Dehydration

Reprinted with permission from Quality Women's Fiction.

Page 1 of 4

"I never go anywhere without it. Never," Denise said.

"Is that the only bag you brought on board?" I asked.

"Never. Never."

Bending down with her to look under the seats made me queasy. "Maybe you packed it in your suitcase," I said. Denise didn't answer. I closed my eyes to appease my stomach, and when that didn't help I sat up and breathed deep like you're supposed to do when contractions start. How would those have felt?

"I just don't understand." Denise said. Her words quivered at the edges. Would she cry over a stupid bottle of water? And not even one she paid for; she filled it from the kitchen tap before we left Arny's.

"You can die from thirst in two days," she said, "just two days."

Arny might have given me more warning. Last night we drank Thunderbird in her screen porch and for the umpteenth time talked through my reasons for coming, my worries and my questions. She tried to find answers, but I was in no mood for resolution. In the morning I came downstairs, met a stranger and was told I had company for the trip home.

"I'm trying to remember if you took it off the counter," I said.

Denise finally sat up and stared out the coach window. "What will I do?"

"Do?"

"You need a litre-and-a-half daily, not counting the water content of food," she said.

"I thought it was only a litre."

"No," she said, "no. The medical profession shouldn't disagree on these things but they do. I get my information from the kinesiology department at Simon Fraser University." Then she huffed, and dropped her head between her knees to close the zippers in her pack. "I'll have to eat all my fruit, I suppose."

"The coach stops in Swift Current," I said.

Denise sat up, her face red. "Yes, but--," and she didn't finish, just stared past me a few seconds. Her lashes fluttered. "I'm dizzy already," she said.

"All that bending over," I said. "I get motion sick if-."

"It's the dryness. In prairie climate you need two, two-and-a-half litres."

"Swift Current's not even three hours away."