dry by neil shusterman and jared shusterman day one saturday june 4th one alissa the kitchen faucet makes the most bizarre sounds it coughs and wheezes like it's gone asthmatic it gurgles like someone drowning it spits once and then goes silent our dog kingston raises his ears but still keeps his distance from the sink unsure if it might unexpectedly come back to life but no such luck mom just stands there holding kingston's water bowl beneath the faucet puzzling then she moves the handle to the off position and says alyssa go get your father ever since single-handedly remodeling our kitchen dad has had delusions of plumbing grandeur electrical too why pay through the nose for contractors when you can do it yourself he always said then he put his money where his mouth was ever since we've had nothing but plumbing and electrical problems dad's in our garage working on his car with uncle basil who's been living with us on and off since his almond farm up in modesto failed uncle basil's actual name is herb but somewhere along the line my brother and i began referring to him as various herbs in our garden uncle dill uncle time uncle chive and during a period our parents wish we would forget uncle cannabis in the end basil was the name that stuck dad i shouted out to the garage kitchen issues my father's feet stick out from underneath his camry like the wicked witch uncle basil is hidden behind a storm cell of e-cig vapor can't it wait my father says from beneath the car but i'm already sensing that it can't i think it's major i tell him he slides out and with a heavy sigh heads for the kitchen mom's not there anymore instead she's standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room she's just standing there the dog's empty water bowl still in her left hand i get a chill but i don't yet know why what's so important that you got to drag me out of shush mom says she rarely shushes dad she'll shush me and garrett all day but my parents never shush each other it's an unspoken rule she's watching the tv where a news anchor is blathering about the flow crisis that's what the media has been calling the drought ever since people got tired of hearing the word drought kind of like the way global warming became climate change and war became conflict but now they've got a new catchphrase a new stage in our water woes they're calling this the tap out uncle basil emerges from his vapor cloud long enough to ask what's going on arizona and nevada just backed out of the reservoir relief deal mom tells him they've shut the floodgates on all the dams saying that they need the water themselves which means that the colorado river won't ever reach california again uncle basil tries to wrap his mind around it turning off the entire river like it's a spigot can they do that my father raises an eyebrow they just did suddenly the image switches to a live press conference where the governor addresses a gathering of antsy reporters this is unfortunate but not entirely unexpected the governor says we have people working around the clock attempting to broker a new deal with various agencies what does that even mean uncle basil says both mom and i shush him as a precautionary measure all county and municipal water districts in southern california are temporarily rerouting all resources to critical services but i cannot stress enough the need to keep calm i'd like to personally assure everyone that this is a temporary situation and that there is nothing to be concerned about the media begins to bombard him with questions but he ducks out without answering a single one looks like kingston's water bowl isn't the only one that's run dry uncle basil says i guess we're gonna have to start drinking out of the toilet too my younger brother garrett who's been sitting on the couch waiting for a normal tv to return makes the appropriate face which just makes uncle basil laugh so dad says to mom half-heartedly at least the plumbing problem isn't my fault this time i go to the kitchen to try the tap myself as if i might have the magic touch nothing not even the slightest dribble our faucet has coated and no amount of resuscitation will bring it back i note the time like they do in the emergency room 1 32 pm june 4th everyone's going to remember where they were when the taps went dry i think like when a president is assassinated in the kitchen behind me garrett opens the fridge and grabs a bottle of glacier freeze gatorade he begins to guzzle it but i stop him on the third gulp put it back i tell him save some for later but i'm thirsty now he whines protesting he's ten six years younger than me ten-year-olds have issues with delayed gratification it's almost finished anyway so i let him keep it i take note of what's in the fridge a couple of beers three more bottles of gatorade a gallon of milk that's down to the dregs and leftovers you know how sometimes you don't realize how thirsty you are until you take that first sip well suddenly i get that feeling just by looking at the refrigerator it's the closest thing i've ever had to a premonition i can hear neighbors up in the street now we know our neighbors run into them occasionally the only time whole bunches of them come out of the street at the same time is july 4th or when there's an earthquake my parents garrett and i gravitate outside as well all of us standing strangely looking to one another for some kind of guidance or at least validation that this is actually happening [Music] jeanette and stu leeson from across the street the maleckis and their newborn and mr burnside who's been eternally 70 years old for as long as i can remember and as expected we don't see the reclusive family next door the mccrackens who've probably barricaded themselves inside their suburban fortress upon hearing the news we all kind of stand there with our hands and our pockets avoiding direct eye contact like my classmates at the junior prom okay my dad finally says which one of you pissed off arizona and