The Long Haul.

They found the coal in the forest.

 

They were digging pits to bury their dead when they came across the black rock.

 

They didn’t know what it was so they piled it into heaps and forgot about it.

 

One day, a bored youth set light to it for fun and although the town’s folk were angry they were surprised by what happened.

 

Slowly they realised it’s value, in the town at first and then selling it to the villages around. 

 

They became rich.

 

So they built a rail line through the valley so that they could transport the coal to the distant city; when people objected they paid them off.

 

And they became richer.

 

People in the town wanted to use their new wealth to travel so they started to ride the coal train for free to visit the distant city, which was a port, and take the boats.

 

So someone in the town started a passenger service, and became richer.

 

Elizabeth was one of the first to travel the coal line, today her grandchild drives to the city on what was once the rail line. Once the coal was all dug, the wealth moved away.

 

There are three tunnels on the road. Once they were for the trains, now the young use them for graffiti.

 

Elizabeth’s grandchild likes the graffiti, she thinks it brightens the dark tunnels, and thus the road and therefore the town; she paints some of it herself.

 

The town is no longer rich so the police like to catch the graffiti artists to get fines into the city coffers.

 

The youth like to graffiti the police cars.

 

And sometimes their station.

 

Which used to be The Station.