« Turtle Story | Main | My Radio Friends »

Thursday, 22 April 2010

The Voice

By Linda Chaput.

“We’ve been waiting for you.”

The gentle voice came from the fire in the forge as the blacksmith stoked it with his long poker. He was stunned by the voice and thought at first he was hearing things. It had been a long day and he was weary from hammering on the anvil, trying to make the iron move into a swirling spiral.

The blacksmith had been making beautiful artistic iron pieces for years. His clients were thrilled with his creations and many had his custom-made stair railings, chandeliers, furniture and candelabras in their private homes along with elaborate entry gates that adorned their driveways. His work was exceptional and beautiful, and he was known far and wide as the best artistic blacksmith in the land.

But his creative energies were wavering. His thoughts were elsewhere as he tended his fire in the forge and hammered the iron. He felt restless and could hardly concentrate on his work anymore.

He heard the voice again, this time a little louder. It called to him. “Blacksmith, blacksmith.”

Chills ran down his back. He stopped stoking the fire and peered into it. There, faintly in the flames, he saw an outline of a face.

“We are the masters,” it said. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

Then, as it slowly faded, other faces appeared before him in the flames and he knew them as the great ones: Mazzucatelli, Giacometti, Chillida, Habermann and other artists and teachers of the past. As they appeared before him and danced in the flames, he remembered who he was and what he must do. He now knew his truth, that he was one of them.

He then thrust a heavy bar of iron into the fire and brought it to a white heat. As he gripped the hot bar with his tongs to pull it from the fire, he could feel a renewed energy flow through his body. He then laid the piece on the anvil and his hammer came down hard. Sparks flew.

On and on he hammered, creating his new piece. For a fire of another nature was now burning in his soul, a fire like no other. His passion had returned.


[INVITATION: All elders, 50 and older, are welcome to submit stories for this blog. They can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, memoir, etc. Instructions for submitting are here.]

Posted by Ronni Bennett at 02:30 AM | Permalink | Email this post

Comments

That first line was a 'grabber' and I couldn't wait to see what the voice said. It's a very creative story.

Thank you, Linda for a refreshing interlude.

What a comfort to feel " We've been waiting for you." Thank you. Ann

Great story! Beautifully written. You need to write a mystery with the blacksmith as the hero.

Beautifully written. I love the "rebirth of passion".

This is a beautiful story! So smooth and and gentle in its promise.

Thank you, Linda. for several reasons.

The comments to this entry are closed.