THIRTY-NINE STEPS - a 100 word story for Friday Fictioneers

THIRTY-NINE STEPS

The villagers called Seth simple, but his mother was a witch – if he wanted to build his staircase, no-one was brave enough to stop him.

When he carried log after log up the hill they mocked. “Those steps are far too big!” and “Who wants to go up there?”

Seth simply smiled. “You’ll thank me one day.”

Then the rain came – first a downpour then a deluge. The stream became a river, Old Jake’s cottage washed away, and the villagers retreated uphill.

Each over-large step held a family and, until the flood receded, there they stayed - scared and soggy but safe.

.........................................................................................

There are a few people in parts of England who would have welcomed some steps to higher ground a few days ago, but the sun has now returned. Thanks as always to Rochelle for hosting Friday Fictioneers on https://rochellewisoff.com/  and to Karen Rawson for the photo prompt.

Her photograph also reminds me of a trip many years ago to the Flinders Ranges in South Australia, where heavy rain turned a trickling stream into a raging torrent within half an hour, underlining the valuable lesson - don't mess with Nature.

I am feeling happy this week, as I and my novel A Volcanic Race have been given a lovely write-up on the Subscriber Spotlight pages of Writing Magazine's June issue. The article has already nudged one friend into buying a copy - click on the image at the top of this page if you would like to follow suit.

I'M A WINNER!

Modesty is not the name of the game when you're a writer - every small triumph must be shouted to the skies.
This is mine . . .
I came first in a poetry competition in Writing Magazine!!

The brief was to write an eight line poem using foreign phrases that are in common use in the English language. It was great fun to write, and even better that it won.

See my "Verses" page on the right of this blog to read it - and some of my others.

SHORT-LISTED!

How exciting! My Writing Magazine arrived today and in the Competition Special I discovered that I was short-listed in a short story competition.
I entered it last year as a 2011 New Subscriber, and it was so long ago that I had forgotten. I had to look at my list of competitions I've entered even to remember which story it was!

If you want to read it, look on my Short Stories Page for "COMMUNITY SERVICE" - the story will explain this photo.

TIDY MIND?

I have had such a productive day you wouldn't believe!
This isn't my actual desk but it bears a strong resemblance to how it has looked for weeks.
I spent this afternoon getting it sorted. First I went through nine months-worth of Writing Magazines and cut out all the articles I wanted to keep. Then I realized I didn't have enough file space, so I re-organized my souvenir files. This left me with two plastic-sleeve-page folders for said articles and a fat folder of souvenirs sorted into envelopes marked with such enticing titles as "Old school reports" and "One-act plays" - don't ask!

Now my "office" is pristine - well, apart from the articles I want to read now rather than keep for posterity, and the high-lighted torn-out bits about agents who might be worth approaching, and the list of Rod McKuen books I want to look up on Amazon, and the snippets that might put some life into my Writers' Circle.

I did try to get some writing done this morning, honest injun!

I went down to Los Abrigos and sat in a cafe with a short story that needs a lot of work, but I picked an English cafe, and there were English people there, talking in English. Far too distracting. And their coffee machine had broken so I paid 1.50 for a cup of tea I could have made at home. So I drove back, and on the way I took a side road I have been meaning to investigate for years. To a place called Atogo.
It was a good job I was driving carefully - any faster than 30K and I'd have been off the edge of that bend and 50 metres down in a barranco! After that the road wound like an un-ravelled jumper, and there was no sign of civilisation - I could have been anywhere. I thought Atogo would be small, sandwiched as it must be between Los Abrigos and the motorway, but when I eventually found it there was even a football ground. Maybe 20 houses in all, but they still had a football ground - trust the Canarians to get their priorities right!

THE OLD FLAT IRON

In a recent issue of Writing Magazine I read that one way to make money from writing is by writing letters - in particular, letters to magazines. Well, recently I was given a pile of old magazines and, purely in the interest of research, I read some of them.
Even in the women's magazines that I used to buy, the letters were all about reality shows and the love lives of TV personalities. There were photos of hen parties and/or animals in silly costumes, and not one letter worth reading, so I won't be making my fortune that way.

But in a sixty-year-old cook-book I found a newspaper cutting of a letter sent to the Times that did make me chuckle.

I can't decide if it was written tongue-in-cheek or not - what do you think?

The old flat-iron

I sympathise with your correspondent who wrote about the flat-iron cure (this page last week).  In case he gets a return of his lumbar pains, he may like to know that a really hot iron is not necessary.

