Water more than Flour

Water more Than Flour
a short story by Austin Mitchell

Piper water in some rural Jamaican communities is still a precious community. Before that the people had to depend on rain water fetch it from springs and rivers.They would build gutters on the mainly since roofs and the water would run off into drums. But if they wanted to drink it they had to boil it because of ring worms. So it was a god bless when piped water came  to Keswick in 1969. But people's joy soon turned into frustration. This was because the Williams family who lived a few meters from the standpipe would start catching water from five o'clock. They would full about  five drums before any body else got a chance ton fill up. There were about fifteen persons living at their house and they would bring all sorts of containers to catch water. There were a lot of quarrels and fights. A man named Cyril Jackson used a machete to bore the Williams' tub one morning. The Williams clan ran him down, throwing rock stones at him, and hitting him down. Cyril's legs were broken in two places. After that people began getting their own pipes in their yard. Of course they had to pay water rates as opposed to when they got it free from the standpipe. Incidentally, everybody would eventually have to get their own pipes or return to the rivers and springs for water. This was after two men Simon Dennis and Willy Brown fought over the standpipe and broke it off sending gallons of water shooting down into the nearby gully. The two men actually got into a fight after Simon accused Willy of not wanting anybody else to get any water. A few days later the authorities came and rooted up the pipe. This was about the tenth time persons had fought and broken the pipe. The End. Please visit my blog at : stredwick.blogspot.com