The Lane

I wasn't sure whether to actually post this. Wrote it for 750 words, but it's not really fiction and isn't really about anything.

The lane was in darkness. All the street lights were out and the nearest houses fifty or more feet away. The road beneath her feet was a darker ribbon of blackness winding between the dark greys of the bushes, the wall and the field. The brightest object around was actually the dog; a mostly white creature that sniffed at something unseen in the undergrowth.

It was creepy, but also, quite peaceful. Quiet.

This is how things used to be she thought, years ago before the advent of electric lighting. This is what my great-grandparents would have seen, would have walked streets like these. Except the lane a hundred years ago was no more than a dirt path, if it had been that at all. She wasn't sure what exactly had been here a hundred years back. Not even that, the estate was barely seventy years old.

Unlike the farmhouse. That was Grade 2 listed so she supposed it had been there a while. Mind you, it was derelict now, the roof had fallen in, exposing the timbers charred from a dozen or so fires. Local kids usually.

She remembered walking down the lane one night and seeing the inside of the roof lit up orange. The flames were not visible, just the glow, and the dark smoke pouring from the roof.  She'd gone closer, and timidly peered through one of the glassless window frames at the front of the house, wondering if the fire was being tended. It wasn't, so she'd rung the fire brigade. Once the call had been made she'd almost regretted it. The fire wasn't that big, but she reckoned it may grow to be bigger, all that wood. It had been summer, and dry at that. Best to catch a fire before it grew into an inferno. She'd told herself that even as the fire engines drew closer. Two of them.

She'd seen no more fires in the old farmhouse since then.

When she'd moved to the area, ten years earlier, the farmhouse had been occupied. A sign at the side advertised fresh eggs and potatoes. It didn't specify what sort of eggs it sold. Possibly goose eggs, though she'd have thought the sign would specify if they had been. There was a big herd (?) of geese there. A gaggle of loud, belligerant beasts that honked and flew at anyone who got too close. She didn't buy her eggs there, unwilling to brave the demonic birds.

The dog chose a spot on the grass, peed.

They walked further up the lane. To her left was a scrubby field, scored with muddy grass-less paths and full of horse manure. Often there were ponies tethered here. Bony, unhealthy looking beasts. They looked unkempt and half feral. To her left, a paddock for the riding stables, one of maybe a half dozen fields owned by them. Their horses were groomed, beautiful and proud. Quite a contrast to the ponies.

Another new addition, an indoor riding area, loomed up above her, blocking out the view. She'd watched it being built; first the metal beams and then the wooden panels. Some people had objected but she quite liked it. Wood and stone buildings rarely looked out of place. For somewhere deep in the urban metropolis of the city, it all looked very rural.

Beyond the riding stables, the lane curved around and out of sight. She pondered walking further along the dark road. Her eyes had adjusted to the dimness and she could see well enough to make her way along the road but it just looked creepy. Not to mention unsafe. People always warned you about walking down unlit roads at night. Which was probably good advice.

She turned and walked back past the farmhouse, towards the bright lights of the estate. Possibly a more frightening place in the day than the lane was at night. And ugly. Of course, there had been improvement in recent years. New fencing, new pebble-dashing, but you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. It would never be a nice place to live.

She stood for a moment at the top of the lane, looking towards the farmhouse, to the dark fields behind it, the inky black woodland and the spread of lights across the space between her and the distant horizon. Miles and miles away she could see a set of blue flashing lights, travelling through a myriad of orange, yellow and red lights.

And somewhere close, very close, the sound of sirens.