COOL WATER

All day I face the barren waste
Without the taste of water, cool water
Old Dan and I with throats burned dry
And souls that cry for water, cool, clear, water.

Mary had long disappeared from Johnny's mind as his north star of contemplation in the dry arid desert and now all he could think about was water - cool, clear pools of water.

His horse Dan was close to collapsing and all he could do to keep the hard-worked animal moving through the desert was to talk and sing to him so he didn't become further distressed from total dehydration.

Keep a-movin' Dan don't ya listen to him Dan
He's a devil of a man and he spreads the burning sand with water
Dan can you see that big green tree
Where the water's running free
And it's waiting there for me and you?

"You're a good critter, Dan. Don't give up on me now old boy," the cowboy whispered in the horse's right ear as the hot sun stung the sweat falling into his own bruised eye. Johnny knew that if Dan gave up, he would soon follow. It had been a rough few weeks getting injured in the infamous Red Desert of Wyoming where he'd had to leave his partner-in-crime Joe to bleed out after getting shot by their cowardly adversaries.

Those first few hoof trots leaving his friend behind the shade of a rock having known him since childhood were the slowest and most painful of his entire life, even more than saying goodbye to Mary when he first set off on his dangerous adventure with Joe.

Now, before he could even think about returning to the love of his life he needed to get to water for without it, both he and Dan would be joining Joe in the big beyond.

Dan's feet are sore he's yearning for
Just one thing more than water, cool, water
Like me I guess he'd like to rest
Where there's no quest for water, cool, clear, water

Johnny knew only too well the perils of the mind throwing tricks of illusion before his eyes as if an invisible magician had drawn rabbits out of the desert in the shape of cups of water. He'd stopped more towns that he could count believing he saw water in front of him and Dan only to find himself clutching handfuls of sand.

"This must be that purgatory they write about in the bible though it's hot as Hell so could be either I suppose."

The cowboy figured he probably only had a day or two left before he would have to concede defeat to the man in black. As long as he thirsted for that water though he felt he could defeat those deathly sirens calling to him to surrender to them.

"Come on Dan. We got to catch a break by morning I reckon. Did you say your prayers last night fella cos I know I sure did. We're going to need God to forgive our sins, well my sins in order to get out of this desert maze alive. I can only promise I'll do whatever's in my power to be a better person once we get through this. If we get through this."

But for all his rousing speeches to the horse, he sensed Dan was close to his last few clops.

"Alright. We'll stop here. No choice but to I guess."

There were few places to hide from the raging heat but Johnny find a small keyhole passage to a nearby rock where Dan could shelter for awhile and hopefully recover some of his depleted energy.

"Come on old boy. If we're gonna die out here, then at least let it be where there's some shade so the vultures don't pick at our corpses like scavengers."

Exhausted and semi-delilrious, Johnny sat inside the cave entrance and tried to stop the many thoughts rushing through his mind like a gold stream but with far less reward. Regretting his impulsive mistakes made over the past year having lost his business to a rival back home Johnny rued that he had chosen a criminal path to find his way out of desperate times.

"I guess I chose the wrong path and now I got to pay the ferryman."

Pulling down his hat to cover his eyes, Johnny tried to sleep his way into oblivion.

Waking up in the afterlife came as a surprise to Johnny as everything seemed similar as before only darker, cooler and with a bright moon shining down on the rock where he lay.

He didn't dare approach his horse for fear of finding him dead confirming his worst suspicions that they'd reached the end of the trail so remained still as a statue until he could get his mind lucid again.

"If I just remain here then everything is just about fine," he said aware that his mouth still felt as dry as hot sand.

Then he heard a faint sound that seemed familar but his scrambled mind failed to identify. Concerned he'd had a stroke of some sort and lost some of his brain function he couldn't figure out why he couldn't find the words to describe what he was hearing.

Then it fell out of his mouth like a falling star.

"Water."

Aware that it wasn't just the eyes that could be deceived in the desert but the ears also, nevertheless Johnny followed the sound toward the back of the cave careful not to break anything slipping or falling down down slippy rocks or old dynamited mine shafts.

Feeling his scarred hand against the walls of the warm rock Johnny felt he was being led more by faith now than by reason. It was unlikely they'd be any water at the back of this cave but he had to believe in something otherwise it would just be a question of going out of his mind waiting to die like a bug on its back.

"If you're listening God, I want to tell you sincerely I learned my lesson. I lost my best friend to a stupid scheme of ours and now all I want is to serve you. And Mary."  

Then listening again, Johnny could hear the faint sound of what sounded like a faint trickle of water punctuated with little drops every now and then hitting the dry rock. To his mind it was like hearing the sound of liquid gold chiming like tiny bells or a heavenly Celeste.

Moving ever closer to the source of the sound, Johnny suddenly lost all sense of where it was and could now hear only silence.

"Damn thing!"

It was then he felt something falling onto his hand and realised that it was he who had inadvertently stopped the sound as it no longer had a place to fall but his arm.

Disbelieving of the miracle at first, Johnny had learnt the hard way not to get his hopes up so tried to cover as much of the wall with both hands so as to get a sense of its moistness as a reality and not as an illusion. To his mind it felt like a large flannel and as he hugged the wet wall of the rock he attempted to cry but his tear ducts were as dry as the rest of his tired body so wailed instead.

Opening his mouth to receive the water like a baby drinking milk from its mothers breast, Johnny stopped suddenly remembering to fill his water bottle so he could go to revive Dan if the horse wasn't already dead.

"I know I'm asking a lot now God. But if you can just make sure my boy can keep going a little longer then I'll give him the good news about this miracle you gave us."

Headed cautiously back toward the moonlit flooded entrance to the rock, Dan knelt down by his motionless steed and dug a small hole in the ground in which he placed his dinner bowl and then gently filled with water from the cave.

"Come on Dan. We got ourselves a miracle after all this time."

But Dan didn't respond to either his owner's voice or the soft sound of water being poured into the wooden bowl.

Or Johnny's tears which were now finally falling from his eyes.