Conditional Reality

Riverbend Swansong was so afraid of water that he rarely bathed. This was unpleasant to his friends and acquaintances, but Riverbend could do nothing about it. Whenever he was in the vicinity of water, he became seriously ill, the way some people get faint upon seeing blood. Riverbend moved to the driest place he could, a house in the desert where it rained only a few times each year. Riverbend let his toes luxuriate in the dust. His skin shriveled up. He ended his days looking like a wrinkled cactus. Riverbend welcomed the hot melting sun like a lost relative.