The Mill below Owl castle E-Book

Z.J. Galos

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 399

Beschreibung

The Mill below Owl castle had been a milestone in the life of first cousins, Teeb and Zol. Its giant waterwheel is a focal point of a wondrous machine that drives the millstones in the adjacent building with its dark and magical atmosphere, where the myth of Ram, the giant, lies buried. This is the place which fascinates Zol and Annie, who share besides the gory legend - as they experience through their games of hide-and-seek - the excitement of their waking hearts with Annie's curiosity for intimacy, as her older brother Luke had boasted to know about. Teeb, on the other hand, will meet his friend Luke for fishing. At their innocent age, Zol experiences Annie not only as his mentor for sensuous games but a close friend with a growing bond of keeping their intimacies a sworn secret. With Zol Annie will meet Uncle Frank, who will entertain them with stories about the Red Baron and Ram the giant. Invited to the home of Aunt Lil, Uncle Frank's vivacious girlfriend, Annie and Zol experience the excitement of their first physical love, having been stimulated to do as Aunt and Uncle were doing. When Zol meets Alena in a chat room on the Internet, he recalls his time with Annie and he meets her during his summer holidays returning from boarding school. Alternating between Annie, his former love and Alena, his present one, he feels inspired for his artistic endeavors. Annie will be marrying a businessman, and Zol will meet Alena in real life and fall head over heels in love with her. He has left behind his teenage-loves ad his sexual adventures with Maly, a mature woman, who had taught him all about loving a woman, so he would overcome the sexual advances of Gill, seducer of boarding schoolboys. Zol having advanced to Zed, experiences his great love with Alena, embodying all his previous loves. Following his mother's wishes, he enters his first semester at the Technical University in Vienna, studying architecture, while with his friends he visits workshops for art. Will he meet Annie again? Will Alena, the woman with the greatest influence on his best years with physical love, endure with him all ups and downs during his adventurous life in Africa?

Leseprobe

“Sex is one of the nine reasons for reincarnation.-The other eight are unimportant.”

Henry Miller.

“You don’t find love, it finds you. It’s got a little bit to do with destiny, fate, and what’s written in the stars.”

Anaïs Nin

Contents

Foreword

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

FOREWORD

Already, when he was a kid, his uncle took his hand and walked with him through the narrow road that snaked along the mysterious brook overgrown with bushy grass at its uneven edges, where he pointed out to him the fish which had returned since the war years of the Great War, when fighting had taken place with German and Russian troops. Fortunately there wasn’t a considerable damage to buildings, and his uncle wanted to see the old mill, where the brook was still dammed-up, and young men were supposed to catch fish there, as always.

Zol liked to walk with his uncle, who was a gifted storyteller ad he also wrote poetry. He talked with his specific clear articulated voice and a soft tone that reared Zol’s interest.

“Now, for me this walk means a lot, as I walk with the son of my kid-brother, Laddy, who was reported missing at the Eastern warfront.” He rasped. “But let’s talk about pleasant memories rather. Laddy and I grew up along these abundant green on each side of the brook, where we played our games and met with our girlfriends for a walk. Now, the old mill was our assembly point and from there we roamed through the parklands of Owl Castle. I guess we challenged our bravery to run into the ‘Red Baron’ chased by the giant ‘Ram’. Zol was curious about the Red Baron, but Uncle Frank pointed at the emerging old mill. “Look Zol, how picturesque it sits among the willows.”

“But what about the ‘Red Baron?’ Zol wanted to know.

“Now let’s take a break here and sit for a while, where we used to sit with your Dad,” he said and a sad expression tainted his face and he spoke suddenly with a low voice. “One day I will tell you the story of the Red Baron. For now let’s enjoy this beautiful spring afternoon.”

They continued their walk passed the big water wheel towards the trickle of water that overflowed from the dam and splashed down the paddles of the wheel to the bottom of the huge wheel and continued to flow south.

On the top of the road Uncle Frank paused and talked about the original old village that had started in the vicinity of Owl Castle. Next to a willow they sat on a bench. While Uncle Frank intonated a folk song whenever he was in a pensive mood, he soon relaxed ad drifted off. He woke to the splashing sound of Zol shooting flat pebbles on the surface of the dammed up waters. “Be careful Zol that you don’t fall in…” he mumbled, but admired Zol’s skills and counted the jumps: “1, 2, 3, 4…7! Excellent Zol, but let’s now walk back. Grandma has baked our favourite walnut-cake.” A woman appeared at the window of the annexed building to the waterwheel and Uncle Frank greeted her. She responded with a smile. “It’s Mrs. Mol,” he said, “the wife of the owner.”

