A fable

[andrewwatson]

Disclaimer: I do not have any literary aspirations. This came to me while I was working in my garden.


FABLE

Imagine a desert, dry and without water. Nothing has grown in it for a thousand years. Those who live in it have to carry water for miles in order to survive the drought.
In the middle of that desert sits a sumptuous palace, its ornate architecture covering many acres, its shady courtyards lush with grass and trees watered by aqueducts carrying the precious liquid from a huge reservoir, its whispering fountains cooling the balmy air for those fortunate inhabitants who live there.

On the far side of the desert there are mountains, and in those mountains lies a vast lake, artificially created some time past by damming up a valley as big as a country. The dam stretches for mile upon mile, holding back the water from flooding across the waiting plain. Brick aqueducts carry the water across the desert to the distant palace.

The dam is massively solid, but is riven with hairline cracks made over many years with picks and spades by the angry peoples of the desert . The cracks are each too small to cause any damage. In one place, however a massive crack runs from top to bottom , threatening to tear a gash in the concrete.

In the palace, the King notices a thin stream of water trickle under the gates. He splashes it onto his face. It cools his pampered skin. Gradually he notices the trickle becoming a brook, the brook a rivulet, the rivulet a river. Concerned, the King sends out messengers to investigate. They are beaten back at the gates by a wall of water rushing across the arid plain. Too late the inhabitants of the palace realise that the resource they have selfishly hoarded for all these years is going to wash them clean away, its surging power sublimely indifferent to rank or status.

The flood destroys the palace utterly. The desert turns green overnight. The tribespeople come down from their hiding places in the hills and claim with joy the fertile land.

[kbo234]

You are obviously meant to be in your garden Andrew. Thanks for that. Your story could be expanded into a full-scale fantasy adventure film script.

[xmasdale]

Hmm! I love it.

Have you got any jobs I could do in your garden, Andrew?

Noel

[andrewwatson]

Well, Noel, since you offer...you'd be most welcome to dig up the thistles in my lawn.

Only joking. Glad my daydream pleased you.

[DeFecToR]