Abigail Beck is 15 years old and lives in Arizona, United States. Until puberty arrived, water was just water. Then it became her enemy.
She was diagnosed with aquagenic urticaria, a disease so rare that there are barely 100 documented cases in the world.
If she drinks water, she vomits and her heart starts racing. If she cries, her own tears burn her skin. Rain, she says, feels like acid.
She cannot even exercise: sweat leaves painful marks on her body, and after every shower she has to dry herself immediately to avoid a reaction.
Her father, Michael Beck, a high school vice principal, accompanies her during treatment with an allergist who still does not have definitive answers.
Science has found no cure, only ways to cope with it. And in the meantime, Abigail is learning to live while avoiding something the rest of us do not even think twice about touching.