Alone in the Spring House

The walls and floor are of fitted stone, the elm ceiling beams adzed from trees long perished. In a corner is a basin chiseled from river rock. An iron pipe juts from the wall and drips into the basin, each drop a musical note in the stillness.

The silence is immense except for the basin’s drip and the sometime  whisper of a snake moving across the floor.

The boy knows from books that snakes are creatures who wish only to be left alone. They will not trouble him here. This has become his place. He will tell no one about it.

 

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  1. 4963andypop

    I agree the language is very poetic. I love “the sometime whisper of a snake.” The boy knows his snakes. Assuming its not benomous, their are worse companions with whom to enjoy one’s solitude.

  2. Jelli

    Ah, this reminds me of so many happy “spring house’ memories! :) Ahhhh, I’m just going to sit here in the cool shade of the spring house of my youth, crack open a jar of homemade applesauce, and maybe sneak a sip of Papaw’s ‘shine…. ahhhh, such the beauty is of sweet memory… Thank you very much for the writing of it!

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