When The Rains Came

He climbed the length of the reed, using the handholds and footholds he had dug out of the rough interior, and when he peered over the edge he saw nothing on the water except the nostrils of the four beasts, each at one of the four corners of the world.
"What can you see?" yelled his wife from the base of the reed.
"I can't see anything."
"Is the water still rising?" she asked.
"No. It seems to have stopped."
"And the beasts?" she cried.
"Still out there. Mostly just nose, now."
"What now?" she asked.
"Well, I don't know." he replied in a distracted way. He was relieved to see that the water had stopped rising but with only a few feet to spare, it had been a close one. "I guess we just wait."
"I'm tired of waiting. This reed is too small and stuffy and pretty soon we'll have to eat our shoes and I don't like the taste of your feet."
"Your's are no better, buttercup." he said under his breath.
"What?"
"Nothing, dear. Let's give it another day." he said as he rested his head on his arms.
He had never seen so much water before and he certainly had no experience with giant reeds designed to hold and protect all he could carry, all he could pack into it, and his wife, to boot. He had spent so many sleepless nights waiting for the water to flow in over the top and drown them all that he was sure the turtle swimming towards him was some sort of vision brought about by lack of sleep and the noxious smell of so many animals crammed into such a tight space.
And yet it kept coming, straight towards their new dwelling. The lack of any landmarks made it hard to judge how big it really was but soon it reached the reed and with some sloshing of water over the edge, which started his wife and all the animals screaming about the end of all things, the turtle turned out to be a massive thing, twenty feet wide across its brightly coloured shell.
It stopped before him, treading water and eyeing him with some curiosity.
"Hello." he said to the giant turtle but it said nothing in return. It simply looked at him out of watery eyes and then, finally, with a snort, it dove down into the depths and he began to wonder if it had been a figment of his imagination.
Suddenly, behind him, he heard a sputtering and a ferocious yell and he spun around, nearly losing his footing on the edge of the reed and saw water pouring into the nostrils of the beast in the East. With a deafening roar it disappeared under the water, followed a few minutes later by a cascade of escaping air and it did not re-appear again. He watched dumbfounded by this until he heard another sputtering from the North and turned just as the second beast disappeared under the waves. Following that, the beasts in the West and the South sank under the waves with much thrashing and explosions of compressed air and then there was silence.
"What's all that racket?" his wife yelled up at him. "Is it rising again?"
"I don't know. Something strange is happening. I just saw a giant turtle and now it looks like the four beast have gone under for good."
"Well that's good news isn't it?"
"I hope so." he answered but his heart was troubled when he saw the turtle surface some distance away and begin a leisurely swim toward the reed.
"Uh..." he said.
"What? What's going on? Say something, you damn fool." And then he could feel the reed begin to sway and he knew that she was climbing up to join him in his lookout.
"Hey, watch it. This thing might go over with both of us up here." he cried.
"Oh, phooey. You just don't want me to know what's going on. I'm coming up. Move over." And then she was beside him and they both stared at the turtle as it came close to the edge of the reed causing more water to spill over the top.
"Hey, watch it, you big galoot." she yelled at the turtle to which it answered, "Do not fear, my children. You are safe, for now."
"Hey, it can talk." she said, punching him in the arm.
"Yes, I can talk Mother, but you, you talk too much." said the turtle with what the man could only describe as a big turtle grin. It turned to look at the man and said, "Well, that's it. Give it a few more minutes, just to make sure those things are dead, and then the water will start to recede."
"O.K." said the man, "And then what?"
"And then? Then it's up to you. You and all the animals and all the plants and, of course, this lovely wife of yours, are all that are left and it's up to you get busy and start re-populating this place." the turtle explained.
"All by ourselves?" cried his wife,"Have you any idea how painful childbirth is? And you want me to get busy popping out generations of brats to re-populate the whole damn earth? What kind of a plan is that?..."
And she continued to voice her objections while the turtle turned to the man and said, "I can do something about that for you, y'know." pointing at his wife as she waved her arms wildly and let loose with a stream of profanities that might have brought about a second deluge, but the man shook his head and said, "No, that's alright. I kind of like it."
"Suit yourself." said the turtle and with that it disappeared beneath the water leaving the man hanging onto the edge of his reed with his wife bleating into the darkening sky and the waters receding around them.