The Drop of Water Who Didn’t Know How Important She Was

Deep in the forest, beneath the roots of an old beech tree, a drop of water was born one autumn morning.

She wasn't the first, and she wouldn't be the last. Thousands of drops like her were born under the ground. Some came from spring snow, others from summer storms, and others from rain that had soaked into the earth long ago.

This drop was called Sparkle.

She didn't know exactly where she had come from. All she remembered was darkness, cool stones and a long wait under the ground. And then one day she saw light.

She slipped out between two pebbles, slid down the green moss and found herself in a tiny spring.

"So this is the world?" she whispered.

Trees bent over her, golden leaves fell onto the water, and the sun drew bright stripes between the branches.

"It's beautiful!"

But she had barely looked around when another drop floated past.

"Don't dawdle, little one. We've got a long way to go."

"What way?"

"To the river. And then further."

"But why?"

"Because water never stands still."

Sparkle looked back at the pebble she had come from.

"But I like it here. I'd like to stay."

The old spring, which had been quietly babbling under the stones for many years, smiled.

"You know, Sparkle, if you always stayed in one place, you would never find out everything you can be."

"But I'm only a little drop."

"Yes, you are," said the spring. "And that's exactly why great things are waiting for you."

That day, three children came into the forest.

Eight-year-old Amálie, six-year-old Vít and little Rozálie, who kept stopping because she kept finding important things. First a pine cone, then a feather, and then a stick that looked exactly like a magic wand.

"The Želivka river starts somewhere around here," announced Amálie.

"So where's the river?" Vítek looked around.

"Here."

Amálie pointed at the tiny spring.

Vít frowned.

"This? It's not even a proper puddle."

"There's a bigger puddle outside my nursery school," added Rozálie.

Sparkle heard everything.

And for the first time in her life, she was sorry she was so small.

"You see?" she whispered to the old spring. "Nobody thinks I'm important."

The spring was quiet for a while.

"And do you think what others say about you decides how important you are?"

Sparkle didn't know.

Just then, Rozálie knelt down on the ground.

"Look!"

In the moss she had found a tiny drop, glittering like a little glass pearl.

"It's beautiful."

Sparkle felt shy. A moment ago she had thought she didn't matter, and now someone was admiring her.

Rozálie reached out a finger.

And at that very moment, something strange happened.

The forest fell silent. The birds stopped singing, the wind stood still and the surface of the spring turned into a perfectly smooth mirror.

"Would you like to know where the water in your tap comes from?" said a deep, kind voice.

The children looked around.

"Who's talking?" asked Vít.

"Me. The spring."

Vítek's mouth fell open.

"Well, that's great. Yesterday it was Mum talking to me from the bathroom, and today it's a stream."

"That's a bit different," remarked Amálie.

"Come," whispered the spring. "I'll show you a journey human eyes don't usually see."

The water shimmered, and suddenly the children found themselves inside three see-through water bubbles.

* * *

The bubbles drifted downstream, and Sparkle floated alongside them.

At first they barely moved. The little spring flowed around stones, disappeared under branches and sometimes looked as if it might vanish at any moment.

"This will never be a big river," decided Vít.

But then another little stream joined in. And soon another.

The water grew stronger.

"Look!" called Amálie. "There's so much more of it now!"

"That's because it joined together," explained Sparkle.

"And what if you hadn't joined in?" asked Rozálie.

"I don't suppose anyone would have noticed."

"I would," said Rozálie.

Sparkle looked at her.

"Why?"

"Because when something's missing, it isn't quite whole."

The old spring, whose voice was still with them, added quietly:

"Big things are made of many small ones. And each of them has its place."

Sparkle remembered those words.

* * *

The river grew stronger and stronger, and the current got faster.

Suddenly a huge rock rose up in front of them. The water crashed into it, split in two and rushed around it.

Sparkle was frightened.

"I don't want to go on!"

"Why not?" asked Amálie.

"I don't know what's waiting for me. Back there at least I knew which way I was swimming."

"I get scared sometimes too," admitted Rozálie. "Like when I have to go somewhere I've never been."

"And what do you do?"

Rozálie thought for a moment.

"Sometimes I cry. Sometimes I hold on to Mum. And sometimes I find out it was actually nice."

Sparkle looked at the current.

She couldn't know what lay around the bend. But she noticed that the water didn't keep crashing into the rock forever. It simply found a way around it.

"All right, I'll try."

And she let herself be carried along.

Beyond the rock, the river calmed down.

The sun shone again and a rainbow appeared on the water.

"You see?" said Amálie. "You didn't have to beat the rock."

"It was enough to flow around it," added Sparkle.

And Vítek put on a very wise face.

"That's what I'll do next time Rozálie is standing in the doorway."

"I don't stand there!"

"You did yesterday!"

"Because you took my teddy!"

"You see?" laughed Amálie. "You two could do with a proper river."

