The Journey Of A Raindrop

Pip tried to help. He drifted beside Mira and nudged her toward a smooth patch between two floating leaves.

“This way,” he said.

Mira followed. For a moment, the water was calm. She felt the warmth of the sun spreading through her. Then a breeze brushed the pond. The leaves trembled, and fresh ripples hurried between them.

Mira slid back toward the reeds.

“Oh!” she cried. “I was almost there.”

Pip floated after her. “We can try again.”

They waited for the ripples to grow wide and thin. Mira watched the rings fade. When the surface became quiet, she moved carefully, one tiny wave at a time.

A water beetle zipped across her path.

“Excuse me,” Mira said.

The beetle turned sharply, making three quick ripples. Mira spun in a circle and bumped against a reed.

“I am sorry,” the beetle called. “I did not see you.”

“It is all right,” Mira replied, though she felt disappointed.

Pip came close. “Maybe the pond is not a road with one clear path.”

Mira looked at the shining water. Ripples crossed from every direction. They did not leave a gap for her to follow.

“Then how can I reach the air?” she asked.

Pip pointed with a tiny sparkle toward the sunlit surface. “Perhaps you do not have to travel across the pond. Perhaps the sunlight will help you travel through it.”

Mira felt the warmth again. It was stronger now. The top of the pond felt less cool than the deep water below. Sunlight touched her, and she began to feel light and restless, as if a gentle lift were rising inside her.

“Is this the way?” Mira asked.

“I think so,” said Pip. “But I do not know what will happen next.”

Mira did not know either. She had always been part of the pond. She had rested beside other droplets, moved with the waves, and slipped between reeds. Leaving felt strange, even though nothing was wrong.

She glanced at Pip. “Will you come with me?”

“I will stay near the surface,” he said. “You can tell me what you see when you return.”

Mira smiled. “I will.”

The sun warmed her more and more. Its light did not pull her like a hand. Instead, it gave her energy. The tiny parts of her began moving faster. They loosened from the liquid water around them.

Mira felt herself changing.

At first, she was still a droplet. Then her round shape began to fade. She stretched into a soft, invisible form. The pond did not push her away. The sunlight simply helped her leave.

“I am not slipping,” Mira whispered.

“You are rising,” Pip said.

Mira rose above the surface.

For one bright moment, she could still see herself as a shining droplet. Then she became water vapor, an invisible bit of water mixed into the air. She was no longer a bead that could sparkle in the sun. She was too small to see, but she could feel the warm air lifting her.

“Good-bye, Pip!” Mira called.

“Good-bye, Mira!” he called back.

His voice sounded far away already.

Mira floated upward. Warm air carried her above the pond. She passed the tops of the reeds and drifted near the dragonfly. The dragonfly turned in the air, but it could not see her. Mira felt like a secret moving through the sunshine.

Below her, the pond grew smaller.

She could see the green reeds, the smooth stones along the bank, and the dark shapes of fish beneath the water. The ripples that had seemed so large now looked like silver circles.

“I found a way,” Mira said.

The air carried her higher. A warm stream lifted her over the grass. She moved gently, with no feet and no wings. She did not choose every turn, but she could feel the air guiding her.

Mira tried to look back at the pond.

It was harder than she expected.

A pale breeze carried her sideways. The reeds slipped behind a row of bushes. Then the pond disappeared beneath the green leaves.

“Pip?” Mira called.

There was no answer. She could not see him. She could not see the pond. She could not even tell which way the shore lay.

Mira felt small and unsure in the wide air.

She remembered Pip’s kind voice. She remembered the warm pond beneath her. She remembered that she had wanted to discover where the air would carry her.

Now she was discovering.

The air lifted her over a field dotted with yellow flowers. Their sweet smell rose faintly from below. Birds sang somewhere nearby, and the sound traveled through the open sky. Mira drifted beside other invisible bits of water, though she could not yet see them.

“Are you there?” she asked.

A soft voice answered from somewhere close. “I am here.”

Mira turned, though turning was different in the air. “Who are you?”

“Another bit of water vapor,” the voice said. “The sun warmed me from a puddle.”

Mira felt less alone. “I came from a pond.”

“And I came from the ground.”

They floated together for a while. Warm air carried them higher, above the flowers and trees. The blue sky stretched in every direction. Mira had never known there could be so much space.

She tried once more to find the pond. She looked down through the clear air, but the trees and grass blended into a wide green patch. The pond was gone from sight.

Mira felt a small ache inside, even though she had no solid body now. She missed the cool water and Pip’s bright sparkle.

“You may see it again,” said the other water vapor.

“I hope so,” Mira said.

The warm air lifted them farther. Below, the land became a patchwork of fields, paths, and shining streams. Above, a few soft clouds floated in the distance. Mira watched them with wonder.

She was not ready to understand where her journey would lead. For now, she simply drifted, carried by air she could not see.

Sunlight had warmed the pond, and that warmth had given Mira a new way to travel. She had left the water as a droplet and entered the sky as invisible water vapor.

The pond was safe below, but Mira could no longer see it. She floated upward, unsure of what waited in the wide blue air, while the warm breeze carried her gently onward.

Mira had learned that sometimes a kind bit of warmth can help us begin a new journey, even when we cannot see the way ahead.

End of chapter one. 4 more chapters in the full book.