The Thing About Water Towers

I stared out my window
The sun dipping lower towards the horizon
Bringing relief from the summer heat at last
And telling the peeping frogs from the stream
That it was time to start peeping

The sunlight reflected off the township water tower
The pride of the town, painted to look like a giant onion
Making a glare that made me look away
And back into the kitchen
Where I'd been having a late snack with my uncle

"Uncle Tom?"
I said idly just trying to talk my way to a later bedtime
"How do they get the water up into the water tower tanks?"

Uncle Tom always had answers to any question I could ask
I'd long ago given up trying to stump him
So this was just an honest question from my young mind
And as always, his answer came immediately

"I'm not sure you're old enough to know such things"
He began with a serious look about him
"But perhaps I can tell you anyways"

"You see
Water towers are actually living things
And my father told me that they live in symbiosis with us humans
Do you know what a symbiotic relationship is?"  He asked me

I nodded my head
We'd gone over that stuff in biology class just last year in school

"Ok, well I still can't say for sure what they get out of the deal from us
But we get the use of the water that they carry inside
And how they get it up there is pretty simple"
His eyes narrowed slightly
"They drink it"

"Yes sir, they do
They just walk over to the pond
Or the lake, or whatever water is nearby
And they just crouch right down and sip it right up until they are full!"

I must have looked a little skeptical
Because he went on to explain water tower locomotion to me

"Sure, sure
The ones that have multiple legs supporting their tanks
They just walk around just like you'd see an animal do
And crouch down over the water
With special joints in their long legs all splayed out when they do it"

I interrupted him with what I thought was a valid point
"What about the ones that are standing on one thick tube?
How do they get to the water and drink it?"

Now he didn't look so sure of himself
And I almost thought maybe I'd stumped him accidentally
But the answer came, mostly
"I've only seen that type of water tank do it's fill up walk one time
And it was a strange thing to see
It kind of pogo-hopped over to a river about an eighth of a mile away
And then just kind of retracted it's one leg up into itself somewhere
Until it was just above the water
And when it was done, it got real tall again
And hopped right back to where it was supposed to be!"

Just then my mom walked in and glanced up at the clock
"It is past your bedtime mister", she told me and shot Uncle Tom a dirty look
"Get on up to bed, I'll be up to tuck you in"

I hugged Uncle Tom goodnight and went upstairs

A little while later my mom came up to say goodnight
I told her a little bit of what Uncle Tom had told me about water tanks
Which made her make a funny face
The same face she got whenever I told her what me and Uncle Tom were up to
"I think that's a pretty fantastic story he told you
But you should take it with a grain of salt"

I asked her what that meant
And I was a little disappointed when she told me
A small dent appearing perhaps in the image of Uncle Tom for me

After kissing me goodnight
Mom turned out the lights
The almost finished setting sun the only illumination on the walls of my room

I rolled over and turned on my fan
Setting it so it would tilt and blow around automatically
And picked up a toy horse from my bed stand
Playing with it absentmindedly while my eyes got heavy

If I had bothered to look out my window right around then
I might have seen something that would restore my faith in Uncle Tom

For the township water tower was hundreds of yards from where it should be
And was crouched low over the river
Legs bent out like a daddy long legs spider
A giant onion sipping water up into itself for the long hot day to come tomorrow