#WritePhoto Old Green Stone Wall

May 11, 2017 — #writephoto, father time, fiction, fiction #writephoto, nature, water

green passages

People tell stories about the time before the stone wall was built. The streams and rivers flowed freely and served everyone as they went by. Water to run small mills and to irrigate crops was plentiful and easy to find. Family farmers subsided and even thrived in years when the weather was favorable.  The community members provided for each other, and the simple agricultural life was comfortable.  They had plenty of food, shelter, and water.

Progress came to the area in the form of a land buy out by a large estate owner who wanted to experiment in modern farming techniques.  His ignorance of nature combined badly with his lame and greedy attitude toward those with deep knowledge of working the land.  He changed the landscape, moved the waterways to suit his purposes, and set out to build an empire.  He had a monopoly on all the waterways in the valley, having sewn up all the land on which the tributaries flowed.  His signature move was a large stone wall he built. It stood in the middle of stream, with tunnels to handle the water as it flowed beneath the structure. He was secure and pleased with his conquest of this natural resource when all hell literally broke loose.  With a crack of thunder and a flash of lightening the sky broke open with a stormy and deadly response to his lack of respect for Mother Nature.

The flash flood poured over all the banks and rushed through the canals and tunnels like an angry dragon.  Destruction and erosion brought famine to the land, once ripe and productive. Once the greedy land owner gave up the ghost the land itself returned to a riparian state.  The farmers did not return, so the land has been fallow for centuries.  It no longer feeds or shelters people.  The natural world has taken the place of the former residents. The streams flow sweetly and green moss covers the ancient stone as if nothing had ever happened. All is forgotten.

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This slice of fiction is a take on the prompt of this week by Sue Vincent.  Visit Sue’s Daily Echo to read, comment, or submit your own story or poem.