nevada everyone chuckles not because it's particularly funny but it eases some of the tension mr burnside raises his eyebrows hate to say i told you so but didn't i say they'd hoard what's left of the colorado river we let that river become our only lifeline we should never let ourselves become so vulnerable used to be no one much knew or cared where our water came from it was just always there but when the central valley started to dry up and the price of produce skyrocketed people started to pay attention or at least enough attention to past laws and voter propositions most of them were useless but made people feel as if something was being done like the frivolous use initiative which made things like throwing water balloons illegal las vegas still has water someone points out our neighbor stew shakes his head yeah but i just tried to book a hotel in vegas a million hotel rooms and not a single one available mr burnside laughs ruefully as of taking pleasure in stu's miss fortune 124 000 hotel rooms actually sounds like a whole lot of people had the same idea huh can you imagine the traffic on the interstate trying to get there says my mom a sour grapes kind of way i wouldn't want to get caught in that and then i put my two cents in if they're diverting the remaining water to critical services it means there's still a little bit left someone should sue to get them to release a fraction of it make it like rolling blackouts each neighborhood gets a little bit of water each day my parents are impressed by the suggestion the others look at me with a isn't she adorable kind of expression which ticks me off my parents are convinced that i'm going to be a lawyer someday it's possible but i suspect if i am it'll just be a means to an end although i'm not sure what that end would be but that doesn't help us now and though i think my idea is a good one i suspect there's too much self-interest among the powers that be for it to ever happen who knows maybe there isn't enough water left to share a phone chimes receiving a text jeanette looks at her android great now my relatives in ohio found out like i need their stress on top of my own text them back send water my father quips we'll get through this my mom says reassuringly she's a clinical psychologist so reassurance is kind of second nature to her garrett who's been standing quietly brings this gatorade bottle up to his lips and for a brief moment everyone stops talking involuntarily almost like a mental hiccup as they watch my brother gulp the quenching blue liquid finally mr burnside breaks the silence we'll talk he says as he turns to leave it's the way he always ends the conversation it signals the conclusion of this loose little fellowship and everyone says their goodbyes and heads back to their homes but more than one set of eyes glance at garrett's empty gatorade bottle as they leave costco run says uncle basil late that afternoon at south around five who's coming can i get a hot dog garrett asks knowing that even funko basil says no he'll get one anyway uncle basil is a pushover hot dogs are the least of our problems i tell him and he doesn't question that he knows why we're going he's not stupid even still he still knows he'll get a hot dog we climb into the cab of uncle basil's 4x4 pickup which is jacked up higher than should be allowed for any man his age mom says we have a few water bottles in the garage garrett says we're going to need more than just a few i point out i try to quickly do the math in my head i also saw those bottles nine half liters five of us that won't even last the day as we turn the corner out of our neighborhood and onto the main street uncle basil says it may take a day or so for the county to get the water up and running again we'll probably only need a couple of cases and gatorade says barrett don't forget the gatorade it's full of electrolytes which is what they say on the commercials even though garrett doesn't know what an electrolyte is look on the bright side uncle basil says you probably won't have school for a few days the california version of a snow day i've been counting down the days for junior year to end just two weeks now but knowing that my highs but knowing my high school they'll probably find a way to tack on lost days at the end delaying our summer vacation as we pull into the costco parking lot we can see the crowd it seems like our entire neighborhood had the same idea we'd do nothing but slowly circle in search of an empty space finally uncle basil pulls out his costco card and hands it to me you two go in i'll meet you inside when i find a place to park i wonder how he'll get in without his card but then uncle basil finds ways around any situation garrett and i hop out and join the hordes of people flooding the entrance inside it's like black friday at its worst but today it's not televisions and video games people are after the carts in the checkout line are stocked with canned goods toiletries but mostly water the essentials of life something feels slightly off i'm not sure what it is but it hangs in the air like a scent it's in the impatience of the people in line the way people use their carts on the verge of being battering rams to make their way through the crowd there's a sort of primal hostility all around us hidden by a veneer of suburban politeness but even that politeness is stretching thin this cart socks garrett says he's right one wheel's bent and the only way to push is to lean on the other three wheels i look back toward the entrance there were only a couple of carts left when i grabbed this one they'll all be gone now it'll do i tell them garrett and i forge our way through the crowds toward the back left corner where the water pallets are as we do we overhear bits and pieces of conversations fema's already slammed with hurricane noah one woman tells another how are they going to help us too it's not our fault agriculture uses 80 percent of the water if the state spent more time finding