The Water Kept on Flowing

The Water Kept on Flowing

(“For He has satisfied the thirsty and filled the hungry with good things.” Psalm 107:9)

He stood at the faucet in the bathroom
at the farmhouse
where his parents had dropped him off for
the evening. It was supper time
in the country
and he was washing his hands before going to
the table with ham and
fried okra.

He turned the faucet one way and the water flowed.
Warm and clear the soap slipped between his fingers
and bubbled on his knuckles. Four years old
or five
he knew the ritual well.

But the basin was unfamiliar. When he turned the
faucet again
the water kept on flowing. He turned it back
the other way
and the water
kept on flowing.
His face turned red, tears began to burn his eyes,
he turned it again and
the water
kept on flowing.
Confused between clockwise and counter,
baffled by left and then right,
his host, probably the mother,
wondered why he was not back to the table.

She wandered in, the door was open, and saw the
boy
so
anxious because the water
kept on flowing.

She took his hand; her fingers were warm.
His were numb.
She turned the faucet and the water
stopped flowing.

And all he could think was only adults know
how
to make the water flow.