tales from the town

Tales From The Town #81: Explanations Of Events

“So that’s what happened,” Tina told everyone, having relayed what she overheard her Mum telling Anna and Oya in the kitchen. “I can’t believe it. Right under our noses and we never suspected a thing!”

“I suspected a thing,” Claire said.

“So did I,” Ethel said.

“I suspected it first,” Claire said.

“We all suspected something, Claire,” Tina said. “Just not that thing.”

“Well I suspected everything,” Claire said. “And I was right!”

“Shut up Claire,” Ethel said.

“You shut up!” Claire said back.

“No you shut up!” Ethel said.

“Anyway,” Tina added. “Now we just have to hope someone finds him before he does all this again to somebody else somewhere else sometime else.”

“Before who does all what again to where and when and why?” Daniel asked.

“The LODGER!” Claire shouted. “Who else would we be talking about?”

“I don’t know,” said Daniel. “So what did he do now?”

“Tina just told us what he did, Daniel,” Ethel said.

“Oh,” Daniel said. “I wasn’t listening.”

“Well you should have been listening,” Tina said. “I’m not saying it all again.”

“But I was playing with the cat,” said Daniel.

“That’s no excuse!” Claire said. “We were all playing with the cat and we still heard.”

“Heard what?”

“Heard EVERYTHING!”

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Notes:

1. Written on October 7th, 2022

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Tales From The Town #80: Weather Report

A white heatless sun and a pale quartered moon pass like apparitions in the cloudless skies. Leaves linger on the wind. The only brightness the early fireworks that illuminate the autumnal gloom.

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Notes:

1. Written on May 12th, 2022

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Tales From The Town #79: Beneath The Witch’s Hat

These were just some of the things the dolls had seen the witch pull from beneath her hat as she went about her work, or so they said.

1. Needle. 2. Thread. 3. Wool. 4. Twine. 5. Yarn. 6. Wire. 7. Ligament. 8. Vein. 9. Small patch of cloth. 10. Small patch of leather. 11. Small tuft of hair. 12. Handheld catapult. 13. Model trebuchet. 14. Glass eye (several). 15. Pebbles (various). 16. Marbles (bag of). 17. Earth (handful). 18. Potted plant (japonica). 19. Potted plant (rose, with thorns). 20. Potted plant (assortment of cacti). 21. Potted plant (bonsai). 22. Small hat. 23. Large hat. 24. Medium hat. 25. Clockwork brain. 26. Clockwork heart/lungs. 27. Clockwork Bagpuss. 28. Cloth Bagpuss. 29. Flesh Bagpuss. 30. Newts. 31. Fungal spores. 32. Epoxy resin. 33. Gloy 33. That glue that smells like fish. 34. Doll’s leg (left). 35. Doll’s arm (reversible). 36. Butterfly swarm (as distraction). 37. Night. 38. Telescope. 39. Reading glasses. 39. Writing glasses. 40. Microscope. 41. Electron (singular). 42. Proton (en masse). 43. Molecular model (for illustrative purposes). 44. Skull (mouse). 45. Skull (deer). 46. Skull (own). 47. Skull (other). 48. 17 inch metal spike. 49. 11 inch metal spike. 50. 7 inch wooden spike. 51. Chopstick (wooden). 52. Another chopstick (porcelain). 53. Third chopstick (superfluous). 54. Fluff. 55. Lint. 56. Dust. 57. Shoebox (filled with playing cards). 58. Shoebox (filled with teeth). 59. Shoebox (spiders). 60. Shoebox (misc. other items). 61. Toothbrush. 62. Paint (yellow). 63. Paint (white). 62. Hairbrush. 63. Unidentified herbs . 64. Sausage wrapped in bandages. 65. Bread. 66. Photo of the house. 67. Photo of photo of the house. 68. Well water (bucket of). 69. Eel. 70. Heron. 71. Stopwatch. 72. Polaroid camera. 73. Reading monocle. 74. Writing monocle. 75. 1:5000 scale model of town. 76. The mayor. 77. Conker (on string). 78. Acorn (on string). 79. Walnut (no attachments). 80. Rest of Walnut Whirl. 81. Calipers. 82. Bell jar of unidentified eggs in viscous fluid. 83. Salt. 84. False teeth. 85. Actual lips. 86. Tongue (with working papillae). 87. Napkin. 88. An entire doll. 89. List containing items pulled from beneath the witch’s hat already containing its own entry right there on the page, as well as several subsequent items. 90-99. Several subsequent items.

LIST ENDS

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Notes:

1. Written on April 4th, 2022

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Tales From The Town #78: In The Woods In The Early Autumn

1. The witch only celebrated palindromic birthdays. 101 was her favourite so far. She didn’t consider the single digit years to truly count. Even the two digit ones seemed a little suspect, but she forgave them simply because otherwise she’d have had none before today.

2. An exodus of dolls at dawn. Crawling, walking, tottering, skittering. Past the cherry tree and the swing and the well and the hollow and the copse and the abandoned boat.

3. Not for the witch a present given. Instead, from her a promise extracted. Cackles of glee, watched by eyes wide in terror.

4. Up above, the crows circled above the hill like vultures. In the trees all around squirrels whispered secrets to each other like sentient social media accounts. And down below, cats patrolled the woods like, well, cats. Anything that moved was pounced upon with the utmost glee. Prisoners subsequently released purely so they could be caught again, tormented some more.

5. On their return, the children couldn’t help but notice the way the doll’s dresses were covered in jam, the way their lips were smeared with icing, crumbs speckling their hair like dirt. No amount of questions would make the dolls admit where it was they had been, nor what it was they had done, why it was their eyes were tinged with so much shame.

6. All they would say was that it was done now. There was no turning back.

7. “What does that even mean?!” Claire said loudly.

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Notes:

1. Written on May 17th and 18th, 2022, and also a little bit extra on October 7th, 2022

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Patreon subscribers get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.

(Ko-fi contributors probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more).

Thank you!

Tales From The Town #77: The Lodger (Hints Of Failure)

Smiles like breadcrumbs to some secret glade. Silences as evocative as sunken ships. But in the end there was nothing there but smoke.

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Notes:

1. Written on May 12th, 2022

__________

Support An Accumulation Of Things

If you like the things you've read here please consider subscribing to my patreon or my ko-fi.

Patreon subscribers get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.

(Ko-fi contributors probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more).

Thank you!