The Case of the Silt-Tongued Plaintiff

Transcript

Case No: 88-Wash-Silt Court: Magistrate’s Bench, Weeping Wash Presiding: Magistrate Thorne Plaintiff: The Spirit of the Lower Wash (The Silt-Tongue) Defendant: Silas Vane (Miller) Magistrate: Let the record show we are convened on the fourteenth of the Rains. The plaintiff alleges auditory theft. Silt-Tongue, you may begin your statement. Plaintiff: I am the current that remembers. I am the cold slide of shale and the deep sleep of the eel. My songs were the map for the migrating shad; they were the whispers of the first flood. Now, there is only the thrum. The heavy, wooden thrum. It is a shroud of sound. It is a wall of dead noise. Magistrate: Please be specific. On what date did the interference begin? Plaintiff: When the oak spoke in screams. When the iron axle bit the water. The songs were swallowed. The echoes of the ancestor stones are gone, eaten by the hunger of the wheel. Magistrate: Mr. Vane, your response? Defendant: I built a mill. People need flour. The wheel turns, the stone grinds. I don't know about any songs. I just know the grain is moving and the village is eating. Magistrate: Did you conduct a sonic survey of the riverbed prior to installation? Defendant: A what? I asked the carpenter if the beam would hold. He said it would. Magistrate: The court calls the witness, a Grey Heron of the Third Bend. Witness, please approach. Witness: (Squawks) The water was quiet. Then it was loud. I stood on one leg for three hours. I forgot why. The vibration makes the fish jump the wrong way. I cannot hear the wind in the reeds. Magistrate: Do you believe the waterwheel is responsible for the loss of the river's melodic integrity? Witness: I believe the fish are dizzy. Everything is shaking. My toes feel the hum. It is a very boring hum. Plaintiff: It is a theft. He has stolen the silence. He has stolen the silver thread that binds the mountain to the sea. Magistrate: Let us move to the evidence. Exhibit A: A jar of river water. Does this water contain the alleged songs? Plaintiff: The water is a ghost of itself. The song is the space between the drops. You cannot put a song in a jar. You can only feel the void where it used to be. Magistrate: This is getting us nowhere. Mr. Vane, can you move the wheel ten yards downstream? Defendant: No. The current is too weak there. The mill stops. Magistrate: Then the court finds a compromise. The defendant will install three acoustic baffles made of willow and river-clay to dampen the thrum. The plaintiff will accept a temporary silence in exchange for a quota of fine-ground flour for the river-folk. Plaintiff: I cannot eat flour. I am the current. Magistrate: Case adjourned.