Picture Prompt #3
We have the prettiest boating lake in our town with a gorgeous water wheel. It no longer works, but look how beautifully it is situated.
On Friday, I was a parent volunteer on my daughter’s school trip to the lake. All the kids were fascinated by the wheel, even though my daughter thought it was a giant hamster wheel.
I chose this picture of the wheel without any niggling ideas for narrative. I want this exercise to be organic and spur of the moment, so let’s hit the ground running…
The Biome
Harry stomps into the house, wiping muddy hands on the tea towel. “The bloody wheel has stopped working again.”
“I told you that every time you do a bodge repair on it, it could be the last. You need to apply for a new one. If the city wants the crops, then the city can provide a new wheel.” I’m sick of having the same conversation with him. Every day something goes wrong with it. Every day we’re out fixing it up, sweating blood to keep it going. It helps with crop irrigation, so it is vital. Our farm biome is one of four remaining in a two hundred mile radius.
“We must do our bit. If we can save the city resources and money, then so be it.”
“They have four farm biomes to feed at least four thousand people. That means that our little farm feeds one thousand of them. We need a new wheel. The oxygen biomes have new wheels every two years.”
Harry sighs, rubbing at his tired eyes. “The oxygen farms are irrigating trees. The wheels work doubly hard, and what good are our crops if we run out of oxygen.”
“And what good is oxygen if we starve to death anyway,” I retort.
Harry smiles and kisses my forehead. “You are impossible sometimes, Kensa. I do all of this for you, you know that right?”
I pull on my work boots and tie my hair out of my face. “Of course I do. Come on, let’s go fix the damn wheel.”
Short, but sweet. I am continually leaning toward either science fiction or dystopian stories at the moment. This one has been no different. I have a spark of inspiration for a much longer story, possibly a novel… only time will tell.
Written works are the property of K.J.Chapman
The image is the property of K.J.Chapman
