“Good morning Mo! How was your night last night?”
“All and well. Yours?”
“Oh, you know. Boring, nothing to do…I love your hair. You should wear it down more often.”
“Thank you. It’s getting long though. That’s why I wear it up all the time.”
“Oh! Don’t. It’s so nice… Ok then… How’s your husband? Still not understanding?”
“Yes! He sees this as a curse, not a blessing of trust and honor. I truly don’t think he’ll ever understand. To him, I’m just putting all of my love thought time… energy… everything to our task here. I think he’s thinking about leaving me.”
“Oh my god! I’m so sorry… Is there anything I can do?”
“No, but thank you.”
“So you guy shad another fight last night, huh?”
“Uh-huh. I’m just glad the kids were out… How’s your fiancée?”
“Heh… You know. Still the same. Moody, upset, angry. Pretty similar to your husband actually.”
“Still doesn’t appreciate what he has, does he?”
“I wouldn’t say th-“
“Come now, Julia.”
“…Ok, I guess you could say that. I wouldn’t… I don’t know. I love him, he loves me…yet I feel like he doesn’t understand me, my commitments, my desires. He’s trying to make me into who he feels I should be.”
“He’s always been doing that, Julia. You need to realize that fully and truly. Make a change and do it for you. Stop putting him before you.”
“…Look at the sunrise. Gah- it’s beautiful today. I love that color of red, so deep and bright, and with the sky behind it; blue as sapphire and bright with the streaks from the sun. Don’t you think its gorgeous?”
“It’s ok. It seems so similar to all the others. Sunrises never seem special to me. Besides, we’ve seen several thousand at this point.”
“But they can be magnificent and elegant just like this one! It has just the right amount of clouds, capturing the light of the sun and reflecting it back to the earth. People are inspired by dawns like this one, they just aren’t awake for them.”
“That’s one thing I miss, sleeping in. I forgot what that was like. Well, no time to waste, shall we get started?”
“I suppose we should. You never know what’s going to happen to the Dam.”
“Just hope we don’t have an incident like a few years ago when the Tartarusians attacked us shortly after sunrise.”
“They almost brok the Dam. That was the closest anyone ever came to releasing the waters of Thanatos.”
“Yep.”
“He-heh. At least we know to expect attacks early in the morning now. They use to only come at night.”
“Things were easier back then … The ground here is really soft.”
“Look, the grass is dying too. Don’t want the waters getting out. Come on!”
“Hey… I’ve been wondering, for a while, why were we picked to do this?”
“Look, there’s a break.”
“I mean… out of everyone who has ever lived, why were we chosen? So many people might be better at this than us.”
“Some of the ground must have slipped into the water. Put your hand there.”
“What if we wanted to do something else? Right here?”
“Yeah.”
“Mo, are you listening?”
“Yeah. Just a sec… There. All better. The sun should dry what little water got out. The grass will grow again. What was the question again?”
“Why us?”
“Because they knew we would hold to our promise. We know commitment because we know how important our word is.”
“I never really gave my word. I accepted that this was where I was needed to help out, and went with it. I didn’t feel like I had much choice.”
“You had a choice, just like I had one.”
“Are you sure?”
“… Of course. I wouldn’t still be here if I hadn’t had the choice to do this. Besides, it’s an honor to guard the waters of Thanatos and its Dam… You’ve been listening to your fiancée too much!”
“No. I haven’t.”
“Well, you sound like my husband.”
“What was that?”
“…I don’t know. Which way was it?”
“Don’t know. I’ll go this way and check it out.”
“I’ll go this way.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“There you are! I was starting to get worried. Did you find anything? You look alright at least.”
“Yeah. It was a lost child. Couldn’t find his way… Hohh- had to show him the way off the Dam… He got pretty close to the water.”
“Wonder how it got in?”
“Lets hope he doesn’t do that again. His eyes were glued to the water. It was weird, as if he knew what the water did and couldn’t stop himself from going into ti. Glad I got there when I did.”
“I found another dead spot of grass, and a tree that appears to have sucked up a lot of the waters that seeped into the grass.”
“Oh… How far down?”
“About half way, not too far. Lets go.”
“…I wonder if there were any before us.”
“There must have been. But we only have to worry about us… Why are you being so speculative today? It’s not like you.”
“Just been thinking a lot. I’ve been wondering if I’ll ever get to do what I want to do.”
“But you wanted to help here.”
“You know what I mean. My dreams, aspirations. I don’t want to be on the Dam of Life forever. I want to make a difference.”
“This is making a difference! Since we’ve been here, there hasn’t been a break-out of plague or mass deaths. We’re making a huge difference!”
“It’s not the sort of difference I want to make. Don’t get me wrong, saving lives is great and all…but look at what that has done. More people creating more problems, all the while polluting and pretending there’s no practical way to prevent the damage they wreak. Soon, there’ll be too many leaks to stop and the whole dam will lose its life. This green will turn to grey, and eventually white, and the world will be cold as death.”
“Here’s the Tree.”
“Look at it. The bark is already turning grey. The change is happening so fast sometimes!”
“Stop it! Stop being so gloomy. It’s still a beautiful day, and we have a task here to do. Put your hand here real quick and I’ll fix the leak.”
“…”
“…”
“There, that should hold for now.”
“Oh, come now… Look at you… Do you think you, of all the people left in the world, can make a difference on that scale?”
“You’ve seen the affect of the leak here. One stream of the water and the whole of that tree withered. And but two people fixed the issue, and now there’s hope… Yes, hope…that this spot of land will survive.”
“How do you intend to do this?”
“I’ve had dreams. We’ve talked about them before. Don’t you remember?”
“Those clouds are very beautiful now. So full and light. Look how they float above everything else… A little high for my taste.”
“You have always been a dear friend to me.”
“And so much more we might’ve been.”
“Shall we go this way now? Both ends have been explored.”
“Jules… What? I know you prefer it to Julia. Don’t look at me like that… Besides you still need to make sure the Gods aren’t worried about what you want.”
“Thank you, Mo.”
“Where will you go first? I mean…what will you do first?”
“Go back to school. I have to catch up with the times. Look-“
“-another spot.”
“…I’m sure you’ll do fine. You’ve always had so much ingenuity about you. And you do keep up with the world. Perhaps you will make the difference you want… you need… we need.”
“Hopefully it’ll make a difference here too, and you’ll have it so easy.”
“Yeah…”
“Then again…it may not make any difference at all. Heh- how funny that would be.”
“It could be time for the Dam of Life to survive on its own.”
“Then your honor and commitment would be fulfilled.”
“Someone’s coming.”
“I think They’re coming.”
“…Heh- good luck, Jules.”
“…Thank you, Margot… Find your dream and happiness for me.”
“I’ll try. Go, talk to Them. It’s almost evening. I can handle the Dam myself the rest of this day. Go… go already!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Hello Julia!”
“Good morning Mo! How have you been? It’s been so long.”
“Good. I’ve been very good… You’ve aged.”
“Yes. Away from the Grace of the Gods, time catches up with you. What are you doing out here?”
“Searching…”
“…For what?”
“…My sunrise…”
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