Every year Zol returned to the same spot and remembered the walk with his uncle. And one summer he would meet his cousin Teeb, Uncle Frank’s son and his friend Kurt. But his greatest surprise yet was to come.

1

This millstone of an unfulfilled quest to find something in life greater than just the pursuance of a career, maybe to become someone who found himself completely, an artist whose greatest art lay inside his innermost being that he could find access to, maybe something greater than life, the pureness of emotions that could be expressed in a way nobody had done yet in the same way, something sexually out-of-the-ordinary, an eroticism that was re-defined through the arts with such intensity that it would catch the observer with a surprise, a shortened breath, or with a pause of his heartbeat.

Looking for the first time at a Rodin sculpture that expresses in its sensual flow of bodylines the love of Mary Magdalene and Jesus, whose stirring eroticism of his work would make him gasp, as if he would have at this moment felt his own fellatio by his love. That’s when he felt a pang in his heart and some emotions that were buried deep in this stream of his fantasy and of desires that were standing still like a dammed-up pond, whose overflow was moving ever so slightly toward the giant water wheel whose thick, moss covered dark wooden blades were still splattered by the cascading waters from this stream.

Set back in his mind of sudden recalled memories, this stillness and the power of the deep waters were stirring him as he closed his eyes. Childhood experiences and Rodin’s sculpture with the sensual theme became amalgamated into a picture he was keen to memorize and to paint, even if it were with mere everyday words. He remembered the details sharp and clear as if his memory would reprint this picture with all the subtlety of shades and shadows creating a realistic image like an artistic photograph he recalled to have seen in his treasured H. Cartier-Bresson publication.

He was drawn to the water wheel of this mill and the eerie atmosphere that was created through the darkness surrounding the place like an image out of his dreams. The huge beech trees and the giant chestnuts on the other side of the narrow road that passed the mill, stood out like giant guardian apparitions of his childhood figures in his mind, and would recall different moods in him, due to the time of day and the seasons. They fought battles with their arm-like branches that fended against the darkest storms and gusts of intruding winds. In the spring mornings, with the exuberance of flowers and the emerging freshness of the green leaves, they appeared like good guardian angels that have brought about the joys of warmer days and the sparkling on the waters that showed life reflected with an occasional jump of a rainbow trout that caught in skillful surfacing a tardy buzzing and low flying insect.

The change of atmosphere in the awakening of an early summer air, a buzz and business of bees and insects. Closing his eyes he thought of a girl he saw in the shop of his mother one day and he observed her graceful moves, but most of all her dark brown eyes were like tinted mirrors reflecting her mysterious inside, her dark brunette hair was loose and curly and she touched him with her aura of femininity that went further than her childlike features. She had small breast already that shaped through her blouse when she moved, she had the most slender legs he observed that made her taller as she was and due to wearing a short skirt. He watched her intently, and as she dropped some coins that fell out of her purse, he came immediately to her aide. Crouching down his forehead touched her loose hair strands that caused a sensational feeling in him, and as she moved at the same time they nearly collided with their heads. She smiled and thanked him and he could smell her scent as he remained close to her face. She too remained close to his face, for what seemed to him for quite a while, as they placed their fingers together on the last coin. The touch of her fingers electrified him and surprised, he would move first. He stood up, having been stirred by this first intimacy, and he handed her the coins into her open palm that felt warm and soft and made him enjoy touching her. She thanked him again expressing her heartfelt smile that he tried to capture. It imprinted into his mind as he absorbed her charms, and the shine in her dark eyes sparkled at him. Small flames ghosted across them that felt as if he would look into her soul. He saw her naked image, blushed and felt silly. As more he suppressed these feelings the deeper his cheeks began to burn, as if those flames in her eyes had singed his skin and set his face alight. Slowly he composed himself and coming back to his normal self, he said good-bye to her and departed as fast as he could to the back of the shop, entered the washroom, and doused his face with cold water, repeatedly.

His mother talked to him later as he had surpassed the initial effects of the inner turmoil this girl had caused in his quiet world of growing up. “Has Annie confused you so much? You must like her, Zoly.” He did not look at his mother but rather through the open shop’s door. “Well, I think she is nice,” is all he could say.

The afternoons were quiet and languid and he passed the place of the Mill often from a close distance, crossing over the wooden bridge that connected the eastern to the western side of the village. It stretched along the gentle winding river that was marked by the dense lining of willow trees along the way passing smallholdings, placed in narrow perpendicular strips, along its natural embankments, on either side.