new sources of water instead of fining us for filling our swimming pools one woman says we wouldn't be in this position garrett turns to me my friend jason has a giant aquarium in his living room and he didn't get fined that's different i explained to him fish are considered pets but it's still water then go drink it i say shutting him up i don't have time to think about other people's problems we have our own to worry about but it looks like i'm the only one who cares because garrett has already gone off to hunt for free samples as i push the card it keeps veering to the left and i have to lean heavily on the right side to prevent the bent wheel from acting like a rudder as i approach the rear of the warehouse i can see that it's the most crowded spot and as i reach the last aisle to see the water pallets i realize i'm too late the pallets are already empty in hindsight we should have come straight here the moment the taps were turned off but when something drastic happens there's a lag time it's not quite denial and not quite shock but more like a mental free fall you're spending so much time wrapping your mind around the problem you don't realize what you need to do until the window to do it is closed i think of all those people in savannah the moment hurricane noah made that unexpected turn and barreled straight toward them instead of heading back up to sea like it was supposed to how long did they stare unblinking at the news until they packed up their things and evacuated i can tell you how long three and a half hours behind me people who can't see that the water pallets are empty keep pushing forward eventually some employees will have the good sense to put a sign up front that says no water but until they do customers will keep piling in pushing toward the back creating a suffocating crowd like the mosh pit of a concert on a hunch i maneuver my way to the side aisle and to the racks of canned soda which are also beginning to disappear but i'm not here for soda as i look around the stacks of drinks i find a single case of water someone abandoned there maybe yesterday when it wasn't such a precious commodity i reach for it only to find it pulled away at the last second by a thin woman with a beak of a nose she stacks it on top of her cart like a crown on top of her canned goods i'm sorry but we were here first she says and then her daughter steps forward a girl i recognize from soccer hallie hartling she's annoyingly popular and thinks she's much better at soccer than she really is half the girls in school want to be like her and the other half hate her because they know they'll never come close me i just put up with her she's not worth the energy for me to be anything but indifferent although she always seems to bleed confidence right now she can't even look me in the eye because she knows just as her mother knows that i had the water first as her mother pulls her card away hallie leans closer to me i'm sorry about that morrow she says earnestly calling me by my last name like we do in soccer didn't i share my water with you at practice last week i point out to her maybe you could return the favor and share a few bottles with me she looks back at her mother who's already moving down the aisle and backing me with a shrug sorry they don't sell them by the bottle here just by the case and then she gets a little red in the face and turns to leave before it becomes a full-fledged flush i take in my surroundings crowds are still getting thicker and things are vanishing from the shelves at an alarming rate even the sodas are gone stupid i should have grabbed some i hurry back to my empty cart before someone else can take it there's no sign of uncle basil yet and garrett's probably off stuffing his face with something greasy the gatorade he requested is all gone too finally i spot garrett he's down one of the frozen isles pizza sauce all over his face he wipes his mouth with a shirt knowing i'll comment but i don't bother because i see something just past the frozen vegetables and ice cream there's a chest packed with ice enormous bags of it i can't believe people are such limited thinkers they haven't thought of this themselves or maybe they have but denied that they could possibly be so desperate i open the door and reach for a bag what are you doing we need water not ice ice is water einstein i tell them i go for a bag and realize they're a lot heavier than i'd anticipated help me together garrett and i heave one bag of ice after another into our cart until it's piled as high as it can get by now other people have taken notice and have crowded the ice case beginning to empty it the card is ridiculously heavy now and almost impossible to push especially with a bad wheel then as we struggle with the cart the jammed wheel scraped across the concrete floor a man in a business suit comes up behind us he smiles that's quite a load there he says looks like you could use some help he doesn't wait for us to answer before grabbing the cart's handle and wrestling it forward far more effectively than we did crazy here today he says joe billy crazy everywhere i bet thanks for helping us i tell him not a problem we all need to help one another he smiles again and i return the grin it's good to know that difficult times can bring out the best in people bit by bit with short but steady lurch as we get the cart to the front of the store and into one of the snaking checkout lines i suppose that's my workout for the day he chuckles i look at our cart and decide that one good turn deserves another why don't you take a bag of ice for yourself i suggest his smile doesn't fade i have an even better idea he says why don't you take a bag of ice for yourselves and i'll keep the rest for a moment i think he's joking but then realize he's dead serious excuse me he manufactures a heavy sigh you're right that really wouldn't be fair to you tell you what why don't we split it down the middle i'll take half you take half he says