The Empty Well

(back soon with the story, need more time to think about it. Hope the title alone can solve some pending questions.)

“My ink well is dry, therefore I cannot write more.” – the writer

“I’ve been ill for a very long time, I don’t know what well means.” – the patient

“I have not done something fulfilling in a long time.” – the worker

“I wish you well, and good bye.” – the fraud

The story…

The year 1200 AD… somewhere in Europe.

There is a small town with two water wells that draw from different sources. Each well is located a separate ends of the town. For more than one generation the people of the town got their water from either. There were no fights. Even during a drought, people talked and planned to make best use of the waters available.

One day, a young man was angry. He wanted a way to get the attention of everyone in town so he tainted one well and gathered like-minded friends to guard the remaining well.

His first attempt at showing his anger was to watch some people become very ill from the well he did not guard.

The next attempt at “letting others feel his anger” was to block people from using “his well”. Most were scared enough to just not ask for water and rationed what they had, hoping the boys would calm down.

A small boy is encouraged to talk to the boys at the well and he seeks them out. Once in front of them he asks, “Why are you protecting the remaining well yet not sharing its waters?”

The older boys complain amongst each other. It has been many days they’ve lived around the well to “protect it” and they’ve had to find their own food and slept under tree limbs and the sky, no longer protected themselves. The small boy notices they are tired and angrier than he remembers ever seeing people. And they have weapons he is not used to seeing. They look newly made, and not by the blacksmith. Made themselves?

TBC