Bernie Thigpen waited patiently at the elevation train depot. In his
hand he cradled the one thing that could make him a rich man: a plastic
vial of Dehydrated Water. Bernie, a lanky 28 year old, had been working
overtime on his doctorate thesis when he'd stumbled upon a way to condense
and package water. One microscopic granule of what Bernie laughingly
called "hard water" would rehydrate into a whole cup of the liquid stuff.