2

The old mill, as it was called and even forgotten in time, as its grounds were acquired for a new development by a local real estate company, who applied to officially declare the buildings as derelict and superfluous. Yet, the place still had a magic about it that drew him every time into its dark beauty of a partly hidden siting. Left in the quiet area of ‘Owl Castle’, where modern development had abandoned the area, it created part of a green belt and potential recreational area around Owl Castle, but the days of the old mill had been numbered.

As a growing kid, he had enjoyed a good view of the mill, as he walked over the bridge across the stream, the same route every day, approaching his mother's needlework and haberdashery shop. Just a stone throw from there in the opposite direction, the house of his grandmother was situated on a side road parallel to the regulated brook. It was a small house that still had some outbuildings: a barn, a cowshed and a chicken house. Behind the outbuildings a tiny path led down to the embankment of the brook that flowed southwards toward the next village. This area became a playground for kids and cats, between small dams, which had been erected along its way to stop the rapids that formed on longer straight runs. It served as a natural background for the games of the kids crossing the brook by skillful balancing on top of rocks, without falling into the shallow torrents.

The mill that was sited two stories below the dammed up stream, used the power of the dammed up water that flowed over huge dark wooden paddles of the Waterwheel. It had its magic attraction with its idyllic quaintness and its history related to owl castle that nestled on a mound just uphill and westward of it. The huge stonewall pillars of the entrance, bending over from the ravages of frost and humidity were posted off the gravel road that ran up from the mill, marking the open entrance to Baron Rhonczy's estate. Children were not allowed to play inside the huge gardens beckoning to be discovered through the permanently open access gate. Many kids climbed the thick stone wall, where they would not be discovered, due to the undulations along the hill, called the ‘Baron’s Wall'. The estate did not enclose a Castle, it was merely a chateau, which though looked like a castle due to its construction. However, as the name had been translated from Hungarian, as ‘Castle of owls’, had been named Owl Castle. The family of Rhonczy had been successful in defending the area against the invading Turks and thus earned land and castle to their Title. The estate enclosed the most magnificent species of fir, beech trees and old chestnuts. In the midst of the gardens, on a huge opening stood a giant oak tree, the master of gardens and watchful ancestor of all the trees and the huge Baronial estate. It demarcated the edge of the terrace that lay adjacent to the main arched entrance into the castle.

There was much to be explored around the mysterious, forbidden grounds. And during the summer holidays many days were spent with observations of the area left to its natural wild growth. The younger kids chasing behind the elder boys who were daring and explored the spooky castle, repeating stories that had been told by their older brothers about the Baron’s son, who had been killed in a hunting accident. At full moon, he could be seen roaming the place all night in his hunting outfit, with his rifle and his horn chasing behind the deer that was too elusive to be killed. One boy said that he had heard a shot being fired one night during the holidays. “The full August moon is the night, when he was killed,” The boy reminded his younger followers. The kids ran down the hills, shouting for the spooky Baron, imitating the sound of deer and imagining to be shot at when twilight seamlessly turned into dusk. But no kids were allowed to be near the place, when dusk began to settle and dark shadows enclosed the castle in midst the tall and overgrown trees.

Zol rather spent time at the banks of the dammed waters at a sidearm of the stream that offered him a beautiful tranquil setting, where he could sit and dream. He had no desire to explore the dark rooms of the abandoned castle where the mad Baron could at any moment pounce unexpectedly on him and he imagined that he would be frightened to death by his appearance. His bloodied face a nightmarish picture, shot at by his fellow hunters, who mistook him for a giant wild boar as he chased a young deer in a crouched position through the dense bush. He had lost his familiar hat in the cause of his excited hunt that took him into the direction of the advancing deer, with his bushy reddish-brown hair standing up on his head.

For Zol the tranquil waters with the jumping trout were such fun to watch and the sounds of the falling waters onto the giant paddle were music that made his thoughts drift into another world of imaginary characters he depicted in his drawings, he had to produce for the art class at school. This inert quiet beauty brought forward an atmosphere that lay enclosed in the natural realm of this haunted, secluded spot, evoking feelings of nakedness and the stroking of a woman's hand that touched his hair and drew him into her arms. A dark, pretty and racy woman, who was embracing him and drawing him into her magical world of erotic pleasures she would induce in his deep inside. He could smell her scent of mossy humidity, with the addition of a sweet taint of narcissus, an intoxicating mixture of scents that roused his senses. Whenever he sat down to contemplate and imagine the dark racy girl, whose home was in the annexed part of the mill, he felt the sensation her hair had caused him as he bent down to pick up the coins she had dropped and their faces had been so close. This closeness became his image of wanting to be near her again.

