The Bear

by Andrew Krivak

So why does the ocean get a tide and the lake doesn’t? Let me ask you a question, said the man. What happens when there’s water in the bottom of the canoe and you rock it? The water sloshes back and forth. That’s right. So the canoe is like the earth. You are like the moon. And the water in the canoe is the water in the ocean. The water in the lake is just a drop on the gunwhale of the canoe. Alone, it does little. But of all the water in the lake, it has its part. The girl sat. The moon does that? she asked. Every day, the man said.