Willowtree Grove - May 10th

A small investigation into a lost premonition from the other week. Can we find the antique that found its way home? 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

It's the end of the week here in Willow Tree Grove, and it's time for our weekly catch up. My dear listeners, I fear I must start today's catch up with a sincere apology. Not only did I not inform anyone of the potential results of the premonition from the week before last, but I also did not tell you about any premonitions for this week. Both of these facts can be explained, though you will not like the answers. This week simply did not have a prediction. Adelaide was far too invested in the Beltane festivities. And for the older premonition, unfortunately, I simply could not figure out who or what had been involved in it. If you don't remember, let me remind you, the premonition was an antique is going to find its way home. Since there was an uproar about no one getting any closure for this, I put on my investigative journalist's hat and ventured out into town to figure out if anyone had obtained a long lost item recently. So grab a drink, I have an iced peach tea here, settle in, and come with me on this small adventure I embarked upon over the course of this week. Now how does this usually work? There are many ways that I get my information about the happenings in town. Sometimes people volunteer their stories through varied forms of communications, even pen to paper at some points. Sometimes it is a proxy retelling, either by word of mouth or sent anonymously. But most often, I take advantage of the relatively minimal size of our dear Willow Tree Grove, and make sure that I hit all the main conglomerations of human activities. At a good viewing distance, of course. Like the creepy old hag character in the old fables, never underestimate the gossip potential of the old hags, very similar in nature to the coffee house sitters that perch on the chair that just points straight out to the outside world. Voyerism made allowable. Anyway, I've gone on a tangent. The start of our search began with outreach. I sent out messages, post, and chats to the house ridden, bedridden, and very importantly, to all the top gossips in town. There were a few mentions here and there of a lost piece of memorabilia, a thimble from one of the very first showings of Peter Pan that was handed down the Calliope family line, had gone missing a while back, but found its way inside a tiny room in the attic where the children played, only to be found by the family dog and brought out to the living room. But I think that the premonition was a bit further afield. There was another message that spoke of a lost antique figurine that had been missing for a year, but was found in an antique shop where it had been surrendered by the matriarch of that same family in a move of revenge against her husband, who had apparently broken her favorite piece of memorabilia, and that figurine was his favorite. When it was purchased and returned by her granddaughter, the matriarch burst into tears and apologized for her childish actions. Now this could very well have been the foretold item, but somehow it didn't feel right. Something about the wording of the premonition. The antique is going to find its way. It felt intentional. So I set out about town. I conversed with people, chatted with the teenagers, who always noticed things a bit more than their parents. But my patience was waning, and my luck non existent. So I took a late afternoon or early evening break at the roast and toast. I sat in one of the thick old leather armchairs, the right one, you know, the one that's probably a few decades older than the other, and is therefore just that much smoother and softer. As I ruminated and guzzled perhaps a few too many cups of coffee for the lateness of hour, who should join me? But Elder Pepper. We exchanged greetings and lost ourselves in the effortless chatter that old friends so easily enter into. After a while I noticed a brooch that I had not remembered seeing on my old friend. Upon asking, she was immediately excited. It is apparently an old brooch that a friend of hers had given her quite a long time ago, and she hadn't seen it for quite a long time as well, but she noticed it on her kitchen counter the week before last, and had been accessorizing with it since. Immediately intrigued, especially by the timing of her finding it, I asked her if it had been in a trinket dish or something of that sort, but no, it was on an open, clear counter, as if it had walked out and placed itself in a position to be noticed. Seeing my excitement, she volunteered to show the exact spot, and we ventured forth to her cottage. As she had described, in her very neat and tidy kitchen that I had never truly really noticed was so very neat. It did not seem like a place where a trinket could disappear, and the counters she pointed to held nothing but a small tin of special tea that she drinks in the mornings. Now I'm not proud of what I did next, but I was certain there was something there. I turned to my friend, and I offered her right there and then one single favor if she cast a review spell on the brooch, so we could see all of its movements for the past month. Now we all know Pepper is an incurable trickster, when given the power, and access to some of my more ridiculous spells should not be taken lightly. The smile that spread on her face was very worrying, but I put that aside because she was ready to cast the spell. And let me tell you what a little adventure that brooch had been on indeed. If you haven't had the pleasure of witnessing a review spell, let me describe what happens. As you cast it upon the item, a ghost-like apparition of it will start to basically rewind back through all of its actions in the designated amount of time. It is important to remember it is only visible to those holding the oak leaves used to cast the spell. Following the item through Pepper's activities wasn't of interest to us, so she managed in a very complex equation to effectively fast forward, or I guess fast backwards, fast rewind, to where we wanted to start our viewing the moment she found it on the counter. We watched for a while as it just sat there, presumably while she was sleeping for the night. A long enough time that my mind was starting to wander when suddenly the ghost brooch s shot up off the counter and out the window. We scrambled after it, out the window as well, and watched as it bounced in that strange rewinding way across a few planters and up a low hanging branch. Luckily, Pepper's broom was right there, so we both hopped on and followed up the tree. The obviously free falling bounce turned into a more meaningful leaping, as if maybe a squirrel or some sort of creature had been carrying the brooch. Now in this new carrying motion, it leapt onto a tree behind. It stopped there for a while, long enough for us to fly closer and inspect where it had been. It looked to be floating a little off the branch. Perhaps there had been a bird's nest there previously, and sure enough it shot up straight into the air. We followed, as whatever creature had previously had it flew, all the way to a small bush near a park bench, where it sat for quite a while until it faded away. So the brooch had been next to that park bench for longer than the month review spell. And Pepper couldn't even remember the last time she sat on that bench. Now what a delightful set of events, and most definitely in my mind, the subject of the premonition. A brooch who took so long to be found that it took it upon itself to make its own way home. So there we are, a mystery solved. And speaking of, I've left another clue to another part of my bubble spell somewhere in Sage's pages. Good luck finding that. Now for the premonition, for next week, we have been told by Adelaide someone's perfume is going to cause a string of problems. Let's all lay off the perfume for the week, especially with all the wares already being a little bit on edge. In any case, that's all for now, my dear listeners. Thank you for taking me on that adventure. As always, have a soft and safe week. See you next time, here in Willow Tree.