The Cottage [YJA 2017] (Former writer)

It was a beautiful sunrise today. Spring has arrived at last here in the Highlands, the snow has gone, the first blossoms are timidly showing themselves and the birds have begun to sing their joyous morning songs. Oh, it's glorious!

When the sun came up and I looked out the cottage window and felt that wondrous warmth falling upon me, I felt truly alive again. Yes, I love winter as well, when the sun shines on the snow nestling on the branches of the quiescent trees having their winter sleep, those fine crystals sparkling like magical dreams of diamonds. But spring is always when I start to feel real again.

It's been hard just to stay here on my own, every day and every night, through those short winter days and long, dark nights. Hard, because I love company and I always have. Quite often I go out for a walk in the evenings, passing by the houses of my neighbours and watching them sitting and watching TV, which we never even had in the old days. I don't like to disturb people, so I never knock on a door to say hello or anything. I just walk by, content to know they are happy and enjoying life.

And now, the ice on the lake is melting at last. Some nights I love to sit and watch it. Just listen to the ice slowly fading away. Yes, you can hear it if you listen closely.

It's just so beautiful there and I never want to leave, but you can't sit by a lake forever. So then I go back to the cottage and just rest quietly in the room I have always slept in. The place was old when I bought it, but I was the one who laid the stone-flagged floor in the hallway and redid the ceilings. I even got the well dug.

You know, I just wouldn't want to stay anywhere else. You can get attached to a place. And even though it's been over 150 years since I first moved in here, this is my home. I'm just so glad that the couple who bought the place some years ago don't mind me staying on. I know they love this place as much as I do.

And maybe, just maybe, once they pass over to my side, we'll all stay here together.

I'd love that.

Just a very quick short story that I wrote in about 20 minutes, simply because I love the topic and wanted to take part.

It's about our cottage in the country, which is very old. As far as we know, a former owner who passed away perhaps 7 decades ago was a stone mason. And sometimes, my wife and I just feel like he is still there. We can understand why, because this village is so quiet and peaceful.

Anyway, the story is fiction, but with a hint of reality.

Note: I used "former writer" in the title because I was a "writer" before I joined staff. But I'm not worried about any of that. Just wanted to share.

a reply to: JustMike

Ohh...heyyy...that was a surprise ending!!

I actually didn't notice that this was your entry into the current contest, and thought I was just settling in to read one of your magnificent stories!

You write so beautifully that I could have just kept going. (If I remember correctly, many people have been saying that about your writing!)
You know it's good when you're sorry that it's over, and you wanted to keep reading more.

S&F (& hugs to you and your lovely wife)
jacy

Nice one Mike. Good job.

And with that there are officially more entries than will fit on the front page without unpinning some of the stickies.

*here, step on my shoulders*

Just giving you a *lift* up the Recent page, so the others see your story.
(I notice it moves fast at this time of day)

a reply to: jacygirl
Thank you so much. I like to create little surprises.

This one had to be very short, because I could so easily have let it develop further so it would have wound up thousands of words longer.

Like, this man laid the granite paving slabs in the back yard, the little courtyard between our cottage and the three around it. The ones nearest the back door were under cover so they were ok, but the others were out in the open, and over many years they sunk down into the ground. When we were digging in the yard last summer, we found them. Some had sunk down so much they were lost to view a foot below the surface. And that probably took a hundred years.

He also made our granite fence posts (and most of the others in the village!), as well as the stone troughs in the back room where the cows and pigs lived in winter. The room has brick floors and arched ceilings and we'll be getting it restored to original because it has such an amazing atmosphere. Each trough was carved from a single block of granite, and there were three of them, about 4 to 5 feet long, a couple of feet wide and a good foot deep. They weigh hundreds of pounds each. Every block of stone had to be hauled from a quarry, then laboriously drilled out then chipped out and finished by hand. But that's the way they did things in those days. They made things to last lifetimes.

I would have liked to write about all of that and build up a feeling of a time gone by. To let people feel that ache. But it would have taken many hours and the clock was ticking (it's already after 9 pm here now), so I decided to just give a single snapshot, as it were.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus
Thank you also, A.M. I see that there are at least four entries that still need stickying and as you say, there isn't room on the front page.

I volunteer to be left til last. I really don't mind.

Oh I loved this! So beautifully written my friend! I knew I wouldn't be disappointed!!!!! Wonderful!

a reply to: JustMike

Your reply was beautiful to read.
Yes, it could get really long but would that be a bad thing?

I've written one story here before (not Shed) and then basically spun off it in another contest, but continued with the same characters.
If you have much that you could continue with this...why not put it out in sections? You wouldn't have to finish the entire thing, you could release what you write each time, and we could follow along?
(I think that would be do-able, lol)

Everything you described about the origins of The Cottage made me ache for such authenticity.
I have come to hate living in a concrete jungle surrounded by disposable everything.
So now you must continue because I'm already emotionally invested!

a reply to: JustMike

Hey JustMike,

Enjoyed the scene! Very nice!!
Old places do feel like they have wisps of past inhabitants at times...

- AB

a reply to: jacygirl
I will try to get back to this theme later.

Right now, I have two things I need to focus on. Getting our flat sorted out as we are moving out almost everything next Thurs to Sunday, and also continuing to work on Book II in the "Tales of the Goddess" series. So this is something I will have to come back to when time allows.

a reply to: JustMike

I understand that real life comes first, my friend.

I've also recently learned (from Shep) that some writers have an 'icy chip on their shoulder' that likes to leave a reader hanging and wanting more.

jacy

a reply to: JustMike
Mike this was a wonderful entry! I love seeing how some have been able to give this dark subject such happy themes.