Properties of Thirst

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses death by suicide and racism.

Rocky Rhodes walks in the Sierra Nevada mountains, finding an imprint of his late wife’s shoe. She recently died of polio, and Rocky considers preserving the print. Instead, he watches it over the coming days as it gradually disappears.

He lives on a ranch that he named Las Tres Sillas—The Three Chairs—in homage to Henry David Thoreau (who always left three chairs out for visitors, even when he was off wandering in the woods). Rocky is estranged from his son, Stryker, who has joined the navy, blaming Rocky for the death of his mother, Lou. Rocky’s daughter and Stryker’s twin sister, Sunny, keeps Rocky informed of Stryker’s whereabouts. Rocky is likewise estranged from his own father, Punch, having left the family’s business in their native New York City to move to California. Years ago, Rocky raised sheep (at his wife’s insistence), but he gave up on them. He suspected that the city of Los Angeles was taking water from his property and began to record and track the water levels.

One morning, Rocky wakes to find his twin sister, Cas, drinking tea and Sunny already outside caring for the dairy goats.