Six Sentence Story- A Parable of US

Prompt word: fountain

There once was an exceptionally beautiful fountain built by a like-minded community with years of blood, sweat, and tears creating a dynamic cohesion, as well as, a prideful shared tradition associated with that noble, purposeful, creation.

Once the news that such a marvel existed reached other communities, many people made a pilgrimage to see it and many of these people became enchanted by the cohesive success of this unique village therefore deciding to stay.

Those who stayed, eagerly embraced the successful traditions and purpose from which this fountain had sprung so, as the community grew, it never accepted any challenges to ‘change’ by outside forces and kept all progressive changes made- an internal all-for-one decision- with only a few exceptions.

There eventually came a time, dear reader, that the success and prosperity of the ‘community of the fountain’ was known throughout the world and the numbers who came to behold the fountain were vast, yet the generous community welcomed them all to stay and told them to add their own traditions to the community with one stipulation- never were they to deface or dismantle the founders’ fountain.

Sadly, opportunists finally made their way to the community and partook of the bountiful sweet water but refused neither to honor the fountain nor the traditions that created it, and in so doing, added only their own vision for its maintenance by carving their names (and modifications) into its structure.

The ‘community of the fountain’ has now endured many years of self-serving disrespect and internal erosion of its original beautiful purpose and it’s clear that the once unique marvel of the world may not survive much longer as the fountain’s foundation is crumbling and the sweet water running out.