He waited for her to emerge and notice him, so he could wave his arms at her, greet her and maybe make friends with her. Whenever he stopped, passing on his way to a friend or an errand for his mother, he would be sitting down for a while on the spot he choose, from where he could see her playing in the backyard of the house annexed to the mill. She noticed his presence at times and then engaged in some exhilarated games of chasing her kid sister or brother and he could see her long legs ending in her short skirt that showed the delta of her white panties every time she climbed the steps of the house that connected to the mill and then as she slid down the handrail with her bums her skirt flowing up to her chest exposing her tiny panties that he could watch for a long time and as more often she slid down the rail to the floor below the more he felt his arousal growing. When a woman called out “Annie get in here”, she disappeared into the house, casting another look at him, before she closed the door, her dark pigtails showing blue bows, she suddenly turned her head around in the door opening and smiled at him, while he waved his hand at her and she closed the door. For a while he sat on the banks of the dam watching the cascading waters falling onto the paddle that did not move, but he believed that one day the water would be turning the wheel and he was to witness this event at first hand. But how often he returned and gazed at Annie's blown skirts and the wheel, it was just the same every time. Annie was called in by her mother and the waterwheel never turned. The mighty wooden wheel was frozen in time and he connected it with the story of the killed young Baron, and it all spun to a story of interrelated incidents that seem to be the key to the understanding of the mystery about the mill that was interlinked through history with owl castle. He wanted to explore the wondrous place, without telling his older cousin, Teeb, about his observations and the secret of his first sweetheart, he considered to be Annie of the mill.

3

Then the springtime rains started to come down, there was an additional inflow of water overnight. The dam was overflowing and the waterfall increased to a strong cascade that tumbled down into its basin at the bottom with the sound of siren’s voices that he could already hear from a fair distance. He knew then that a flooding was coming swelling the stream and he joined his cousin Teeb and his friend Luke from the mill to explore the unusual sounds and check-out the damage the torrents would have caused.

Yet, this time they entered the mill. They played games of Indians and Cowboys, rushing from one room to the other and climbing steps and viewing the different places of an area that was stifled with the smell of rotten leaves and humidity. When he returned all children were coming together and Annie was there as well and they all greeted each other, extending hands. It was the first time he touched her hand fully and it felt warm and soft in his and he did not want to let go of it. She did not withdraw her hand either and the children arranged a game of hide and seek.

When it was Annie’s turn, he whispered into her ear that he would hide behind the outbuilding's last projection that was closest to the dam. She was finding him sitting on a plank and as she came towards him his heart was beating loud. She had an oval face with dark brown eyes that were warm with an inquiring curiousness and as she sat close sensing his heated presence, she smiled and touched him. Then she suddenly kissed him on his cheek and ran off, before he could respond, a warm welling rushing across his body. He touched his cheek that felt to him like fire and he thought he'd rather wait for a while until it cooled down, as everybody would see that Annie had kissed him. But when they all merged nobody seemed to notice his consciousness about his cheek. Annie smiled at him and her cheeks were tinged with the flush of excitement from her search and running about. Or was it also that she felt a roused state whenever she was close to him?

Then it was his turn and Annie told him that she will hide on top of the stairs that led to the mill and as soon as he had to seek out the children he took his time. He first was looking for Annie upstairs and he could not find her. She was calling him from the darkness of the room behind the door and as he entered with his heart beating, he felt her hands. Then as he closed on her she embraced him and he kissed her cheeks and then her lips.

They stood in the coolness of the room, the water dripping in the distance, echoing through the space and hugged like brother and sister, yet his body was burning in a peculiar way. Then Annie told him to come with her and exit the old mill. She climbed onto the handrail and she sat on it with legs apart and she asked him to catch her at the base when she was sliding down. He ran downstairs and he positioned himself below the end of the handrail, as she was sliding already down with her skirt flying, her underwear rolling down and he caught her in his arms and fell with her to the grassy ground, where they rolled together with Annie sitting on him, and then he changed sitting on her. Finally they cleaned up and joined the others who were slowly emerging, being still undetected, from their various hiding places. There were short goodbyes and Teeb and his friend prepared to leave. He had to go with them. Annie shook his hand and her eyes were smiling. “Don't tell anyone”, she said whispering in his ear. He only nodded and then left catching up with Teeb and his friend. He turned around the corner to the road that joined the main road to the village. He saw her standing at the entrance to the mill waving her hand. He waved back and then he turned. He tasted her scent on his lips and he felt her body’s impression still on his thighs as she was sitting on him while he was lying on the ground riding him like a horse. The mill lay dark, crouched in the shadows of the trees, as they proceeded uphill across the wooden bridge and the sounds of the weir and falling waters were replaced by the rapid flow of the swollen stream that gurgled past rushing across pebbles and stones that covered its shallow bed.

