The Lamp in the Water
The snow stopped falling while Ana was buckling her second boot. She pushed the door open and stepped out into a village gone quiet and bright. Lamps stood along the lane, each one wearing a small white cap of snow. River slid down the step ahead of her, belly first, and landed in the drift with a soft whump. Ana laughed into her scarf and waded after him. Under the nearest lamp sat the stone water trough, not frozen, steaming a little at its edges. In the water lay a whole yellow lamp, upside down and perfect. "Look," Ana said. "There are two of them."
Ana reached in to pick the second lamp up. Her fingers broke the water, and the lamp broke too, into a hundred shaky pieces of gold. She pulled her hand back, dripping. The pieces wobbled, drifted, and slowly found each other again. River climbed onto the rim of the trough and looked at her with his whiskers pushed forward. Then he put one paw in, slower than Ana had ever seen anything move. The water did not even ripple. The lamp stayed whole, lying across his grey-brown wrist like a coin. "Go slow, and the light comes back," Ana said.
Ana tried it. Her hand went in too quickly and the gold flew apart again. She waited for it to settle. She tried slower, and then slower than that, until her fingers touched the water without a sound. The lamp lay across her open palm, whole and warm-looking, though her skin felt only cold water. River watched from the rim with his whiskers dripping. They went down the lane that way, stopping at every puddle under every lamp. In each one Ana laid her hand flat, held the light a moment, left it where it was, and moved on.
By the last lamp the snow began again, small and slow. Ana carried River home inside her coat with his nose poking out at the collar. Indoors there was wool, and a cup that warmed her hands, and a window going dark blue. Outside, the snow kept settling on the lamps, and each lamp kept its own puddle of gold. Ana set the lamp by her bed down low. River curled on the blanket, already breathing like someone asleep. "Go slow, and the light comes back," Ana whispered. She turned the little key until the flame went thin, and thinner, and out.
