Ah the first day of May. Usually I don’t like to start new things at the start of a new month as it feels a bit contrived, but this month I am actually starting a new project. I have been gathering pieces for a while but now is the time where I really start to work on it. So I am kind of pumped to start something new. It felt like I wrestled with that last manuscript for a really long time. But before the day’s work begins, there is the prompt. So let’s set those timers and kick May off right.
No clue where this is going, but I kind of like the image. Getting something working even though it isn’t a necessity just so you can check something off the to do list. Kinda fun.
Wednesday, May 1st: The fountain gurgled.
The fountain gurgled. It was an encouraging sign. Ian watched and waited. He stared at the pipe and saw a tribble of water come out of the bare pipe. ‘The water is running at least,’ he thought. ‘But it isn’t exactly a fountain.’
He decided to take it as a half full sign. ‘At least the water is running,’ he decided.
He turned the water off and reached for a stick. It was a relatively thin one, bendy and he hoped he would be able to wiggle it around in the pipe and clear a blockage. He stuck the stick in the pipe and indeed found that various dead leaves and other debris were clogging the pipe. He wiggled his stick around trying to loosen it. He fished out a wad of the half decayed leaves and his stick was able to wiggle a little more easily.
He took the stick out and dropped it to the side. He went back to the faucet knob designed to let the water loose. He turned it again. This time there were the gurgles as well as a bit of a rumbling. The pipe shook a little and then as though it was some sort of Roman Candle firework the pipe shot water up and out in proper fountain form.
It also shot out wads of half decayed matter. They were not the multicolored lights the firework would have produced and they smelled of damp and rot. ‘But if a fountain shot out balls of fire we would have a problem.’
With the pipes clear water shot in the air and began to fill the top basin. As he was just testing the system he hadn’t cleaned the fountain yet so there was a great deal of dirt and debris which took away from the glory of the fountain. ‘But the top basin is holding,’ he thought looking for the positive.
The top basin filled and the water spilled out over the scalloped edges to fall into the basin below. He watched it fill and waited to see if the mechanism inside was still working. He knew that once the fountain was filled the mechanism would make sure the water didn’t overflow the main basin or remain stagnant. It was supposed to recycle it keeping the fountain going without using excess water.
As he watched and waited he heard a groaning sound. He waited. The groaning stopped, the fountain shuttered. Ian stood by the turn off valve, but the mechanism kicked in at the last moment and there was no spill over, the water was pulled through as it was supposed to. Everything worked as it should. It would still need to be cleaned, but it was one thing off of his to do list.
“Yes,” he yelled triumphantly. He pumped his fist into the air and allowed himself a little dance of victory. “One thing off the list.”
The fact that his to do list was still a mile long was irrelevant. One item had now been checked off. ‘Sure it’s a fountain and not, like a bathroom,’ he thought. “But it still counts,” he added aloud.
Ten til Midnight 