The Noise from Down the Street

TRUE! --nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?

--but the noise steadily increased. Oh God! what could I do? I foamed --I raved --I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder --louder --louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly, and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God! --no, no! They heard! --they suspected! --they knew! --they were making a mockery of my horror!-this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die! and now --again! --hark! louder! louder! louder! louder!

"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear up the planks! here, here! --It is the beating of his hideous heart!"

The Tell- Tale Heart by Edger Allan Poe

In the heart of Bel-Aire, stands a water tower, pale in the placid lights that surround it.  For inside like a pearl to an oyster is a man.  Local legend says that during the construction of the tower, a man scaled the outside column, looked in, and fell to his doom.  The position of his landing, and the way he had somewhat buried himself into the column, they decided the body was unretrievable and finished the water tower.

Believe what you want, that the cost of construction doesn't matter to the cost of human life.  Believe that they retrieved the body and gave proper burial.  Or believe occasionally the water tastes like iron.  That there is blood in the water and the well has been fouled.  And on those dark foggy nights, when you walk by, hope you don't hear the knocking on the side of the wall.  A wall that has kept him in for almost a decade.

The photo was taken back in January 2010 during a pea soup fog.  Want to see more of my freaky imagery?  Check out www.ruminationofthunder.com.