A= Prelude

Prelude

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Author: kimwest

Age Rating:

From the ABC set entitled
THE PIANO TEACHER

Prelude

There is an old abandoned mill at the edge of the village. Its granite
window-less walls are like a fortress. The nettles grow deep in places
with giant brambles and old man's beard woven into dark, thick
undergrowth. It is a place of children's nightmares. Inside the old
broken steps add terror to a knowledge that this building is built over
a very deep well. Roof beams dangle precariously against the cold
winter's night sky, threatening to fall at any moment. A feeling
abounds that at any moment these massive beams may crash down and tear
away at the unstable structures. Stream water flows and bubbles around
the old mill and there is a constant loud and deep dripping of water,
which echoes around the emptiness. There are outbursts from the
millpond, as creatures squabble in the night. In this fearfulness, it
is an utterly private place. It has become a place of mythology which
has been compounded the dangerous reality of a semi-derelict building,
surrounded by water. In the mill there is indeed a very deep black
well. It seems to go on down forever and at the bottom, in the
accumulated silt of ages, is a body. The coat pockets are full of old
bricks. The journey down there was swift. A face stares upward to the
stars, whose expression shows no glimmer of the struggle of
drowning.

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