it like he's being generous as if the ice is his to give he's still smiling but his eyes scare me i think my offer's more than fair he says i begin to wonder what business he's in and if it's all about cheating people but make them think they're not being cheated it's not going to fly with me but his hands are firmly locked on the handle of our cart and there's nothing to prove that it's ours and not his is there a problem here it's uncle basil he's arrived just in time he glances at the man coldly for a moment and then the man takes his hands off the cart not at all he says good uncle basil says i'd hate to think you were harassing my niece and nephew people get arrested for that the man holds eye contact with her uncle for a moment before folding he looks at the ice his expression bitter and then leaves not taking as much as a single bag uncle basil's pickup truck truck is parked illegally halfway into an island having demolished a row of ficus had to kick this sucker into four-wheel drive he says proudly probably the first time he's ever actually had to use it suddenly uncle basil's midlife crisis truck is a blessing rather than an embarrassment we load the bags of ice into the truck bed how about that hot dog uncle basil offers trying to lighten the mood i'm full garrett responds even though i know that's nearly impossible feat for him he just doesn't want to go back inside none of us do and now there's a small crowd that's formed watching us load the ice onto the bed of the truck even though i try to ignore it i know there's a dozen eyes on us why don't i ride in the truck bed with the ice i suggest no it's okay uncle basil replies calmly ride in the cab some nasty potholes on the way back wouldn't want you to bounce around back there right i agree as i hop into the cab of the pickup and although no one speaks of it i know it's not potholes my uncle's worried about we pull onto our street but for some reason it doesn't quite feel like the same block i grew up on there's this strangeness like when you accidentally turn one street too early and because all the cookie cutter houses look the same you feel as if you're in a parallel universe i try to shake the feeling as i watch the houses go by through the car window our neighbors across the street the kibblers usually lounge on their lawn chairs and supervise their kids as they play which in reality means gossiping over glasses of chardonnay while making sure their children don't get run over however today the kibler kids play tag in the street without supervision and even through the children's laughter there's this insidious silence that underscores everything then again maybe the silence was always there and i'm only just now noticing it uncle basil backs the truck into the driveway and we get straight to unloading even with the sun getting low in the sky it's still 90 degrees and the ice is already melting if we're going to get all this ice inside in time we're going to need to hurry why don't you go clean out the freezer so we can put some ice in uncle basil says as he grabs the first bag from the truck bed the rest we can let melt and drink today better yet why don't you clean the downstairs bathtub i tell garrett we'll let it melt there good idea says basil although garrett's not too keen on cleaning the tub dad emerges from the garage greasy wrench in hand clearly still trying to squeeze water from the pipes ice huh they ran out of everything else i tell him keeping it brief dad scratches his head should have gone to sam's club he said they keep more items stocked in the back of the store although dad smiles it off i can tell he's a little more disturbed than he lets on i think he knows the sam's club has most likely been cleaned out of all the bottled liquids just like every other store uncle basil quickly changes the subject thought you were going into the office today he says dad shrugs and grabs a bag of ice best thing about having your own business is you don't have to work saturdays if you don't want to except that dad does work saturdays some sundays too a lot of people put in extra hours these days considering how the price of produce has been rising but even without that dad always told us it takes a 24 7 commitment to build up a business you yet apparently he'd already he'd rather haul ice than sell insurance today i pull more ice from the back of the truck but find even a thin even in a thick plastic bag it's hard to grip now that it started to melt need some help says the voice from behind and before turning around i know exactly who it is kelton mccracken your not so typical red-headed geek next door most kids of his strangeness are content killing zombies with an xbox controller but not kelton he prefers to spend his time practicing aerial reconnaissance with his drone shooting critters with his paintball gun and hiding in his tree house with a pair of night vision goggles pretending to be jason bourne it's like he never matured past sixth grade so his parents just bought him bigger and bigger toys but today i can't help but notice that there's something different about him sure he's grown in this past year and looks a lot more mature but isn't just that it's the way he holds himself there's a kind of a bounce in his step as if the whole water crisis excites him in some sick way kelton smiles revealing that his braces are off and his teeth have been wrangled artificially straight sure kelton we could use some help says dad why don't you give alyssa a hand i go to hand him the ice but as i hold it out to him something comes over me and i can't seem to let go of the bag dad takes notice confused by my hesitation let him take the ice alyssa he says i look down to the earth i look down to the ice in my hands and then back at the celt and realizing i'm still skeptical about allowing people to help is there a problem dad asks in an intrusive fatherly tone that demands an answer which i don't give i forced myself to hand the ice over