4

“I love you Zol,” she told him and her dark brown eyes sent off sparks of passion that singed the chambers of his heart where he was bedding her. Her mouth was open and her gasps flowed in whispers from the sensual, swollen lips that were touching his lips burning from her kisses and bites in the heat of their lovemaking. It was driving their hearts into exasperated joy and he closed his eyes and he saw himself running upstairs to the dark moss infested walls of the old mill, chasing after Annie, whose legs he could see ending in the movements of her bums that were taught in her white panties. He could see spots of perspiration and wetness. He could hear the sounds of their feet on the creaking wooden steps and then as he had caught up with her and held her close in his arms, their hearts were beating wildly as he kissed her on her lips and she was breathing into his mouth as if she would be dying of exhaustion of the chase.

He kissed her softly on her lips “How I love you Alena” he whispered with his mouth still open from his climax he had reached with her so naturally and synchronized, as if he would have chased her up the steps of the old mill in his youthful memory, it felt like the same. “Alena” he said to her, “I think I met you 55 years ago at the room upstairs in the old mill, chasing you and then kissing you. I feel like I have kissed you and loved you since then, it feels so continuous as if we would have made love all our lives”.

“Oh Zed! How much I adore you! I love your voice when you talk to me so much! I wish we could have stayed together all our lives in this love, but I know that is impossible as we are humans and prone to our failures. Yet I think that now as I am lying with you here in this bed I knew you really before, I swear!”

“Yes that is possible, I do not query it any longer, as I just love you that is all I am capable to do before I die. I feel you all the time.”

“Do not say die, I want to know you forever!”

“Well, we have to be thankful for the time we have left and we put it better to good use!” He smiled, pulled her close and kissed her. His feelings for her transferred into her and passion was rising in their bodies and Zed became aroused: “Alena I want to take you from behind!”

“Take me, take me!” She urged and she knelt down before him and Zed entered her with his vocal expression: Ahhh. They made love so passionately that he went out of control and as he slid into her, the climax of a lust that began to be painful turned into this sweetness that was bringing out in him some animalistic instincts and he climbed her back in his ecstasy and rode her until they both collapsed on the soft carpeted floor.

5

The wooden bridge was a construction of its only kind around the province and admired by all who crossed it for the first time. One could feel its tremors when walking across it, or if some horse or oxen pulled cart, or a carriage entered onto its surface that caused vibrating reactions one could feel on the soles of one’s feet.

Then the cousins ran along Mead Road that curved past their grandmother’s house. She sat on a wooden bench in front of the house, dressed always in black skirt and blouse conversing with one of her relatives who lived opposite her place. She noticed them already from afar and Zol could hear her talking to her younger cousin “That must be Zol and Teeb coming to me now, they are late!” The cousin confirmed it to her with “Yes, they are! They are young boys and have no watches!” Then the cousins greeted Gran and kissed her on both of her cheeks, following into her house where she offered them her famous pecan nut cake. Everyone got one generous slice, which she took from a plate in her pantry that was always naturally cool and they both loved her baking, eating in silence. Then Gran asked them about their day and their doings, Zol handed her the note from her mother. She read it and then she put the requested herbs into a paper bag and handed them to Zol to take to his mother.

They left and arrived again at this place of crossing paths and joining streams that came all together at this junction of the wooden bridge. This place had many associations for him in his later life. His uncle Frank, Teeb’s father, used to come to this place as well and quite often he enjoyed walking across the bridge, coming from the eastern side as he resided with his mother, Zol and Teeb’s Gran. Uncle Frank came to visit Zol’s mother at her shop and asked her politely to loan him her bicycle to visit his friends. He seemed always in a joyous mood then he cycled on a certain day and at a certain time. Teeb was mumbling about his father’s girlfriend, he visited at the far end of the neighboring village, about twenty minutes of a bike ride away. Zol’s mother always warned Uncle Frank to be careful and not to fall off the bike, which seemed to amuse Zol at the time. Uncle Frank was always humming a tune or singing a song while he was pedaling to see his sweetheart and he aired his heart that overflowed with desire for her.

