Poisoning The Well

POISONING THE WELL

It's a bundle, wrapped in a greyish-green corn husk, bound with black paracord. The ends of the cord are haphazardly knotted, and still frayed at the ends. The whole of it is about as long as your forearm, and just about the same thickness.

You place a hand on it, and are startled at its warmth. It's as if you placed your palm on the cheek of a child with the chicken pox. The skin, however, is that veiny, papery feeling of corn husk. Maybe like the shell of a beetle. Pausing for a moment, you ball your hand into a loose fist and rap gently on the bundle's surface. There is resistance, but eventually you would crack through the exterior. It seems rather fragile.

Growing bolder, you grasp it firmly. The warmth awakens your fingertips and you find that, to stay comfortable, you constantly switch the bundle back and forth between your hands. While doing this, you gather that nestled within are perhaps three or four roughly-spherical objects.

Your curiosity has been piqued. Looking round and seeing no one, you resolve to open it. The bundle is laid down with a thick -thump-, and you tug gingerly at the paracord. It resists, but with your persistence the cord is soon pried away from the bundle, left to the side in a tangled mess.

The leaves of the corn husk seem clasped around the bundle's contents like the bandaged hands of an injured and recovering fire dancer. As you lift a leaf, you find it gives more easily than you expected. More leaves lie underneath, and the heat intensifies. One last lay of the husk snaps away like the shell of an egg roll, and a wisp of smoke escapes. The bundle splits open in front of you, displaying four large hunks of smouldering coal. Packed between them are pads of steel wool, dully reflecting the occasional glow of the embers.

Now in contact with the air, the smoke from the charcoal briquettes thickens and sputters. You watch in wonder as the corn husk blackens and chars, streaks of the burn both following their shrinking veins and blazing new scorched trails across their surface.

A flash, and the bundle is now in flames.

You walk away.