When Water Wants To

During embalming an arm jerks and strikes a mortician, leaving him unmoored. A
pastor's wife encounters a young congregant in her kitchen wearing her apron and
preparing breakfast. A man's attempt to make sense of why a tornado picked him
up leads to a showdown with a cult leader. A daydreaming, gawky kid is appointed
guardian of a watermelon that the ocean could snatch away. Love comes slowly, like
water heating over a low fi re or extra sugar being stirred into tea. In another story, the
love of a father cannot save his musician son. A young woman living in a recognisable
future contemplates the end of memory as her body transforms into the silver promise
of a carapace. Another young woman feels she should be smiling but nothing stirs in
her when her father wakes from death aft er 15 minutes. Battling portentous pre-dawn
heat and still air, a bystander abandons removing caterpillars from a Ficus because
the idea of touching them makes her squeamish. Elsewhere in the suburbs, in a fi xer
upper from hell, crickets screech and squeal, their ringing like that of a demented
alarm clock.
When Water Wants To presents the fi nalists of the DALRO Can Themba short story
award. Celebrating the legacy of master storyteller Can Themba, this collection
provokes, inspires, challenges and entertains with bold storytelling and keen social
commentary. The stories range from the deeply personal to the wildly allegorical,
playing with genre conventions and inhabiting a multitude of perspectives and unruly
voices. These exciting new authors confirm the pre-eminence of the short story, and
its oral antecedents, by delving into the national psyche in the conversations they
have, the connections they make, and the themes, concerns and water-soaked imagery
they share.

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