Zol’s mother always asked Uncle Frank about the boys and he told her that he saw them coming from the mill, when he crossed the big wooden bridge. When they entered the shop, they greeted Uncle Frank. Teeb mentioned to Zol’s Mom that they had visited their friends there. Zol was blushing a bit as he thought about Annie, but did not divulge his secret to her as promised, how much though his mother wanted to know. He knew his mother did not like the place and she warned him against falling into the stream or even drowning in the dammed up deeper part that was flowing toward the mill, as he could not swim. This image haunted Zol for quite a while in his early days growing up and he intended to learn to swim one day, so he could carry on visiting Annie, as then he was in no danger of drowning. He longed to be in this lower part of the village, he still had to explore and that offered so much more fun than the upper part of the settlement that just looked out on endless stretched fields behind the houses with long grass that was never cut.

6

The name of the area around owl castle was called ‘Bagolvar’, in Hungarian, sounding to him just the right descriptive name for the forlorn settlement of the linear houses that were the typified units of the majority of the buildings, developed from the size of long stretched fields for planting and which were in time converted into plots. This Hungarian name was sounding descriptive to the atmosphere of the gloomy environment that was expressed especially at dawn when the patches of fog covered the higher ground in the vicinity of owl castle and sat like a pushed aside white cloth across the gables and in between the smoke that emerged in low spreading banners across the valley. At night, when the present Baron used to walk along that side of the village, as if he would return to the place for a visit of his forefathers, who were resting now in peace in the private cemetery on the castle grounds; he murmured as if in prayers. He would recall history, while his walks took him around the familiar grounds and he would tell stories to Zol’s uncle, who loved to converse with ‘Baro-ur’, Baron, as he used to call him respectfully, about the history of the castle. The Baron would worry about his extensive property that would need urgent restoration. He would mention his lineage of trusted barons, who defended this part of the lands, called the ‘Land of Castles’ against the invading Turks. This was part of the land that stood as boll work of defenses against the aggressive expansionistic policies that brought the religions of the Muslims and the Christians into bitter confrontations. It ended with the third and final siege of Vienna that could successfully defend itself and beat the Turks in the historic final battle of the Kahlenberg, where allied Polish forces destroyed the last of the Turkish army and freed Vienna and Europe of the continuous onslaught from the East.

Zol was chasing after Annie in the dark rooms of the mill again, as they played their hide and seek games. Teeb had separated himself with Luke and the bigger boys to pursue their fishing skills and catch some trout. Unattended, Zol engaged into games with Kurt and Annie’s sister and some of their neighbour’s friends.

As he was seeking Annie, who could skillfully disappear with her intimate knowledge of the place, he felt a rise of excitement. He could hear her now and when opening or closing a door that squeaked in its rusted hinges and he listened to the echo of her steps that tapped in a rhythm across the heavy timber floors above or below him. This was certainly a maze of rooms and different levels that surrounded the areas adjacent to the huge wooden paddles of the water-wheel and its related cog-wheels that were housed inside the building. He hung for a second with his recurring dream of giants that lay asleep deep down in the shadows of the machinery and could wake any moment and set the gears into motion that would then turn on the paddle and open the weir upstairs that would push a heavier stream of water onto the wooden fins. This would set the clattering machinery into full swing and move the giant dark millstones that were grinding the corn that was fed through the glistening metal funnel onto the giant’s chomping teeth. As he listened he could hear the snoring of the huge awe inspiring creature that he was reading about in his book of mythology at evenings. He was adamant this hall was the place of dark spirits and as he sat down on a plank and stared into the grayness of the dwindling depth, he did not notice Annie sneaking up behind him. Startled from her hands that closed suddenly around his eyes from behind, he got such a fright his heart jumped out of his chest and fell in a loud cry into the dark abyss of bubbling water. Annie was laughing more out of fright as well, as out of joy and when she sat next to him on the wooden plank, she was still out of breath.

“I wanted to surprise you Zol, I am glad you did not fall.” She looked down into the depth and realized her silly move that could have cost them their lives, as he was catching her legs in order not to fall.

“It’s all right Annie, I was just seeing a ghost,” he explained to her.