  What is needed is an iron that feels comfortably warming through a blanket, and for the operator to wriggle the point of the iron well into the muscles.

  This, if done for about 10 minutes, will be found to produce a most comforting and lasting cure.

From Lord Sandhurst, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

WALKING & WRITING

WALKING

Ten years ago I set off from the top of Adeje town, with my daughter, son-in-law, a friend and a dog, to WALK the Barranco del Infierno = “Hell’s Ravine”. There was a track of sorts, rarely level and very narrow, and there weren’t many places at which we felt safe meeting other WALKERS. Some of the steeper stretches had knee-high steps rough-hewn out of the rock – in other places we were scrambling on hands a knees. Each time we rounded a bulge in the mountainside we could see the track WINDING ahead endlessly, and the sea behind us vanished. Despite the other people on the track, we felt like genuine explorers. There was no shelter from the fierce sun, but WE WERE WEARING hats and sensible shoes and carried WATER. We saw many painfully-pink tourists in flip-flops who hadn’t been that sensible.

Gradually, as we climbed higher and further inland, the reason we had come on this comparatively arduous trek became apparent. A stream trickled over rocks by our feet, ferns and shrubs grew beside the cacti, and trees reminiscent of those in an English WOODLAND shaded us. WITH renewed energy we walked through this WONDERLAND to reach our destination – a small clearing at the foot of a vertical cliff down which a WATERFALL fell into a black pool. This waterfall only flows when there is snow-melt or rain-water from the Adeje mountains, but on an island with no natural springs it was a treat just to sit on the small beach and listen to the splash.

We paddled, of course, and dipped our hands and faces in the icy pool, and then started back. The 90 minute return journey took us from cool woodland to baked goat-track again, and by the time we reached the car I was knackered, but it had been WORTH it.

Six months later I had a hip replacement, and I haven’t done anything like that since, but there are many lovely walks to be had on Tenerife. If you’re fit and WANT to tackle any of them as a change from the beach, look on the relevant WEBSITES -  Try  http://walkingtenerife.blogspot.com.es

The free paper Island Connections reported this week that nine Cabildos (Councils) in the south of Tenerife are planning to open a website in the next few months featuring walks, among other rural tourism options. You will be able to download GPS co-ordinates too – technology goes trecking!

The following advice comes from Maurice, an online Tenerife friend who is miles fitter than I am!

 I suppose you could say, "walks are what you do daily but serious walks are actually Treks.” 
If you look at www.webtenerife.co.uk/activities/amongst-nature/footpaths/ you will find a list of good treks & descriptions etc.
Not too many people know that the Teide National Parks Authority do 'guided' walks - mostly in Spanish - and they also have easy walking maps (graded walks) for the National Park. They are written in Spanish, German & English and are available from The Park information centres at El Portillo, the Parador & Boca de Tauce.

 There are quite a few walking groups based in Puerto de la Cruz, Los Gigantes, Los Cristianos, Teno & Anaga. Some are 'private' and some are small businesses (usually self employed guides). Various nationalities are involved but German, Spanish & English prevail.

WATER . Regular followers of my blog will have noticed how often I mention water – or rather, the lack of it. We manage remarkably well for an island with no rivers, and this is due mainly to geology but also to hard work. Rainwater and snow-melt from the mountain filter down through the permeable volcanic rock to 1000 underground galleries and 500 WELLS. The pine trees in the forest contribute by condensing moisture from the clouds – the needles on Canarian pines point the ‘WRONG WAY’ to ensure the water doesn’t evaporate. 50% of the water collected goes on agriculture and the rest must supply the needs of 2 million residents and 10 million annual visitors. So please don’t WASTE IT! (The photo below is one of the water galleries, which can be full of toxic gas, so don't walk into any!)

WRITING It wasn’t until I had lived here for a few years that I considered writing a novel. I have always loved WORDS, so perhaps it was bound to happen sooner or later, and retirement gave me the leisure to try. Also when I told my younger son I was bored, he told me to write a book!

I find Spanish cafeterias strangely restful places to write, because although I can speak Spanish it isn’t my native tongue, and it’s easy to filter out the background noise. When I am finally published I shall have to get my book translated into Spanish for the cafeteria owners who bring me coffee and turn the light on so that I can write.

I belong to a tiny writers’ circle here, but I am too far away to attend many writing events in the UK. I took out a subscription to the Writing Magazine last year, and its online forum Talkback helps to lift the feeling of isolation from the English literary WORLD – I WISH I had started reading it years ago!