Magpie has an uncomfortable encounter with one of the locals, and gets the sinking feeling that earning the trust of the residents of Pocket may not be as easy as she hoped. On the bright side, she manages to learn just a little bit more about the mysterious abandoned farm across the street!

Music: Nightbridge and The Early Bird by Cannelle (www.cannellemusic.com)

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TRASCRIPT:

Things with Wings Productions, with the support of Whimsical Productions and Collected Sounds presents: Episode 3 of The Skylark Bell.  I am your host Melissa Oliveri.  

If you recall our last episode, Magpie met her next door neighbour, Lucas Starling, who took her on a tour of the town, but remained guarded when it came to sharing information about the spooky abandoned house across from them, and the mysterious Farfalla. When we left them, the pair had just arrived at the restaurant.

In today’s episode we’ll continue our adventure with Chapter 3 – The Early Bird – where Magpie has an uncomfortable encounter with one of the locals, and gets the sinking feeling that earning the trust of the residents of Pocket may not be as easy as she hoped. On the bright side, she manages to learn just a little bit more about the mysterious abandoned farm across the street!

So get comfortable… grab a blanket, a warm drink… and let’s get started.

Magpie and Lucas have stopped in front of a short walkway.  At the end of it lies a quaint building with turquoise siding and a bright, hand-painted board that reads ‘The Early Bird’ in large, bold letters.  Magpie notices the Open sign in the glass door and heaves a sigh of relief, she was getting nervous that they were going to be too late.  They walk through the door and up to the lunch counter where they each sit on a bright red swiveling stool. Magpie looks around; The Early Bird has a great retro feel, with rows of booths lining each side of the restaurant, black and white tiled floor spreading across the expanse of the dining room and brass light fixtures glowing along the turquoise walls. Being in there almost feels like travelling back in time…

 “What’ll ya have?” asks a dry, scratchy voice.  Magpie turns to see a petite, older woman in a white vintage-style waitress uniform, cap and all, staring at her from across the counter.

“Oh!  Ummm… I guess I haven’t seen a menu yet,” she says politely.

 The woman looks at Lucas, and with a nod in Magpie’s direction says, “She ain’t from here, is she?” in a disapproving tone.

 “Magpie just moved here, she’s living in the house next door to mine,” says Lucas, meeting the waitress’ gaze with steely eyes.  The waitress mutters something under her breath and pushes a paper menu across the counter.

“We close in twenty minutes so yer prolly gonna wanna hurry up and choose.  And we’re outta the meatloaf, just so ya know,” she adds drily.

 “I… we… I guess just a medium cheese pizza… to go, please.”  Magpie can barely speak, she’s completely thrown off by distrust emanating from the woman.  The waitress grabs the menu and scribbles on a ticket, slips it across the shelf between the lunch counter and the kitchen and rings a bell to alert the cook of her order.  

“Have I done something wrong?” whispers Magpie, turning to Lucas.

“Nah.  You know, the people of Pocket have lived here for generations, there hasn’t been a new family in town since… well, I guess mine, when my great-great-grandparents moved here… and they’re just barely starting to trust us!” he says, laughing.  “I’m just kidding about that last part, it’ll be fine, just give it some time,” he adds in a reassuring tone.

Magpie smiles at Lucas’ joke, but she’s only half listening.  Through the opening in the wall between the kitchen and the lunch counter she can hear hushed whispers between the waitress and the cook, who both keep glancing suspiciously back her way. Finally, the waitress comes through the double-hinged door to the right of the lunch counter, a pizza box in tow. 

“That’ll be ten dollars,” says the waitress, holding out her hand.  Magpie pays for her order, grabs the pizza box and she and Lucas leave the diner.  The waitress stands behind the glass door, her eyes fixed on Magpie, and flips the sign to ‘Closed’ as the diner’s brass light fixtures go dark behind her. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

It is now sunset and the sky is quickly getting dark.  Magpie and Lucas walk swiftly down the main street toward their homes. As they near the old abandoned house, Magpie opens her mouth to ask Lucas if he knows anything about its history, but before she can say a word a flock of blackbirds lifts out of the grass, startling them.

“Whoa, that was weird!” says Lucas, his brow furrowed, “You don’t usually see birds near Meadow Lane…”.  

“Meadow Lane?” inquires Magpie, excited to get a little information about the mysterious house.

“Yeah, that’s what that farm is called.  I wasn’t kidding though, you really don’t want to go there,” he says in a very serious tone before continuing down the road at such a fast pace that Magpie can’t keep up without jogging.

He stops briefly at the bottom of his driveway and turns toward her, “Well, enjoy your pizza!  Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow…” he says, his voice trailing off.

“That would be great!” she says, “I’d love for you to show me around some more!”  And around Meadow Lane! she thinks.  She waves at him and jogs a little further to her driveway.

“I was starting to think you got lost!” says Mrs. Phaeton as Magpie comes in the front door.

“I ran into the boy who lives next door, Lucas, he showed me around town a little bit,” Magpie explains, without mentioning Meadow Lane, or the rude waitress at the diner.  “I got us a cheese pizza!” she adds, triumphantly holding up the pizza box.

“Great!  I managed to dig out some napkins,”  says her mom, smiling.  They sit at the kitchen counter together, surrounded by moving boxes, eating pizza and talking about how they’re going to decorate the house and turn it into their home. But at the back of her mind, Magpie can’t stop thinking about the mysterious house on Meadow Lane…

Thank you so much for listening.  Join me next week as we pursue our adventure and read Chapter 4 of Meadow Lane and the Skylark Bell, where Magpie lets us in on her most closely guarded secret, and meets a new, unusual, and unexpected guest – Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe, you don’t want miss a thing! 

Before I go, I’d like to thank Phaeton Starling Publishing for this fantastically eerie story, and Cannelle Elanion for composing equally fantastic and eerie music for this podcast.

 

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