“A ghost? But there are no ghosts!” She exclaimed and laughed “Dad says so”. He looked into her dark eyes that were so alive, he could see the rays of light breaking up into rays like in a precious stone, whenever she moved and turned her head. Rays penetrated from the overhead windows that were the only openings, arranged in a vertical row down the opposite sheer wooden shingled wall.

“I saw the giant! He is right down here!” He pointed his finger towards the bottom where the millstones rested in huge dark circles.

“There is none of that! No giant here inside!” He looked at her surprised.

“Listen Annie, listen, I had just seen the ghost of this huge giant that comes here whenever the time is right for him and he is looking for peace, so he can sleep and rest. At night he will roam the woods and hills of Owl Castle, see?”

“You have really seen him? Well tell me then!” Annie replied with her inert curiosity that had taken over her belief above her father’s words.

“If you want to listen, I’ll tell you! But it’s our secret, promise!”

“I promise” she said.

“No, I mean you have to seal it with a kiss!” He waited for her to offer her lips. She held his head in her both hands and she kissed him with her moist lips.

“I promise” she said looking into his eyes with that warm glimmer that held him in her awe; he felt like mesmerized. So she moved close to him and their bodies touched and their legs and he put his left arm around her waist and held her close, as he told her the story he invented, in this instant mixture of his ability to memorize some stories from his books on giants and the stories he heard from the grown-ups, when he was lying in bed and with the door to his room open, overhearing his uncle’s talk. Annie listened fascinated as he spun his tale:

Some time ago there was a young handsome Baron named Ferry and he was hunting every day. But he had the desire to hunt for the white deer. One day he saw it grazing on a clearing deep in the woods and he wanted to sneak up to it and kill it to claim its golden antlers. But the white deer disappeared and he became frantic with his endless search leading to nothing. He became so obsessed with the idea to possess this trophy that he became sick with a fever and he did not sleep. One night he came across a place he had never been to. A blue light seemed to emanate from the corners of the grounds with a house that reminded him of Owl Castle and he stared into the grounds from the branch of a close-by beech tree. Suddenly he saw the golden antlers of the white deer now bathed into this blue light that tainted the scenery.

He reached for his trusted cross-bow that has never failed him and he aimed at the deer that stood dead still, her head-up as if she wood sniff some danger and then as he wanted to shoot his deadly bolt, he fell from the branch that cracked and gave way. The bolt went off and due to his uncontrolled aim, hit the giant of the woods into his head, as he emerged at that moment, woken-up from his sleep and stretching his arms. Mad with pain and anger he shouted so loud it made the blood freeze in all the animals and the living creatures for miles around. Ferry having fallen from the tree and hurting his back would flee with the giant behind him, he could hear the trees crack and the shrubs being stomped from his mighty feet. Ferry would crouch and behave like a wild boar. It seemed to him he had suddenly converted slowly into an animal he shot so many times, now with the curse of the giant he became indeed a huge wild boar, who ran for his own life. He ran so long that he could not remember any more where he was and in the thicket of the woods lost his way. He heard some dogs barking and shouting of men, it was a hunt and too late for him. He could not turn around and one hunter shot him into his head and he died instantly. Then as the hunters came to see their trophy, the dogs went quiet and being the Barons dogs, they started to howl. Then the hunters saw the dead Baron lying there, having turned from boar to man again. They heard this huge roar and hurried home with the Baron’s body on their shoulders, thinking of an eminent thunderstorm coming their way, which seemed unusual at that early hour.

The giant, mad with pain, did not see which direction the Baron had run and coming across the woods his feet flattened the trees and formed a valley where he was treading and he landed up at a dammed up stream. The sound of water made him seek the coolness he desired to mend his wound and he fell into the moat and drowned.

At night when the moon is full one can hear the growling of the giant and the shots of hunters and the howling of the baron’s dogs and the noises as if their souls still wander around Owl Castle and the hills reverberate in this ghostlike chase. Then there is peace in the early hours of the morning and the white deer can be seen grazing in the fading moonlight, just to disappear in the mist of the rising dawn, when quaintness settles on the spooky scene. The giant goes to sleep down into the coolness of the mills somber depth, while Baron Ferry fades into the dark passages of Owl Castle. Every night when this happens one can see the bloodstains on the floor of the entrance to the castle. In the mill the millstone will emit a sound that sounds like grinding teeth as the giant puts his head to rest. The white deer was never seen, but a hunter found one day some antlers that glistened golden in the mossy grounds in a part of the woods that he did not know and he lost temporary his orientation, so he could not recall that location. He left the golden antlers there as he felt a sting when he touched them. This is the end.

