PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook
The mill smelled of aged wood, grain and hessian, a rich tang of oil from the mechanism. Good smells.
As the cogs clunked and groaned, the millstones chafed, as the flour stiffened his hair and gritted his skin, he felt … clean. Finally clean after forty-six years.
He’d shed his old life almost completely. Even the broken nose and the webbing of scars could be talked away – a miller’s life was hard. Only the sailor’s gait – still rolling with the ocean – remained.
His heart beat to the rhythms of the mill … Until the past trudged with heavy boots to find him.
Written for Rochelle Wisoff-Field’s Friday Fictioneers. See the photo and write a tale of no more than 100 words. See here to join in and to read the other, wonderful stories.
What kind of life has my reformed sailor led, do you think? And what form does his past take, lumbering along the mill race to destroy the comfortable present? Any ideas? Do tell.
Word Shamble 
The inevitability of the ending was neatly slotted in. Nicely done.
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It’s those damn chickens – they do insist on coming back to roost, don’t they? 🙂 Thanks Sandra
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Expertly told, with a melancholy ending. You can’t escape your past. Nicely done.
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Thanks Iain. Yes, you’re right, your past is always with you, no matter how you try to shake it off. 🙂
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Gorgeous!
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Thanks Neil 🙂
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The way you right catches the sounds and sensations beautifully – the heavy boots of history, the gritty skin, it’s powerful and beautiful.
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Thank you so much! That’s really a very kind comment. That means a lot. 🙂
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My pleasure!
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🙂
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Great. Loved ‘scars could be talked away’
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Thank you Graham! Very lovely comment 🙂
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You took the photo challenge and ran with it. I love the way you contrasted land and sea. Heaviness and movement – I think that’s what I want to say.
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Land and sea, heaviness and movement are all themes here – he’s settled on land (immovable) but his gait secures him to his wandering past. Thanks so much – very much appreciated 🙂
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Really like the last line. Good piece.
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Thanks very much 🙂
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I do think he once was a buccaneer, a pirate with blood on his soles… actually I think I’ve heard that many millers had once been sailors…
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This pic has the feel of below decks to me too, so I can see a sailor being comfortable there. And I think you’re right – a lot of blood involved I’m sure. Thanks Bjorn
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Ship sails swapped for windmill sails? Ship’s decks exchanged for the mill’s floors? Shipmates now substituted with flour sacks? Perhaps a cheated colleague has discovered his bolthole because the clues are there …
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It does look below the deck of a ship, doesn’t it? Yes, definitely someone else of a seafaring nature, come to settle old scores perhaps. Thanks for reading Chris.
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Dear Lynn,
Interesting piece with strong descriptions. I like the questions you posed at the end. I’ve no answers but they are something for pondering. Good one.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Someone bad is coming, I’m sure of that. Nothing will be the same again. Thanks Rochelle 🙂
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What? No! You can’t leave us hanging like that! What happened?! Ok, I guess you can. Great story 😀
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Ah, the joy of flash fiction, eh? I think bad things are coming – violence undoubtedly – and an end to conteded milling. Thanks for reading 🙂
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Love the simple, eloquent pacing of this. The past walking in is perfect.
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Thanks Dawn. Really kind of you and thanks for reading 🙂
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Someone who just seems to love his work. Rightfully so, it seems. Cool sentence at the end, too.
Nice job, Lynn! It’s great.
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Thanks Kent! Yes, that peaceful existence is going to be turned on its head. You can’t leave all that violence behind.
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I see a press gang passing by, he is recognized, and taken back to be hanged as a mutineer
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Ooh, nice idea Michael. I think it could well be something along those lines … Thanks for reading 🙂
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Great job of grounding the scene in sensory details. I felt like I was there with him.
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Thank you Debra! I do love visiting the setting with the characters. I think you can convey a lot of story with place. Thanks so much for reading 🙂
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Great writing Lynn. I loved the past trudging with heavy boots. I bet he wasn’t completely surprised.
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I’m sure you’re right, Thom! Thanks so much for the kind comment 🙂
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When you first talk about this guy repairing and cleaning up this mill, it feels like its a new hope for this old sailor. But your last line is amazing. Very compelling as I instantly want to know what past this guy is running from, and whose boots?
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Sadly, no matter how keen the miller is to leave his past behind I don;t think he’ll be able to. It’s going to be messy, that I’m sure 🙂
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What a wonderful read, Lynn. The descriptions are heavenly. I so hoped he had found peace at last but nay, ’twas not to be… you can only “hide” so long…
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Very true. The past will come to find you in the end, Thank you so much for the kind comment Dale 🙂
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This is so beautifully done Lynn
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Thank you so much Louise for the lovely comment 🙂
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Wonderful immersive description of the smells and sensations and emotions of a man starting a new life. Funny how our lives are defined so much by such things — smells and sounds and textures. I keep trying to imagine what “past” is arriving in the end. The problem is that I so want the “heavy boots” to be metaphorical, yet all the characters I see showing up are burly men, either another sailor or some law-man. 😉 So twisting it as far in the other direction as I can… it could be his angry long-lost daughter, who he abandoned because of he’s wracked with guilt about what happened to her mother and who he thinks is better off without him.
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That’s a good call – even women wore heavy boots in those days! I kept thinking of a burly, scarred bruiser too. But perhaps the past has a more shapely form … Thanks for dwelling on it so deeply Joy
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I like how you describe his past as being in his sailor’s gait. It’s interesting because, like a fingerprint, the way we walk is inclusive to each of us and like our past, is always there.
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You’re right Dawn He’s tried to shake off the past, but can’t quite leave that bit behind. Now the rest is coming back to haunt him … Thanks so much for reading and commenting
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This is so well constructed, from the use of senses to describe the present, to the subtle way you tell of his sailor past. Or hint at it anyway – what made him move on? What is his past? And how does it catch up with him? So many questions, a sign of good writing.
My favourite this week I think
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Thank youso much! What a great comment. I think his past certainly involved violence – perhaps someone is seeking their own revenge on his past misdemeanors … Thanks for reading 🙂
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Superb.
As good as anything I have seen from you, and you know how highly I rate your work.
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Ah, thank you so much, C – such a lovely comment. I do enjoy a little foray into the past – the historian in me having fun 🙂
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