Skipping Stones

He stomped carefully, directly in the center of the mud puddle. His foot splushed into the deepest part. He laughed as the murky water and mud sprayed out in all directions, flickering with light when it hit the grass. He danced away and watched as the mud flowed back to fill the gap. In a few moments, the puddle returned to normal. Another stomp, another splash of mud, another flicker of light, another laugh. He could do this all day.

He continued down the bank to the edge of the pool instead. He gazed into the inky black depths. He picked up a pebble and tossed it into the pool, amused by the ripple of light and heat that expanded out in a sphere from the pebble's contact. The ripple grew quickly, slowed, stopped, reversed itself, then collapsed back to the original point and disappeared. He laughed at the tiny ripple of light in the dark pool. At the largest the ripple had been smaller than a dinner plate. He wanted a bigger ripple of light. He found another rock, smooth from tumbling, fist-sized. He hurled it into the pool, delighted by the grand ripple of light it created.

Yet another rock, this one smooth, and flattened. He threw it out as far into the pool as possible, so the bank wouldn't stop the expanding ripple. He watched in surprise as the stone skipped on the surface, causing two splashes, two ripples that began separate, collided and joined, collapsing together to a single point before vanishing. Amazing discovery! He hunted for another flat smooth stone and hurled it outward. Stone after stone, splash after splash. He soon discovered that the stones skipped best, and made the most splashes, when they hit the surface flat on. Every ripple of light that collided with another joined it, for a single final collapse. He succeeded in getting four skips from one stone, where all four splashes joined into one huge ripple, contorting and twisting as if in agony as it shrank.

He heard a shout. His mother called from the the porch. "Come in here now! Dinner's waiting!" She saw the mud. "God, you're a mess! Get in here and clean up, this instant!"

He skipped one last stone across the dark pool and turned away, uncaring, unhearing, as Intelligence evolved in the third splash out and called His name.