Agirita splashed her feet in the warm waters of the fountain.

When the weather lady said it was supposed to reach 50 deg C, she was surprised.

She did not a cold front was moving through the area.

She tried drinking from the fountain but, as she suspected, it was ocean water pumped in, probably at night through a suspicious pipe she saw at the bottom.  Many of the villages in the city were sneaking ocean water rather than paying for city water to keep the City Manager’s mandate on tourist attraction in full force – “water fountains will operate from dawn to dusk, no expenses spared!.”

Drinking water was too expensive to buy at the market.

With no money, she had no option there.

So she tapped the squid on its “shoulders,” no longer pretending to be dead, and pointed toward her right shoulder.

The squid, or whatever it was, rolled toward her, stood up and set itself carefully into her arms.

It had told her everything but its name.

Where it came from, what is was doing here, why it was urging her to find water fountains.

Although she felt hungry and thirsty, the squid told her it was providing her nourishment as long it was getting fed.

She didn’t ask and it didn’t need to elaborate on what it was feeding.

She was not stupid, just preoccupied.

She had a reputation to keep and if word got out that she’d been responsible for the loss of a boat crew, she’d get no more jobs at the main fishing docks in town.

Others like her had the nearest docks to themselves, their reputations better or worse.

No longer concerned about selling the squid, she walked back out of town, into the suburbs, where the squid could feed unnoticed.

“Hey, señorita!”

Agirita turned to see a schoolmate driving his family’s new truck, covered with graphics and logos of the family business.

“Manuel! Com’ sta?”

“Muy bien.  ‘How you doin?'”

“Ahh…well…okay.”

“What is that?  Is it a rocket bike?”

The squid, while passing by a newsstand, saw a picture of a jet-powered bike and changed its shape, in so doing turning from a bright, metallic red, to chrome-coloured skin.

“Sort of…I found it on the side of the road and I’m trying to get it to a friend’s house out of town.”

“Let me give you a ride.  It’s the least I can do for you helping my cousin fill the security position on his fishing boat.”

“Muchas gracias.  I believe I can walk.”

“No, no, I insist.  My mother AND father would scold me severely if I didn’t offer a ride to an old friend of the family.”

She hesitated.  She really liked Manuel.  But she could feel that the squid was getting hungry again.  Besides, if Manuel was gone, no one could connect her to the boat.

“Okay.”

“I’ll help you with the…”

“No, that’s okay.  I can handle it myself.  You stay inside.”  She thought to herself, knowing the squid was listening, “Please wait until we are out of town to eat.”

Manuel opened the small window behind the driver’s seat and talked about his family business — buying fresh fish and turning them into coated, frozen sticks to sell to the English colony in the suburbs.

“You know, they say that most of the lowlands of Great Britain and Ireland are completely flooded now.”

Agirita nodded her head.  She did not feel like talking.  She said a silent prayer for Manuel, his wife and children.  She did not believe they deserved such a tragic end to Manuel’s life.

The squid was silent on the matter.

Little did she know the squid was weighing which one to eat, the one who had gotten the squid so far on foot without complaining until recently or the new one with the motorised transportation device.  The donkey cart had been okay but the donkey was too tempting to eat when the fish were all gone.

If the “squid” could figure out how to operate the vehicle itself…