert? Walk on to find the end or is the end, the way out through the water? Oasis or new life?

Without thinking, I sit down at the water's edge. The moon's reflection ripples with the wind. Dazed by it's beauty, I put my feet in. The water feels better than I hoped. I"ll walk in just a little I think. It feels as though the water and I become one with each step forward. I want to lower myself in but I wonder, what is beneath the surface? I can't see the bottom. Should I turn back? Get out while I still can? I think it's not too late but I can't move. I need the water. Frozen still, I stand. Contemplating a dive, I try to weigh the outcomes. The hot breeze and walking on or a swim in a beautiful pool of water in the middle of all this nothingness. In mid thought, I dive in. I plunge beneath and almost inhale. The cool tingle of the heat leaving my skin and a long exhale under the water. I don't want to surface.