THE WHEEL OF THE MILL

THE WHEEL OF THE MILL

The building had been abandoned for years . It was rather ruined. The plaster was peeling and falling apart , leaving the bricks in the open. ( exposed) The roof tiles were broken. The windows, without  the shutters and even the glass, looked  like empty holes. It had been a water mill for almost half a century. The driving wheel was still on the stream, where however no water was flowing since long time. Attached to the mill there were the miller’s house. After the death of the miller, who had remained to live there ( in that house) even after the stream had dried up and the mill no longer worked, no one had taken care of the mill or the adjoining house.

Until  it  began to be heard ( until it was heard) that monks had gone to live in the old mill. People talked of barefoot friars. But it became known shortly after that they were not at all friars belonging to some religious order, or even to some church. Not only, those barefoot friars did not even have  a faith in common, but they were a group of pilgrims____someone said of vagabonds____who came from abroad. There was no agreement about where they came from. Some people said  they came from the Siberian steppe, but others  swore that those friars came from Greece , that they had fled ,or, indeed ,  had been driven out ( expelled) from the monastery of the mount Athos. There were also those who said that they came from India, and they were Buddhists. Religious yes, but without believing in God, just think, not a few people of the village said, laughing.

Some time had passed, without anyone of the village of Arcipopoli daring , or felt like going to take a look to those foreigners who had settled in the old mill, when voices , that were not at all reassuring, began to circulate . It was said that those twelve men, who wore ankle-length coarse tunics and were barefoot ____since at least the clothing and the bare feet were certain characteristics of those pilgrims ____they, those there, were indeed a gang of criminals, fences, blackmailers, kidnappers, and even, people whispered, full of fear, of ruthless murderers. Yes, they were all criminals escaped from prison who, in order to appear harmless and reassuring in the eyes of the others, wore that kind of habit and were barefoot. And then there was that really  puzzling , inexplicable novelty, that everyone had seen , even if no one had set foot in the mill. The mill wheel had start to turn again, and yet there hadn’t been water in the stream for decades. The wheel  certainly couldn’t grind the grain. So WHY had it started to turn again? Someone in the village had said, blowing in a whisper: “ Eh, what does that wheel grind , if no longer it can grind the grain? I say it ( the wheel) grinds TIME.”

The worrying rumors about the newcomers who had settled in the old mill had been circulating for some time when a municipal police team was sent to the mill for a check. The councilor for the urban security went together the municipal police . Then both, the commander of the municipal police and the councilor, all smiling  launched in reassuring, comforting, even amusing reports ( statements) on many local television stations , but even on some national television stations ,____ since of the occupation of the old, ruined mill of Arcipopoli by a coven of friars …oh but no, those guys seemed friars, but they were not at all friars, oh, perhaps they were disbanded or vagabonds, and it was even suspected that they were dangerous criminals, yes, criminals escaped from the jails of half the world …in short even some national televisions and some national diffusion daily newspapers had ended up talking about….those strange pilgrims____oh there was really nothing to worry about, nothing to fear from ( by) the people  (men) who had settled in the old mill. Ah, they, the commander of the  municipal police and the councilor, said , ah, the rumors which had been heard ( circulating)  they  were  completely unfounded. Well, they were slander dictated by prejudice. Those twelve pilgrims, sure, they came from the most varied parts of the world, sure, that was true, but they were all meek, peaceful and even very devoted (religious) men.

It was then the same Mayor ( the mayor himself) who intervened to clarify, with a passionate speech live on television Quinzi pinzi , the most important and most followed TV of Quinzipinzi, of which Arcipopoli was a renowned fraction, about a thorny matter , that had been raised by none other less than the most widespread newspaper in the country___the Running in the Evening__ which had come out with a first page article that had caused a truly stir, and had also aroused great indignation, and sparked furious disputes too. “ Even a Caravaggio’s in the den of fences which had become the old mill of Arcipopoli?” this had been the headline of the article. Soon people, not only the inhabitants of Arcipopoli and Quinzipinzi had thought that the old mill had become the headquarters of an international traffic in works of art stolen from museums, from churches or taken away from archeological excavations- _____Ah, to speak about archeological excavations, in the vicinity of Arcipopoli excavations had been going on for some time. At first , when they had started, it had been said that they were ( made) looking for Etruscan finds, then, since Etruscan finds had not been found, the excavations had continued to unearth medieval buildings and artifacts_____

The Mayor , speaking live , had reassured  the good citizens of his very good town, but we can say , even people of all the country, that but no, even those rumors, and rumors which had become also words written on the most important newspaper of the country, those rumors which ( had) claimed the old mill would have become a receptacle for works of art stolen, to be sold to Arab sheiks and Russian oligarchs, ah, but those were all fantasies ( fables) . He, the Mayor, then told that the pilgrims who had settled in the old mill, they were excellent painters. Some of them were specialized in painting icons, others in making copies of famous works, works by Leonardo, by Caravaggio, by Rubens, by Velazquez….. And these copies , really perfect, the Mayor assured___even if he hadn’t seen them____of great masterpieces then were sold mainly to the Japanese, but even to Russian oligarchs and to Swiss bankers too.

