Near Nizwa, Gabe investigates aflaj irrigation, oasis agriculture, precise sharing schedules, and the community labor required to keep a limited resource moving fairly. Salim is funny, exact, and equally offended by wasted water and wasted words.
A flow-timed Crossing reveals unofficial corrections made for families left outside a formal schedule. The old dispute has no clean answer, and its consequences echo uncomfortably through the family's own search. Tala wants an arrangement in which nobody pays a cost. Becoming a keeper may require accepting that repair sometimes creates a new system instead of restoring the old one.
