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For the first time she could remember, Moses' mother felt light on her heels. She waved to some soldiers in the distance, pressed the back of her hand swooningly against her forehead, gamboled to the banks of the river, and cannonballed in. She backstroked downstream, smiling, barely present enough to notice the basket floating beside her, the crocodiles that swam politely by as she and the little prophet drifted back to shore.

III. David and Goliath

David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine: your servant will go and fight him.” David loved the sound of that: lose heart, Philistine. He loved the sound of his own name. He had lean muscular legs and wore a short tunic to show off his quads.

Saul told David, “You are not able to fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.” David thought Saul's name sounded stupid.

David told Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a bear or lion came, I went after it, struck it, and rescued the sheep.” David loved the way his sheep looked like clouds. He loved how his tunic was made out of his sheep's fur. He loved the sproing sound when he hit a bear with his slingshot, and the little stars that came out of the bear when the rock made contact. Sproing. Sproing. Sproing.

David conceived of Goliath as more or less a very large bear.

As he approached the Philistine army, David was impressed by their uniforms; their color was a mixture of blue and green that reminded him of the trees' reflection on a lake. The soldiers had big metal shields, which made a fantastic ping noise when David hit them with his slingshot. He fired his slingshot at the shields over and over again.

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