EOS MAIL BOX

Whilst on holiday in rural Murcia with my wife, I took a stroll through the local village as she and her friends went shopping for the usual “Arts and Crafts’. 

It was a very warm day and I saw ahead of me in a little square with thorny bushes on one side offering some shade and in the centre a very picturesque little well with a tiny church like roof and a small parapet stonewall to protect the edge. 

Driven by curiosity I wandered over for a better look and saw that a heavy tin cup with a large wooden handle sat on the wall with a long length of cord attached to it secured to a nail driven into the frame of the roof. Now feeling the heat and with a mighty thirst building up I realised that this must be for the public’s use for just such an occasion. 

I duly lowered the cup down into the well expecting to draw cool crystal clear spring water to the surface, but when all the cord was let out it still had not reached the bottom. 

I duly hauled the empty tin cup back up to the top again and this time peered over the edge into the dark depths. I could detect no sign of any water and picking up a large stone I dropped it over the edge expecting to hear a loud splash. Still no sound emerged from the depths. I turned around to find something a bit bigger to drop down the well and all I could find was a discarded large piece of railway sleeper with a long piece of rope attached to it. I thought this would do the job admirably.

I hurriedly picked it up and was surprised at the weight of it, but I staggered over to the well and dropped it in. As I bent over and stood listening with my ear cocked over the well, I heard a frantic pounding of feet behind me and when I glanced around it was just in time to see a large hairy goat with massive sharp horns pounding towards me with its head down, tossing and turning in a most intimidating manner. The closer it got to my rear end the faster it seemed to run. 

I was just able to step aside like a ‘Matador’ to avoid the pounding goat as it roared past me like a mini express train. You can imagine my surprise when I saw it leapt over the little protective stonewall and disappear down the well at high speed.

Well! I was quite taken aback by this incident and was just getting over the shock of the whole thing when an old Spanish farmer approached me and politely asked me in broken English.

 “Senor! Have you seen my beautiful prize goat with big sharp horns around here? He could not be far away as I tied him with a rope to a large heavy block of wood to stop him wandering off.”