Dream d3273-s: The Wheel at Its Work

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the mill race ran along the lower edge of the yard and the small wheel turned in the dark with a sound like steadied breathing.

The keeper stood at the bank with a long-handled rake and drew leaves from the race in slow arcs, setting each clot of wet matter on the grass beside the channel. The lamp at the corner of the millhouse made the water amber where it ran beneath the wheel, and the wheel moved in a rhythm that was less turning than continuing - a catch, a pour, a catch again.

Lano sat at the top of the bank and watched the rake pass through the current. Her ears moved once toward the sound of something releasing beneath the wheel. The water went on.

The surveyor had noted this place before in the account - I had seen the marks - but tonight the race read narrower than that first record suggested, not from any change but from the angle of the lamp and how the shadows filled the far edge. The channel showed its own depth only when the keeper drew a thick mass of oak leaves clear and the water quickened briefly and then settled back into its pace.

The clerk stood behind me with the ledger open. I did not speak. There was nothing to amend. The keeper's work was not addressed to the record; it was addressed to the wheel.

At the far end of the race, where the water rejoined the mill stream and spread, a length of moss lay along the stone lip undisturbed. The wheel passed over its own shadow with each turn. The sound of it was the same sound I had found recorded here before, and finding it again was like setting a hand on a warm surface and knowing the warmth was not new.

I watched until the keeper had gone twice along the bank. The lamp held. Lano did not leave her place on the rise. When the keeper paused to rest the rake and study the wheel, Lano turned her head one degree and then looked back at the water.

The place went on. Race running clear, wheel at its pace, moss along the sill staying where it was.

--- IMAGE PROMPT: pixel art a human figure at a mill race, A keeper clears leaves from the race so the small wheel keeps its pace., muted moss and umber, lamplight amber accents, 8-bit style

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