Annie was listening intently to his story and she visualized with huge eyes as she followed his words and absorbed its content. She had her head resting in his lap and she closed her eyes and she felt as if she would have been transported into another realm that she never had entered before and from then on she asked him to repeat his story of the giant, he called Rams, the Baron Ferry and the white deer with golden antlers. She was asleep and he was afraid to wake her. Finally she stirred and caressed his face and she clambered to him with fright of having seen the giant Rams, lying down at the millstones and she asked him never to leave her. He promised to protect her, and as long as they liked each other there was no reason to be afraid, as kids were never hurt, not even by giants.

“There you are!” shouted Teeb “we were looking for you everywhere.”

“I am here and I have just looked out for Annie, she lost some glass marbles inside the mill.” Teeb looked down into the dark pit.

“I can’t see anything.” Teeb frowned.

“One would have to go down there,” Zol said and smiled. He said good bye to her and touched her hand that was warm and then he walked behind the older Teeb so as he could turn and look at her back, without Teeb noticing it. He had lifted the dark secrets of the Old Mill. He had shared it with Annie and he was filled with a deep satisfaction.

He would tell no one, not even his mother, it was a sworn secret between him and Annie alone that lifted him up high above the head of the taller Teeb and later, when he listened to the stories of Uncle Frank, he understood his world better than anyone else did. But he should find that out later in life, when he detected his love for poetry.

7

“Ahh…Alena, kiss me!” She was sitting on his lap and kissing his face, his earlobes and his neck and as she aroused him. He felt her warm body softly rubbing against his erection, as he moved his buttocks in excitement of her art of loving him and enticing him with her body rubbings. She asked him to lie back on her bed and as he stretched out and his penis stood erect for her touches and her caresses, he moaned and asked her for her pussy to touch as she straddled him, she lowered herself on top of his face. He closed his eyes and he saw the darkness of slow flowing water and the face of her in the mirror of the water that flowed ever so slowly toward the giant paddlewheel of the mill, his face behind hers as he made love to her and he listened to the willows sing their haunting moans and the sounds of insects humming in midst of splashes of a nearby water fall.

“I love you Alena”, he whispered, as not to disturb the aesthetic vision, not to distract her from her concentration to feel his cock moving in her pussy, her mouth opening as if she would extol a cry any moment that looked as if she wanted to die. He saw Annie’s face on his lap, eyes closed and mouth slightly opened as if she would be ready to scream at the visions he painted in front of her eyes, her cheeks slightly pink with excitement.

Then as they slipped and fell into the abyss of the dark water at the bottom of the mill the giant came alive gnawing his teeth of dark sinister granite millstones that threatened to pulverize them in this endless fall.

The moment he felt his pelvis slide hard against her pubic bone he felt that pain that pushed his lust to the edge and he heard Alena call: “Come Zed, come!” And he concentrated on the sweetness of sliding into her that was sweeter than anything he had encountered and he climaxed pushing harder into her. “Yes Alena, yes, I come, yes, OHHH!” He cried out and that moment the ghost of his dream disappeared and he saw her smiling and happy and Annie’s warm eyes merged with the eyes of Alena and she kissed him and he clung to her as if he would have fallen deep into this abyss with the flow of the waterfall that threatened to drown him and smash him to smithereens down at the bottom of the moat. Their hectic breathing was to become one breath and their hectic body movements were one rocking move and their arms felt as one and there was one body that emerged from the amalgamations of their lovemaking and it resembled a layered slide that projected to the canvas of their consolidated minds. And he saw this see-through sculpture that was surpassing Rodin’s and it was he and Alena depicted in their moment of climax. Huddled together like one being with four arms and four legs, pierced together by his hot lance of love, lying on top of each other, dead.

He remembered the scene of his first encounter with the dim-lit shed, the room that was suspended like a wooden bridge across the space that adjoined the paddle wheel and housed the huge gear with its machinery that was asleep. This was the closest Zol ever got to the secrets of the heart of the mill with its whispers, moans and painful cries. The place where a barn-owl resided in the dark shades of the wooden beams spanning across the space to hold up the shingled roof, the whispering stories from the water drops echoed in the mystical surrounds. He hesitatingly moved to the wooden rail of the bridge to view the giant millstones that resembled for him the teeth of his giant ‘Rams’ lying in this state of slumber, motionless, seemingly dead. This scene followed him in his dreams, ‘Rams’ talking to him in the language of his mother, telling him not to be frightened and to bring Annie along and he