Wednesday's Words on a Friday

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles.

The aim of the words is to encourage us to write, a story, a poem, whatever comes to mind.
If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along and read it.

This month the words are supplied by ME and can be found right here.

This week's words are:

1. caldera

2. Merlin

3. unicorn

4. crossbow

5. thoughtless

6. stunning

and/or:

1. glinting

2. crop

3. valley

4. particular

5. deliberately

6. cave

Here is my story:

Detective Inspector Stanley Grace and Irene Fargo were just finishing breakfast when the morning receptionist, Vicky Applebee, came to tell them the mail truck was waiting for them by the Post Office. The driver introduced himself, "Charles, but everyone calls me Chaz," and saw they were safely buckled in before starting the motor. “Goin’ up to see Bernice, I hear,” he said. “She writes a letter every year to you people, brightens up the mailbags a bit, those pink envelopes. Won’t take long to get up there, not much mail to deliver either, no one between town and Bernice and only one small package for the Browns on the other side of the valley.”

“Have you been delivering the mail for long?” asked Irene. “Got the job right out of high school,” said Chaz proudly. “Arthur used to do it, and he knew I know the country here like the back of my hand, so he handed the truck keys over as soon as I had my licence. Now he just does the run when I have to be somewhere else, he grows the vegetables in the yard out back of the Hotel now.  He’s got a bonza crop of pumpkins going, there’ll be pumpkin soup on the menu soon.”

“What can you tell me about this mountain lake area then?” asked Stanley. “Well it’s a series of valleys, the deepest one back beyond Bernice’s is actually a caldera, that’s the crater of an extinct volcano, and it’s got a lot of growth in it now, trees and grasses and such, the centre is filled with water, no one knows how deep it is, and there’s a stream comes from that, springs out about halfway down the outside of the mountain and runs past Bernice’s field, she gets her water from that since her well ran dry a couple of years back. The view across that lake is stunning around about sunset with the light glinting off the water and the shadows around the edges making a good contrast.”

“Sounds like you’re a bit of an artist,” said Irene, “your description paints a good picture” Chaz said, “I do like to paint, but don’t do it so much anymore. I used to sit up in one of the caves and paint what I saw, then I got the mail run and now I spend a few days each month in the city, I’m doing a course in mechanics, so I can keep this old truck running like new. Wouldn’t be too good if I got a problem while away from town and no way to get help, so I carry the manual and some tools with me all the time too.”

“Very sensible of you,” said Stanley. “How much further to Bernice’s?” “Just about there,” said Chaz. “I heard you’ve been there before, but I didn’t take you, I’d remember that. Anyway, the hut looks a bit different now, the rainbow’s got patches where the paint don’t match. When it cracks or peels or something, old Bernice just slaps on a bit of new, but she ain’t particular about matching the colours anymore.”

The truck puttered around a wide bend and there was Bernice’s hut, the pastel rainbows now patched with differing shades of greens and browns, almost as if she was deliberately trying to camouflage it. Given the urgency of her latest communication, perhaps she was. “We’ll have to be a bit delicate,” said Stanley, “she might be a bit spooked with whoever it is she’s seen, we should approach slowly, give her a chance to hear us and look out the window.” ‘Sounds like a plan, boss,” said Irene, as they both got out of the truck and waved goodbye to Chaz making his way further up the track. They stood for a minute appreciating the sights, then made sure to walk on the gravel path so Bernice could hear them coming.

“Should we have brought her a little something from town? asked Irene. ‘She might think we’re a bit thoughtless coming to visit without something. I remember every time my mum visited the older women she would always take a cake or packet of biscuits for when they had cups of tea.”  “We never did before, so I think we’ll be okay on that score,” said Stanley. “Bang that knocker a couple of times, she’s had long enough to see that it’s us, she’s sharp enough to remember us still, I reckon.”

Bernice answered the door right away, “I seen you through the window,” she said, “knew you from the last few times, come on in, I’ll put the kettle on. I bought a fruit cake in town the other day, we can have some of that.” She put down the large book she had been reading, it was labelled mythology on the spine and Irene saw it was opened at a picture of the legendary Merlin with King Arthur and a few of the Knights. All held crossbows, but none were aimed at the unicorn they were watching as it drank from a stream.