The Ripple Effect

The Ripple Effect

By Heather Ann Martinez

They hid in plain sight. They splashed in the oceans with the dolphins and swam upstream with the salmon.  Every mortal being knew them and could not survive without them. Some worshipped and thanked them for their provision. Others cursed them and said they did not give them enough rain. The water gods fed the earth and nourished every plant. Nothing could be sustained without them. Wherever their hands moved, the seas and all that lived in them felt the ripple effect.

Some of the water gods, however, were greedy and jealous. They demanded attention, gifts from the human beings and rituals done in their honor. They wanted humans to make sacrifices for them for the rain they could provide. Some of the humans called them demons because they were not generous as other water gods were. The greedy water gods forced their humans to live as nomads in endless sand. They took pleasure in the suffering of humans and boasted about their stinginess to the more generous water gods. Among the more generous water gods was a warrior name Yam. Yam did not care for what the stingy water gods did to the humans they isolated in the deserts. Yam often led rescue attempts. He tried to bring water to the nomads but was always discovered by the greedy water gods. They were all related to one another. Yam knew he was not more powerful than his relatives and they were many. The more generous water gods did not want Yam to be involved in the lives of the nomads. They would tell Yam that those humans deserved to be treated that way. They would tell Yam that the humans that lived in the desert betrayed them years earlier and this was their punishment.

Yam did not believe his brothers and sisters. He did not trust what they told him, because they were not always honest with him. Yam was one of the younger water gods and for centuries his brothers and sisters told him the earth was flat and he could not go beyond a certain point of he would fall into the great void of nothingness. His brothers and sisters did this to keep his attention. As they thought he would, he did go where they told him not to. When he realized he had not fallen into nothingness, he became angry. Whenever the water gods would meet for council, Yam would be the first to speak. He would hold each one of them accountable for their actions. They were governed by the water god Osiris who always listened attentively to Yam. Osiris was much older than any of the other water gods. He was disheartened by the actions of the more greedy water gods, but feared their retaliation. He told Yam that he was too old and weak to fight them and their faction was growing. Human beings were not like the other mortal creatures that walked the earth and swam in the oceans. Human beings complained. Human beings were ungrateful and easily turned on one another.

Osiris often questioned Yam on his unrelenting pursuit to save the mortals. Yam told Osiris that the water gods could set a good example for the humans of the earth. He struggled to convince all of his relatives that human being could be redeemed. He would tell them that they needed to be shown the way. Yam suggested that all of the water gods could show the human beings how to share, how to make better use of the water that lay underground and how to capture the rain. Yam thought humanity would eventually figure it out for themselves, but they did not after many generations. They fought with each other as much as the gods. They were bound to one another in a war for life. The water gods knew how precious a resource water was. They flooded the earth in their rage. They would reduce fresh water to springs and hard to obtain rivers.

It was Yam who held out hope for both human beings as well as for the water gods. He envisioned all of them working together to build up the earth and invite the sun to shine in a harmonious world. Yam would speak to the council about ways to set things right for the earth. He knew the majority of the water gods were not interested in working with the humans. The humans were their subjects after all. They were not their equals and were not going to dwell on the earth forever. Their lives were finite and their time would come to an end soon. Yam asked them why the water gods couldn’t make their time in this age a pleasant one. Tefnut, a water goddess asked Yam why he thought it was so important to give humanity a better life while they still had them. She told Yam she deserved their gratitude and praise. She told Yam all the humans do is complain about their circumstances. They take what clean water they do have for granted and they teach their children and their generations the same thing. Tefnut looked at Osiris in the council room one day and said the humans forget we exist.  

“They do not care about us or what we do for them.” Tefnut exclaimed.

Yam retorted, “They have not been taught how to. We can show them how to care for each other and care for us. It is not too late.”

The other water gods began yelling and calling for Yam to sit down.

Osiris stood and silenced the crowd. He told the others he remembered a time when the human beings thanked the water gods for the water and vegetation that came forth. Osiris said it was a time of plenty and a time of joy. It was lost in the human histories. It was also lost in the histories of the water gods. Where some water gods were generous, it was not without an expected price. They wanted to be revered. He admonished them because they were still taking advantage of creatures that were weaker than they were. Yam suggested that they give his idea a fair trial. He suggested that they release any humans from suffering from water deprivation. He said that if his plan does not work than they were welcome to go back to their old ways. After a long while, the others agreed to speak with the human leaders they had sworn not to speak to directly. Yam negotiated a truce among the water gods and the human beings. The water gods taught the humans how to love and respect the water and how to capture the rain. The humans taught their children and their children’s children.