Shane Jones

The Water Troth Horses

After the third day of dumping hot water by single buckets, the muscles in our forearms became stretched bruises, barely able to handle the turning of a doorknob. Caldor Clemens was the one who came up with the hot water troth system which would change the course of the war forever. Clemens spent two days building a long wooden troth from thick trees he chopped down by hand and carried on his shoulder from the woods. When he was finished, the wooden troth was three times longer than the house. Then Clemens instructed us to stick pieces of glass to the bottom of the troth with the sap he had collected from the trees. This way the troth itself won’t catch fire, he said, testing a small fire beneath the troth. On the morning Clemens wanted to test the troth system, he walked up the hill towards the house with six horses who he then harnessed to the troth which was bubbling with hot water. On his command, the horses tipped the troth, sending a massive wave of hot water rushing towards the town, melting snow until it became slush. We continued this attack until the falling snow melted on the warm soil like a tongue. The sky became a rippling sail. The holes in the sky went black. The war effort pointed to the sky shouting for the death of February.