"Look, I just can't do it."

"Try again! It's not so hard, just keep trying!"

It was a couple of weeks after Maya's eleventh birthday, and the two sisters were both sitting cross-legged on the floor, a bucket between them. Ashley rolled her eyes and dipped her hand into the bucket, bringing it up with a small amount of water pooled in it. She held it for a moment, then let it trickle through her fingers back into the bucket. Maya shook her head.

"That's not how you do it, it's like this."

Ashley watched as her sister lifted a handful of water from the bucket, not pooled in the cup of her palm but held there like a lump of clear, wobbly jelly.

"See?"

"Maya, this ain't something I can do." Ashley wasn't frustrated at her failure. As soon as she'd seen her sister lifting handfuls of water from the bucket she'd known she wouldn't be able to copy her. Another trick, she thought, as she watched her sister form the handful into a roundish ball of water. Another amazing trick.

"Come on, Ash, just try once more, it's really not so hard—"

"Nah, I'm just not good at that kind of stuff, magic tricks or whatever—"

"It's not a magic trick!"

"So what is it, then?"

"I dunno, just ... something." Maya dropped the ball of water she'd made back into the bucket, then swished her finger around inside it, making tiny waves that grew bigger and choppier, like a miniature stormy sea. "But if even I can do it then you MUST be able to—"

"Maya, I gotta ask, are you stupid?"

"I'm not stupid!"

"Then why do you always do this? I ain't mad at you, I just can't figure it out—I can't make waves like you can, I can't make little faces and stuff in the water, and I can't make water balls or whatever you wanna call these—"

"Water balls IS what I call them!" Maya said, delighted.

"Yeah, whatever, why do you keep trying to get me to do this stuff? This is, like, YOUR thing, okay? I love watching you do these tricks, you know that, I don't get jealous or whatever. Just keep it as your thing, okay?"

Maya traced her fingers within the water bucket for a few seconds, apparently not hearing her sister's words. She took another handful of water from the bucket and absently formed it into a little ball, then she took another handful and did the same with that, and then a third. She held them up in front of herself, holding the three little water balls in both hands, then she started juggling them, not quite expertly, but well enough to keep the three wobbling balls of water in the air without dropping them.

"That's great, Maya," Ashley said, watching her sister juggle. "Just don't drop 'em, okay? Because—Maya!"

Maya had let all three water balls drop to the floor, water splashing over the scuffed wooden floorboards and her dress. She gazed at Ashley with an innocent expression on her face.

"Now we gotta get this dry, your dress too, what's the matter with you? Why'd you do that?"

A slight smile was Maya's only response. Ashley shook her head.

"Ma's gonna get home pretty soon—come on, get up so—"

Maya was holding her hands over her dress, where it had been splashed. As Ashley watched, tiny beads of water formed on the fabric, running together and joining to become larger beads, and then drops, and then a loose mass, which Maya gently coaxed into her hands, holding it there for a moment before transferring it to the bucket and dropping it in. Ashley couldn't help but grin.

"Okay," she said, "that's pretty cool."

Maya nodded happily as she did the same thing to gather up the water that had splashed on to the floorboards, held her hands over it to draw it together, 'pulled' it into her hands then threw it into the bucket, like tossing a ball into a basket. Ashley watched as Maya finished clearing up all the spilt water and picked up the bucket.

"You gonna dump that out now? Because—"

With a small but mischievous smile, Maya had begun tipping the bucket upside down, the water already threatening to spill out.

"Maya—"

"Watch."

Ashley suppressed a sigh as she watched Maya continue to tip the water from the bucket, watched as it began to pour, almost stepped forward to stop her sister before she saw that although the water had begun pouring, it had stopped halfway to the floor. Maya stood there, smiling, holding the bucket in her hands, enjoying the look of amazement on her sister's face as she kept the stream of water hanging there. With a somewhat jerky motion, she drew the bucket back, extending the stream, creating a curving snake of water in mid-air, glistening in the fading light.

"Maya..." Ashley's tone had changed now, was both softer and more serious. "How are you doing that?"

Maya shrugged, then frowned, then gasped and lunged forward with the bucket. Too late.

"Maya!"

"Sorry! I didn't mean to! I just ... I slipped! It's hard keeping it up like that, and when ... I'm sorry, Ash, I'll clean it up."

Ashley watched as Maya began trying to pull up the water from the floor, but whatever trick she'd used before wasn't working now.

"Here, shift over, let me help with that. We might as well scrub the floors while they're wet, they probably need it anyway."

"Sorry, Ash! I don't know why I can't..."

Maya fell silent, and for a few minutes the two sisters scrubbed at the floor without speaking.

"Hey, Maya," Ashley said, looking over at her sister. "How DID you do that stuff? That ain't like what you did before."

Maya glanced at Ashley. "It's pretty much the same."

"Uh-uh, are you kidding? You made that, I don't know, that water was just hanging in the air, that ain't like what you've done before. It ain't nothing like it."

"It's still water."

"Yeah, but—"

"You didn't like it?" Maya's voice was small and hurt.

"I didn't say that, you know I love your tricks—"

"It wasn't a trick! It's ... something!"

Ashley glanced at her sister as she squeezed out her rag into the bucket.

"Yeah," she said. "Okay. Something."

"But I bet you could do it too if you just—"

"Maya, you gotta accept this. You're special. I ain't."

"But—"

"It's a fact, Maya."

"It's not! You're special too! I know you are!"

Ashley reached out to flick her sister's ear, but Maya ducked out of the way, scowling.

"Don't!" she cried. "I mean it, Ash! You're special! If you just tried..." Maya trailed off as she saw the look on her sister's face.

"Let's just get this cleaned up," Ashley said. "And then get some sleep, I gotta do some stuff tomorrow."

"Can I come?"

Ashley smiled a little at the sudden eagerness in her sister's voice.

"Sure, why not."

"Is it more delivering?"

"Yeah."

"Good. I don't like the other stuff you do."

Ashley's mouth was tight as she rubbed at a mark on the floor. "Yeah."

"I can finish cleaning up here if you want to go to sleep now," Maya said. "If you're tired."

Ashley shook her head, kept rubbing for a couple of seconds, then she stopped. She stared at the mark for a moment, then she looked up at Maya.

"Maya," she said. "I don't have to work tomorrow."

"But you said—"

"No, I don't mean it like that. We could just..."

Ashley trailed off as she saw the look in her sister's eyes.

"Forget it," she said, her voice rough. She gave the mark on the floor one last rub, then shook her head and stood up, tossing the rag into the bucket. "You deal with the water left in the bucket," she said. "I'll get our beds ready. Look, the sun's nearly down already, I bet you're tired."

While Maya emptied the water bucket Ashley prepared their sleeping mats, then both girls lay down to sleep.

"Ash?"

Ashley opened one of her eyes to see her sister gazing at her.

"What?"

"I love you."

Ashley reached out a lazy hand to flick her sister's ear.

"Yeah, whatever."