Already the Mayor had said , indeed he was visibly moved  as he said it, that the twelve pilgrims, who now lived in the old mill, they all had to be really devoted ,really very much religious  (faithful). Most of the copies they painted represented Madonna, Christ , Saints.

But it was after all after what he told ( reported) the priest of Arcipopoli, who, accompanied by the Bishop’s secretary, had visited the old mill, that all the people, not only those of Arcipopoli, but even people of the whole town, started to call the old mill SANCTUARY.

Don Martin, the priest of Arcipopoli, had been amazed, even thrilled by the truly impressive presence of not only paintings, but also sculptures of Madonna ( representing the Madonna) in the old mill.  Don Martin told he had seen there, into the old mill, sculptures which looked like, yes, those found in the Etruscan necropolises  which had been dressed in clothing that made become them (made them appearing) Madonna. Don Martin told that he had even seen Egyptian sculptures dressed as Madonna. Indeed don Martin had said that he had even seen A MUMMY, yes, with the sarcophagus near to it, which had been dressed up with the blue mantle of the Madonna. Oh, but soon after the poor priest , severely recalled by the bishop, had to deny he had seen the mummy dressed as Madonna. Don Martin had to say that he had invented that…mummy, and he had to apologize , asking humbly for forgiveness.

But no one, neither the commander of the municipal police, nor the councilor to urban security, and not even don Martin knew or, perhaps, wanted to answer what remained the anguishing question that everyone there in Arcipopoli kept asking: WHY had the wheel of the old mill started to run again? What was it grinding if the mill had not been grinding for decades? And WHAT did it mean that the wheel had started to run again? Because ( since) something sure it meant. They didn’t know what, but they darkly felt that perhaps the wheel of the old mill had started to run again to warn them of a danger, to announce them something terrible that was going to happen.

However the people, not only those of the village of Arcipopoli and of the town of Quinzipinzi started to go to the old mill, now considered a Sanctuary, more and more numerous. Now everyone said, that this was a very holy, blessed place. Eh, it was also to be expected that miracles would happen in that blessed ….mill, that is, sanctuary.

Meanwhile the wheel of the old mill kept turning, everyone of the people of Arcipopoli kept wondering WHY the wheel was turning again, and no one knew why.

The old mill, now called the pilgrim brothers’ sanctuary, had also become a place which aroused curiosity for the truly perfect copies of very famous paintings and for the  very rich people who commissioned those works. The copies made by the pilgrim brothers were so perfect that there was someone, among people who went to visit the sanctuary , who expressed the doubt , relating to an altarpiece, which had been stolen from a church in Palermo, that it was not the copy of Caravaggio’s Nativity, but it was instead the work ( the painting) of Caravaggio.

The simpler and humbler people continued to hope that miracles could happen in that holy, blessed place which had become the old mill. Poor and needy people had received aid in food and money from the twelve pilgrims. Therefore people suffered from some disease or infirmity hoped to be able to obtain the miracle of healing. More and more sick and infirm people went to the sanctuary, but none of them received the miracle of healing. On the contrary, many of the sick and infirm people  who had gone to the sanctuary hoping for a miracle, began to die as soon as they had left the sanctuary, but even while they were into the sanctuary. Then the pilgrim brothers, from benefactors and saints as they had been considered, began to be hated. And rumors even more terrible than those that there had been immediately after their arrival began to circulate again. It was said that the occupants of the old mill were all criminals involved in a large, international trade of stolen works of arts. But not only this___so the rumors claimed___, because they were also ruthless murderers who had taken out , without giving in the eye, so to speak, that is secretly, stealthily, the sick and the infirm who went to the sanctuary hoping for the miracle that would heal them. It even went so far as to say that the pilgrims who had taken possession of the old mill they were dangerous pedophiles who kidnapped children to torture and killed them. The population of the town of Quinzipinzi asked, clamoring,  for those criminals, who lived in the old mill of Arcipopoli to be expelled from the mill and from the town too.

They, the pilgrim fathers , protested , proclaiming that all accusations , which were launched against them, were unjust and completely unfounded.

Until one morning, on the wheel of the mill, which kept on turning, was found , horribly mangled, the body of a child of four years. The little girl, named Cecilia , had been missing for some days. When the police, pushed by the people of Arcipopoli, who wanted to take revenge, who were screaming that they would kill them all, that gang of criminals, broke into the old mill,  well, there were no one there. Not only they, the twelve pilgrims were gone, but also the copies of pictorial masterpieces  made by the pilgrim brothers were gone. All the statues ( sculptures) representing Madonna had also disappeared, including the Etruscan and Egyptian statues that had been dressed as Madonna.   There was only a mummy, perhaps an Egyptian mummy, dressed up as Madonna.