Рэй Брэдбери: The Cistern

She clasped her hands, slowly, working finger into finger, interlacing.

«The water soaks into them. First, it lifts the woman's hand. In a little move. Her hand's the only live part of her. Then her arm lifts and one foot. And her hair. . .» she touched her own hair as it hung about her shoulders «. . . unloosens and opens out like a flower in the water. Her shut eyelids are blue. . . .»

The room got darker, Juliet sewed on, and Anna talked and told all she saw in her mind. She told how the water rose and took the woman with it, unfolding her out and loosening her and standing her full upright in the cistern. «The water is interested in the woman, and she lets it have its way. After a long time of lying still, she's ready to live again, any life the water wants her to have.»

Somewhere else, the man stood up in the water also. And Anna told of that, and how the water carried him slowly, drifting, and her, drifting, until they met each other. «The water opens their eyes. Now they can see but not see each other. They circle, not touching yet.» Anna made a little move of her head, eyes closed. «They watch each other. They glow with some kind of phosphorus. They smile. . . . They--touch hands.»

At last Juliet, stiffening, put down her sewing and stared at her sister, across the gray, rain-silent room.

«Anna!»

«The tide--makes them touch. The tide comes and puts them together. It's a perfect kind of love, with no ego to it, only two bodies, moved by water, which makes it clean and all right. It's not wicked, this way.»

«It's bad you're saying it!» cried her sister.

«No, it's all right,» insisted Anna, turning for an instant. «They're not thinking, are they? They're just so deep down and quiet and not caring.»

She took her right hand and held it over her left hand very slowly and gently, quavering and interweaving them. The rainy window, with the pale spring light penetrating, put a movement of light and running water on her fingers, made them seem submerged, fathoms deep in gray water, running one about the other as she finished her little dream:

«Him, tall and quiet, his hands open.» She showed with a gesture how tall and how easy he was in the water. «Her, small and quiet and relaxed.» She looked at her sister, leaving her hands just that way. «They're dead, with no place to go, and no one to tell them. So there they are, with nothing applying to them and no worries, very secret and hidden under the earth in the cistern waters. They touch their hands and lips and when they come into a cross-street outlet of the cistern, the tide rushes them together. Then, later . . .» she disengaged her hands. . . «maybe they travel together, hand in hand, bobbling and floating down all the streets, doing little crazy upright dances when they're caught in sudden swirls.» She whirled her hands about, a drenching of rain spatted the window. «And they go down to the sea, all across the town, past cross drain and cross drain, street and street. Genesee Avenue, Crenshaw, Edmond Place, Washington, Motor City, Ocean Side and then the ocean. They go anywhere the water wants them, all over the earth, and come back later to the cistern inlet and float back up under the town, under a dozen tobacco shops and four dozen liquor stores, and six dozen groceries and ten theatres, a rail junction, Highway 101, under the walking feet of thirty thousand people who don't even know or think of the cistern.»

Anna's voice drifted and dreamed and grew quiet again.

«And then--the day passes and the thunder goes away up on the street. The rain stops. The rain season's over. The tunnels drip and stop. The tide goes down.» She seemed disappointed, sad it was over. «The river runs out to the ocean. The man and woman feel the water leave them slowly to the floor. They settle.» She lowered her hands in little bobblings to her lap, watching them fixedly, longingly. «Their feet lose the life the water has given them from outside. Now the water lays them down, side by side, and drains away, and the tunnels are drying. And there they lie. Up above, in the world, the sun comes out. There they lie, in the darkness, sleeping, until the next time. Until the next rain.»

Her hands were now upon her lap, palms up and open. «Nice man, nice woman,» she murmured. She bowed her head over them and shut her eyes tight.

Suddenly Anna sat up and glared at her sister. «Do you know who the man is?» she shouted, bitterly.

Juliet did not reply; she had watched, stricken, for the past five minutes while this thing went on. Her mouth was twisted and pale. Anna almost screamed:

«The man is Frank, that's who he is! And _I'm_ the woman!»

«Anna!»

«Yes, it's Frank, down there!»

«But Frank's been gone for years, and certainly not down there, Anna!»

Now, Anna was talking to nobody, and to everybody, to Juliet, to the window, the wall, the street. «Poor Frank,» she cried. «I know that's where he went. He couldn't stay anywhere in the world. His mother spoiled him for all the world! So he saw the cistern and saw how secret and fine it was. Oh, poor Frank. And poor Anna, poor me, with only a sister. Oh, Julie, why didn't I hold onto Frank when he was here? Why didn't I fight to win him from his mother?»

«Stop it, this minute, do you hear, this minute!»

Anna slumped down into the corner, by the window, one hand up on it, and wept silently. A few minutes later she heard her sister say, «Are you finished?»

«What?»

«If you're done, come help me finish this, I'll be forever at it.»

Anna raised her head and glided over to her sister. «What do you want me to do?» she sighed.

«This and this,» said Juliet, showing her.

«All right,» said Anna, and took it and sat by the window looking at the rain, moving her hands with the needle and thread, but watching how dark the street was now, and the room, and how hard it was to see the round metal top of the cistern now--there were just little midnight gleams and glitters out there in the black black late afternoon. Lightning crackled over the sky in a web.

Half an hour passed. Juliet drowsed in her chair across the room, removed her glasses, placed them down with her work and for a moment rested her head back and dozed. Perhaps thirty seconds later she heard the front door open violently, heard the wind come in, heard the footsteps run down the walk, turn, and hurry along the black street.

«What?» asked Juliet, sitting up, fumbling for her glasses. «Who's there? Anna, did someone come in the door?» She stared at the empty window seat where Anna had been. «Anna!» she cried. She sprang up and ran out into the hall.

The front door stood open, rain fell through it in a fine mist.

«She's only gone out for a moment,» said Juliet, standing there, trying to peer into the wet blackness. «She'll be right back. Won't you be right back, Anna dear? Anna, answer me, you _will_ be right back, won't you, sister?»

Outside, the cistern lid rose and slammed down.

The rain whispered on the street and fell upon the closed lid all the rest of the night.