* * *

After a long journey they reached the Švihov reservoir on the Želivka.

A huge stretch of water spread out before the children.

"So much water!" breathed Rozálie.

"And are all those drops like me?" asked Sparkle.

"Each one has its own story," answered the old voice of the spring. "Some fell as rain, others flowed here in streams. Some will one day evaporate and return to the clouds. Others will carry on."

Sparkle looked around at the enormous expanse of water.

"But nobody will find me here. I'll get lost among the others."

"Will you get lost?" asked Amálie. "Or will you become part of something bigger?"

Sparkle was silent for a long time.

Then she noticed that the surface wasn't made of one giant drop. There were millions of tiny drops in it, and together they made a lake.

And for the first time it occurred to her that she didn't have to be seen to matter.

* * *

"And now let's see how water gets to people," said the spring.

The magic bubble led them to the place where water is drawn from the reservoir and travels through pipes to the water treatment plant.

"This is where the water gets cleaned," explained Amálie, who had heard a little about it before.

The children watched the huge tanks, filters and pipes.

The water was treated to remove unwanted impurities and make it safe to drink. It went through several stages of treatment and, at the end, quality checks too.

"That's a lot of work!" marvelled Vít.

"And why does it have to be cleaned?" asked Rozálie.

"Because water from a river or a reservoir isn't automatically drinkable," explained the spring. "Even when it looks beautiful, there can be things in it you can't see."

"Like germs?"

"For example."

Vítek imagined a germ in swimming trunks, sunbathing on a pebble.

"I'd like to see that."

"That's just it — you can't see it with the naked eye," smiled Amálie.

Meanwhile, Sparkle went through the whole treatment process.

It was strange. Nobody praised her. Nobody clapped. Nobody noticed how long a journey she had already made.

And yet the water she was floating in was becoming drinking water for people.

"So many things have to happen so that someone can pour a glass of water," she whispered.

"Yes," answered the spring. "Many important things happen quietly."

* * *

The clean water travelled through long pipes, through water towers and the water mains, all the way to people's homes.

And then one evening, Sparkle arrived at a tap.

It was nothing special.

It was silver, a little wet, and there was a glass underneath it.

"Is that all?" Sparkle wondered.

"That's all," answered the spring.

"I expected something grander."

"Wait."

Somebody turned the tap.

Water gushed into the glass, and Sparkle swirled around in a little whirlpool with the other drops.

Then a little girl appeared above the glass.

She was tired. Her cheeks were flushed, and she had spent the whole day in bed with a fever.

Her mum handed her the water.

"Have a drink, sweetheart."

The girl drank and gave a contented sigh.

"Thank you, Mummy."

For a moment, Sparkle was completely still.

She thought of her tiny spring in the forest. The stones she had been born between. The streams she had met on the way. The great reservoir. All the people who had taken care to keep the water clean.

And now she was here.

In an ordinary glass by a bed.

"So this is what I travelled all this way for?" she whispered.

"For this too," answered the spring. "But your journey doesn't end here."

"And where will I go next?"

"Nobody knows exactly. Water is always on the move. Sometimes it's in a river, sometimes in a cloud, sometimes in a plant, and sometimes it helps a living body."

Sparkle thought about it.

"So I'll never completely disappear?"

"Water changes its place and its shape. It is part of a great cycle."

And Sparkle understood that her journey hadn't been a race to reach some goal.

It was part of something that never stops.

* * *

At that moment, the water bubbles melted away.

Amálie, Vítek and Rozálie were standing in the forest by the source of the Želivka again.

The sun was already low, and the shadows between the trees were growing longer.

"So?" asked Vít. "Was it real?"

Amálie shrugged.

"I don't know."

Rozálie bent down to the little spring.

"I think it was."

Vítek watched the water for a while.

"It's funny that such a small thing can go so far."

"And that so many people have to take care of it so we can drink it," added Amálie.

Rozálie dipped a finger into the cold water.

"And do you think Sparkle was happy?"

Amálie thought for a moment.

"I think so. Not because she was the biggest or the most beautiful. But because she found out she matters even as a little drop."

On the way home, the children were unusually quiet.

Even Vítek, who could usually talk non-stop from breakfast until someone stuck a bread roll in his mouth.

In the evening, he went to brush his teeth.

He turned on the tap, wet his toothbrush and then stopped.

The water kept running.

He reached out and turned it off.

"What's the matter?" asked Mum.

"Oh, nothing," said Vít. "I just remembered how far it is from the spring to here."

Mum smiled.

And Vítek added:

"It would be a shame if a drop travelled all that way just to run down the drain for nothing."

Mum stroked his hair.

And in the forest, far from their house, the source of the Želivka went on quietly babbling.

It didn't need anyone to thank it.

It didn't need to be big.

It simply gave the world what it had.

And perhaps that was its greatest magic.