Free Write Out of Time

 

After several weeks of doing a Free Write from two different countries, Julia, Rick, (Sherlock) and I were sitting outside of our village boulangerie. Before we started writing, we caught up on our lives while devouring tea (me), croissant (Rick and Sherlock), espresso (Julia), juice (Rick) and the bakery's special cinnamon roll (me). 

Julia picked the prompt, the wooden barn at the end of the plaza (see photo).

D-L's Free Write

The wooden barn had been built by Joseph Mentzer, a Swiss Farmer, before his marriage to Maria at the turn of the century -- 19th to 20th century, that is.

He also built a house next to it and long-since gone. They had raised their two sons, Pierre and Wilhelm, and their two daughters, Jeanne and Antoinette there. They also raised sheep and chickens.

Maria spun the sheep's wool and made rugs which she sold.

Pierre took over the farm, and later so did his son.

In the 70s, apartments appeared on the land the family had sold. 

A bakery opened in 2010.

The current owner of the house and barn was from Brazil. He worked in nearby Geneva in finance and knew nothing about the previous owners.

All he cared about was would the satellite dish beam the signals he needed for his electronics into the house. He worried that the bike rack used by the apartment residents would interfer with his Mercedes, Porsche and Ferrari  as they went in and out of the barn, which he used as a garage.

Rick's Free Write Centreville

Centuries after the Roman village had been buried by encroaching nature, this wooden farmhouse became the first dwelling in Vandœuvres, a tiny commune on a hillside near the cosmopolitan city of Geneva.

Farmer Jacques was willing to deal with the slopes of the fields and the huge rocks that others wouldn’t, so he got the land on the cheap.

When he died, sometime in the late 19th century, his estate was bequeathed to the commune and became the grounds for a new mairie, a school, a boulangerie, and a pizza restaurant. Now very upscale.

A century later the Roman ruins were discovered, and excavated, at least partially, because the stone church stood over a large portion, and the elders were not willing to move the eglise so the ruins could become a tourist attraction. Instead, having mapped the building outlines, they filled in the ruins again and created a virtual exhibit on a website, which no one ever watches, except maybe me.

A century in the future, they’ll probably excavate the ruins of the farmhouse, and wonder what those metal contraptions with the wheels were, strapped to metal posts, next to massive holes in the ground which still stank of discarded food.

Julia's FreeWrite Out of Time

Sitting on an outside terrace – finally neither too wet, nor too hot – he enjoyed his 15-minute break sipping a fresh espresso.

Within his immediate eyesight, he realized that there was a total disjunction of items and buildings: here an old stone house, with satellite dishes, there an old wooden structure, below both not only a bicycle rack but also the most modern of trash collection bins.

What would he find in the old cement structure? An elderly couple? Nope, as he was watching the door opened and out strode the most modern of businessmen.  

In the wooden building? Animals, a storage dump? Through a broken window he peeked only to see stacks of perfectly modern safe boxes. Now who would think of robbing in such a place?

No more time for inquiries as he needed to get back to his job as a nuclear researcher in CERN – the European Nuclear Research center outside Geneva.

Julia has written and taken photos all her life and loves syncing up with friends.  Her blog can be found: https://viewsfromeverywhere.blogspot.com/ 

Rick is an aviation journalist and publisher of www.aviationvoices. com

 

D-L has had 17 fiction and non fiction books published. Check out her website at: https://dlnelsonwriter.com