to kelton just don't expect a bag for helping i tell him which makes my father give me a stern look probably wondering what would possess me to be so nasty about it maybe later i'll tell him about the guy at costco or maybe i'll just try to forget it ever happened as for kelton i expect him to have a snotty comeback but instead he just stands there genuinely thrown by my comment i regain my composure and force a smile hoping it doesn't look forced sorry i tell him thanks for helping we go inside to get the ice in the bathtub but kelton grabs my shoulder to stop me have you sealed the drain he asks not a good idea putting this much ice in a tub unless you've sealed the drain even the tiniest leak and you'll lose it all in a few hours i thought my uncle had done that i told him even though none of us would have thought of it as much as i hate to admit it that's probably the smartest idea i've heard all day i'll go get you some caulking he says and hurries off to retrieve the sealant from his garage obviously happy for an opportunity to put his boy scout training into action kelton and his reclusive family always seem to have a worst case scenario planned for anything dad would sometimes joke that mr mccracken lived a double life working as a dentist by day and preparing for the end of the world by night but recently the joke is becoming all the more real it seems mr mccracken now spends most of his time welding cast iron contraptions late into the night as if he were drilling into the cavity of a gaping monstrosity that is his garage over the past few months kelton's family has assembled an over-the-top surveillance system set up a mini greenhouse in their side yard and line their entire roof with some kind of unregistered off-grid solar panels most recently kelton who's in far too many of my classes this year is always bragging about how his father installed one-way bulletproof windows bullets can shoot out from inside but can't penetrate from the outside even though the rest of our class thinks he's completely full of it i think it might be true i wouldn't put it past his father to do something like that aside from our complaints about the late night welding our families are generally amicable but there's always been a step a sense of polite tension when my parents deal with him we once shared an area of grass between our two houses until mr mccracken installed a picket fence right through my mom's prize-winning vermillions the fence was obnoxiously taller than your typical whitewashed suburban barrier but just low enough not to technically violate the rules and regulations of the homeowners homeowners association which they always seem to be at war with once they even tried to lay claim to the curb in front of their house as their own private parking spot insisting that their property line extended a few inches into the street but the association won that battle ever since then uncle basil makes a point to park his truck right in front of their house whenever he can just to mess with them kelton returns in a few minutes with the caulking and gets right to the ceiling of the drain this might take a couple hours to harden so be careful where when you pack the ice in he says way more enthusiastic than someone ought to be about silicon sealant there's an uncomfortable silence between us that makes me realize that i've never actually spent time with kelton one-on-one then something occurs to me that's not just a conversation filler but something important wait a second don't you guys have a big water tank behind your house 35 gallons kelton brags as he applies the caulking with the precision of a jeweler but that's inside our house the outside ones for bodily waste full of coronary ammonium compound chemicals you know like that stinky blue soup at the bottom of a porta potty yeah i get it kelton i say dooley disgusted well i can't say you guys didn't think ahead which is the understatement of the century well as my dad always says we'd rather be wrong than dead wrong and then he adds i bet if your dad just thought ahead too you'd probably be better off kelton's clearly not aware how insulting he sounds sometimes i wonder if he ever won a merit badge for being most annoying kelton finishes off the job i thank him and he heads back home to shoot his potato launcher or dissect bugs or whatever a kid like him does with his free time in the kitchen my mom is scouring every surface with 409 stress cleaning when something's out of your control you bring order to the things you can i get that she's never been the type though to leave the tv on as background noise but she has it blasting in the family room i'm not sure where my dad and uncle are maybe back working on his car i find it odd that i feel i need to know on tv cnn is focused on the continuing crisis of hurricane noah i don't begrudge those people the attention but wish some of it would turn toward us too any news about the tap out i ask one of the local stations has regular updates mom tells me but it's that brainless anchor i can't stand and besides there's nothing new even so i switched to the brainless anchor who my dad says god is starting porn although i don't want to ask him how he knows my mom's right they're just showing the governor's statement from this morning and trying without success to spin it i switched back to the national news station cnn and then msnbc then fox news and back to cnn again every national broadcast is reporting on hurricane noah and only on noaa slowly it dawns on me why there's no radar image for a water crisis no storm surges no debris fields the tap out is as silent as cancer there's nothing to see and so the news is treating it like a sidebar i mention this to my mom she stops cleaning for a moment and watches the crawl of secondary stories at the bottom of the screen finally something comes up california water crisis deepens residents urged to conserve and that's it that's all the national news says can serve are you