The old-shack up in the Hill - short story by Mongolita

The old-shack up in the hill

Written by Mongolita 

Summer 1960

María was awakened by  rays of  sunshine on her eyes, coming  through gaps in the ceiling.  The sun felt nice but  the gaps also allowed the cold-wind through, and made her shiver. 

“I should get that fixed before next winter.  I’ll check later how much money I’ve saved up over the last two years.”   

The one room shack was her  bedroom, kitchen and dining room.  It had no toilet or shower facilities indoors.  She got out of bed quickly, reaching for her favourite blanket; walked to the barrel, where she kept the water for all purposes, poured some water into a bowl and washed her face and body. 

Her life was basic and harsh but she was self-sufficient. She had chickens, which would give her eggs and meat when the birds came of age.  She had a small  vegetable patch where she would grow potatoes, carrots and other vegetables.  Part of her income, apart from selling eggs, came from  selling empanadas at the Saturday market.  Every Friday, she  would get up in the early hours  of the morning to get free wood from the fields to start the fire.  She would make one hundred or so, to sell. The ones  left over from the market would be sold by knocking on people's doors later that day. María was a wise, hard-working,  and experienced lady, who had learned how to  survive since her teenage years, when she left home, some forty years ago. 

Whilst the fire was getting ready to fry the empanadas,  she fed the animals.  When  she came back into the house,  to put the ingredients together for the empanadas she was flabbergasted to see that the fire had grown out of hand. She had left the pan with the lard too near to the fire and it had caught alight. The fire was   fierce and growing  taller and wilder.   The first thing that came to her mind was her money, which was hidden behind a stone covering a hole in the wall.   She could reach the barrel of water but it was too heavy for her to push it towards the fire. She  grabbed her beloved blanket, which luckily was next to her,  plunged it into the barrel of water and threw it over the fire.  The flames took a while to die out,  giving  a horrid smell with a   black smoke making her cough and gasp for air. She quickly ran outside to catch her breath.  She was exhausted by  the end of her ordeal. She burst into tears and cried in desperation.

“What am I going to do now?  My place is in a real mess.” Suddenly, she remembered her savings. 

She looked up at the stone covering the hole in the wall  where her money was. She carefully took the stone  out of the hole. 

“Ouch! that's hot.”. She took out the box, looked inside and the money was untouched. 

“I'm so happy my money didn't burn. At least not everything is lost.” 

She felt relief and anguish at the same time. Relieved because the money hadn't burned but anguished, as  all her savings would go into repairing the damage caused by the fire.