Chapter 17

• Terah broke the water’s surface and then just floated there, only from her eyes up out of the water. She looked along the shore to see who was there. Not many were at this time of the morning. The sun was barely sitting in the sky. She watched Konner as he came down to the water with a bag. He bent down and took off his boots and then pulled the legs of his clothes up. She thought maybe he was going to come for a swim with her, and she felt a flutter inside her chest. There had been no one to swim with her since she was a child. No one like her at least.
• He walked out and then reached into the bag and took out a bottle. He was filling bottles with water from the lake. She smiled; this was good. That other water in the plastic bottles tasted strange.
• Pushing back with her arms, she closed her eyes to feel the water sliding over her body. It felt nothing like the small tank or water from the pool. It soothed and gave her energy. She had never felt as strong as being in this lake made her feel. Her mother used to tell her stories about lakes and deep rivers, but this was the first one she had ever felt for herself.