In this episode Magpie lets us in on her most closely guarded secret, and meets a new, unusual, and unexpected guest!

Music: Nightbridge and Visions by Cannelle (www.cannellemusic.com)

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TRANSCRIPT:

Things with Wings Productions, with the support of Whimsical Productions and Collected Sounds presents: Episode 4 of The Skylark Bell.  I am your host Melissa Oliveri.  

In our last episode,  Magpie had uncomfortable encounter with one of the locals and started doubting she would ever gain the trust of the residents of Pocket. But she did finally learn the name of the abandoned farm across the street, the mysterious Meadow Lane.

In today’s episode we’ll be reading Chapter 4 – A Surprise Guest, where Magpie let’s us in on her most closely guarded secret, and meets a new, unusual, and unexpected guest!

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

“Magpie, have you seen my umbrella?!” Mrs. Phaeton yells from downstairs.

It is mid-morning and rain is gently tapping the outside of the windows. Magpie is sprawled on her bed, concentrating on her notebook.  Without looking up from her sketch she yells, “I think it’s in the back corner of the hall closet!”

Magpie and her mom have been working hard over the past week, unpacking all their belongings and making the big airy farmhouse feel like home.  

In her spare time, Magpie has been hanging out with Lucas, who’s been showing her around town and filling her in on some of its history.  They’ve been exploring the land surrounding Pocket every day, taking long walks through the fields, sitting by the gurgling creek that flows into Pine River, checking out old foundations from buildings that fell apart long ago, and ambling down the dusty road to town, but she still hasn’t managed to get him to open up about Meadow Lane… Yet!

“Found it, thanks!  I’m heading into town for a few groceries, be back soon!” shouts her mom.  Magpie hears the thud of the heavy front door closing and her mom’s footsteps going down the front steps.  She finishes her sketch and jots down a few notes in the margin before closing her notebook and tucking it away safely under her mattress.

Magpie keeps a secret from everyone, even her mother.  From the time she was very young, Magpie has been able to see images from the past come up in her mind, like mini movies, or moving photographs.  These ‘visions’ come to her randomly and she can never tell when they’re going to happen, or why.

Last year, she was at her Grandmother Lillian’s house sitting in an antique rocking chair when she was overcome by an image of an old woman, her snow-white hair up in a bun, sitting in that same rocking chair knitting a green shawl.  A few months later, as Magpie was helping her mom pack some moving boxes, she found a dusty old photo album on the top shelf of a closet.  She flipped through it haphazardly and landed on a faded photograph of the woman from her vision. 

“Who is this?!” she asked her mother, surprised.

“That’s you’re Great-Grandmother, Elizabeth!  I haven’t seen that photograph in years!  Oh, she loved to knit.  When I was a young girl I saw a television show with a girl wearing this nifty red scarf.  I wanted one in the worst way so she knit me one!”  Magpie’s mother kept rambling off memories of Great-Grandma Elizabeth, but Magpie was no longer listening, she had never seen a photograph of someone from one of her visions, and she found it unnerving.  

There have been many other instances where Magpie has had visions of people and places she’s never seen before, so she secretly records everything in her notebook, hoping someday she’ll be able to put all the pieces together; who they are, where they’re from and, most importantly, why they are appearing in her mind!

Magpie gets off her bed, throws on a light sweater and her favourite jeans, and heads down to the kitchen to make herself some toast with jam. Despite the gentle rain still falling, the kitchen is warm and welcoming. Magpie pulls a loaf of French bread from the pantry, cuts two thick slices, and places them in the toaster, then goes to the fridge and grabs a jar of blackberry jam that her mother bought at the farmer’s market over the weekend. The toast pop out of the toaster and she gingerly grabs them and puts them on her plate before spreading each slice evenly with jam from edge to edge.  Holding her plate in one hand, Magpie wanders into the sunroom, watching the rain fade slowly, daydreaming about the people who sat in this very room, looking out these very windows, and what they might have been thinking about, or feeling.  She sits in one of the wicker rocking chairs, quietly savouring the sweetness of the blackberry jam while watching fat rain drops glide along the edges of the leaves on the maple tree outside the window.  

Magpie finishes her toast and takes a deep breath before standing up to walk her empty plate to the sink. She’s halfway across the kitchen when she hears a faint, but distinct scratch at the back door. Looking out, she sees a small cream coloured cat with brown fur on its face, ears and tail.  The cat is looking up at her with large, pleading blue eyes.  Magpie immediately opens the door and scoops up the cat. “You poor thing, you’re all wet!” she exclaims “And you look like you haven’t eaten in a while, either,”  she says, quickly grabbing a bowl from the cupboard.She gets the milk from the fridge and pours some into the bowl. The cat laps it up voraciously, only taking a brief moment to look up at her with gratitude before meowing for more.

The cat’s worn blue collar has a small bell attached, but no identifying tags.  “Where did you come from?”  Wonders Magpie out loud, stroking the top of the cat’s head.  She runs her hand down its side and feels its ribs sticking out.  “Hmmm, it sure doesn’t look like you have a home,” she says, gently scratching between its ears. “I bet mom will be ok with you staying here, we’ve been talking about getting a pet now that we have enough space.” 

“What’s your name?” she asks the cat, as if expecting it to speak up and tell her.  The cat finishes its second serving of milk and saunters toward the sunroom, stretching slowly before hopping onto the window sill and staring at the fields behind the house.  “Hmmm, this is my favourite room, too,” says Magpie, sitting on the wicker loveseat next to the cat and running her hand through the soft fur along its back. Together, they stare out at the fields, watching the dark gray clouds blow across the sky. 

Suddenly, the cat hops from the window sill and reaches delicately under Magpie’s chair with its paw, pulling out a long, bright red thread and playing with it joyfully.  “Where did that come from?!” wonders Magpie out loud,  “Are you trying to tell me something?  Is your name Red?  …Or maybe Ruby?  …Oh, I know, Scarlet!  I’m going to name you Scarlet,”  she says with satisfaction.  

Magpie is concentrating so hard on the cat that she is startled when the phone rings. “Hi Magpie, it’s Lucas,” says the voice at the other end of the line, “I think the rain has stopped, are you ready to go?”

Magpie looks across the room at her boots, “You bet!” she says before hanging up the phone.  

A moment later, she is placing another bowl of milk on the kitchen floor. “I’m sorry but I’ve got to run, Lucas is going to show me Pine River today!” she says to the cat, who sits and stares at her like it knows what she’s saying “but I promise I’ll come back with some cat food, okay?” she adds before cheerfully rushing off to meet Lucas, letting the big wooden door slam shut behind her.

Left alone, the cat saunters out of the sunroom and expertly navigates the empty house, almost like it already knows its way around. It makes its way up the stairs silently on padded feet, and stops just outside the door to Magpie’s room, as if pondering whether to go in. The cat sits down and lets out a quiet meow, then swiftly vanishes into thin air.

  

Thank you so much for listening.  Join me next week as we pursue our adventure and read Chapter 5 of Meadow Lane and the Skylark Bell, where Magpie finally gets Lucas to tell her about the terrible secret that is housed on Meadow Lane.  – So 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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