Finding Aqua

Finding Aqua Author : Yamam Khartash Illustrator : Mina Souliman English



Finding Aqua Written by Yamam Khartash. Images by Mina Suleiman. © Asafeer Education Technologies FZ LLC, 2018. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. English United States

Copyright © Asafeer Education Technologies FZ LLC, 2018 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ You may not use this work for commercial purposes. You may adapt and add to this work, but you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one. You must keep the copyright and credits for authors, illustrators, etc. The original work of this book was made possible through the generous support of the All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD) Partners (the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), World Vision, and the Australian Government). It was prepared by Asafeer Education Technologies FZ LLC and does not necessarily reflect the views of the ACR GCD Partners. Any adaptation or translation of this work should not be considered an official ACR GCD translation and ACR GCD shall not be liable for any content or error in this translation.

On a faraway cloud, Hydra the water droplet was happily bouncing around when a loud voice interrupted her, saying, “Come on, droplets - it’s time to rain!” Hydra shivered and said “Rain? No way, I can’t do this. It’s such a long way down.....” But the droplet in charge said, “Come on now, no drop of water may remain in the sky.” 1

As Hydra was about to burst into tears, another water droplet, named Aqua, linked arms with her and said, “Come on. Let’s fall down together. It’s going to be fun. We could end up swimming in a river or sliding on green leaves.” Hydra closed her eyed and let herself go. Whooooooaaaa! She finally landed but not in the river or on a green leaf… 2

Hydra wondered “Where did we land?” Sam, who was collecting fresh rainwater to drink, couldn’t hear her. 3

Hydra asked, “Why is it so dark in here? I’m so scared.” Aqua said, “Well, I don’t really know why, but don’t worry. We’re in it together. You can count on that!” 4

They slid out of Sam’s mouth, down his pharynx and esophagus and finally into his stomach, where they snuck into a blood vessel. And then what they’d long avoided, happened. 5

“Emergency, emergency! Sam’s body temperature is going up. Water droplets must condense to release sweat,” decided Sam’s brain. Aqua was being pulled towards Sam’s pore. Hydra started to scream. 6

“Don’t leave me, Aqua! Oh Aqua, where are you going?” shouted Hydra. Aqua said, “Meet me in the cloud.” Hydra asked, “How?” Aqua answered, “Evaporation, evaporation,” and then she disappeared. Hydra wondered, “Evaporation! How can I ever evaporate in here?” 7

Aqua felt like she was being spun through a maze. She twisted and turned through Sam’s blood vessels until she reached his bladder. She tried to evaporate over and over again, but she couldn’t. 8

“Get me out of here!” She banged on his bladder walls. She shouted, “I need to evaporate. I need to evaporate!” Just then Sam realized he needed a bathroom break. 9

Hydra found herself in stinky, dark sewer pipe. “Oh no! I can’t stand this terrible smell. I must get out of here. I need to evaporate and I won’t ever be able to evaporate here. 10

Before long, Hydra ended up in huge holding tank with other water drops. Some of them came from hospitals, while others came from factories. 11

“Oh, my goodness! How could I possibly meet Aqua like this?” Hydra had to clean herself up somehow. 12

The holding tank turned round and round, until the was removed and separated from the drops of water. 13

A few seconds later, the drops of water were transferred into another basin, where there were germ eating bacteria. Hydra asked the bacteria, “Why are you licking me? Oh please, just leave me alone, I want to get out of here!” 14

But then she realized, “Wow! I feel amazing! It’s like magic. But I have no time to waste. I have to evaporate now. But to where?” 15

Hydra saw a river nearby and said, “This is the best place for me to evaporate. I’ll try to get there as fast as I can.” 16

Sewer maintenance workers came and pumped all the water out into the soil. 17

Hydra drained into the soil and then headed towards the river. 18

But the sunflower roots were very thirsty. Hydra was pure and clean. She’d definitely quench his thirst on such a hot day. So, he sucked her up right away. Hydra thought it was all over for her. But in a few seconds... 19

Hydra found herself on the petals of big, beautiful sunflower. She smiled as she said, “It’s time to evaporate! 20

Aqua evaporated and she floated up in the sky. As usual, the cloud was very crowded. As soon as she arrived, Hydra started looking for Aqua. She searched and searched. 21

As she looked around, she saw Aqua headed towards her. The water droplet in charge said, “ Come on, droplets - it’s time to rain! ” Aqua hugged her friend and said, “Come on. Let’s fall down together. It’s going to be fun. We could end up swimming in a river or sliding on green leaves......this time.” 22

The End 23