Splash

Beep! Beep! Beep! An alarm goes off and a man gets out of bed. He looks at the clock and it reads 6:30 am. He opens up the shade in his room as the dim morning light slowly creeps into the dark room. The sun peeks over the horizon almost in anticipation of the day to come. The man walks down into his kitchen and turns on the tap and sits there and watches the water flow out of the tap so easily. He gets a cup and fills it with water. He sits down at his table and sleep fills his eyes and somewhere in his distant memories he hears the ringing of an alarm clock.

A boy wakes up and looks at the clock that reads 4:30. He turns it off and gets out of bed.
He looks out his window to see darkness. He grabs two large worn metal buckets. Rust is creeping in on the side of one of the buckets. He walks out the door careful not to wake up his family members and starts off down a long winding dirt road. The road is surrounded by tall tan grass. It rustles in the wind. The boy is thirsty. He looks back and sees others also following this same winding dirt path. He continues his long trek hoping to make it to the end of the road before it gets too hot. He knows that he won't make it in time. The boy stumbles on a small rock and trips but manages to stay up on his feet. His sandal has become slightly ripped.

Many hours pass and others have surpassed him on the path. The sun beats down on him as sweat drips down from his face as small drops of sweat fall off his chin and hit the dirt with no sound. Thirst makes his throat raw and dry. He hears the rustling of the tall grass as the path starts to straighten out. He continues down the path noticing that it is getting straighter instead of the narrow winding path that he followed a few hours ago. He knows what this means. He has walked this road every day of his life for as long as he can remember. He looks up and sees his prize, his reason for this daily journey. Water. He sees the gorgeous glistening river with fresh water. The boy fights off the fatigue that he feels and breaks out into a sprint with the anticipation of the cool water fueling him. He finally makes it to the river. He fills up both metal buckets with water and takes a big sip.
He trips on a part of his broken sandal and falls into the clear river. He lands with a splash.

The man jolts awake and almost falls off of his chair. He looks down to see the cup of water that he had filled up before and takes a long sip of it. He swallows and thinks how grateful he is for water. He looks at the clock that reads 7:00. "I'm going to be late for work!" He says out loud. He rushes into the bathroom and takes a shower. He hurriedly gets dressed and gets into his car. He drives quickly out of his driveway and gets onto the highway. He pulls into a parking lot and walks into a building with a sign on the front that reads MWRA.

Thank you so much to everyone who works at the MWRA for all they do for us on a daily basis. Having clean drinking water on a daily basis is such an amazing thing to have and I thank everyone who makes it possible at the MWRA.