The Skylark Bell - Chapter 1, The Old Farmhouse

In this episode we are introduced to our main character, Magpie, who is just moving into an old farmhouse on the outskirts of a curious little town called Pocket.

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

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TRANSCRIPTION:

Things with Wings Productions, with the support of Whimsical Productions and Collected Sounds presents: Episode 1 of The Skylark Bell.  I am your host Melissa Oliveri.  

In today’s episode we’ll begin our adventure with Chapter 1, The Old Farmhouse, where we are introduced to our main character, Magpie, who is just moving into an old farmhouse on the outskirts of a small town called Pocket.

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

 

“Phew, I think this is the last one!” says Mrs. Phaeton, setting a large box on the dining room table.

“We did it!”  says Magpie, her bright blue eyes twinkling and a proud, excited grin on her face.

Magpie’s real name is Margaret Phaeton; as far as she can remember no one has ever called her by her actual name.  As a baby she was attracted to shiny things, just like the Magpie, and it was her father who gave her the nickname.  Magpie doesn’t remember her father, he left when she was just a baby, so it has always just been her and her mom.  Until today, Magpie and her mom lived in a small apartment in the city, but her mother finally managed to save up enough money for a down payment on a large Victorian farmhouse on the outskirts of Pocket.  

The house is like an old-fashioned dollhouse, with a wraparound porch, peaked roof, reddish-brown siding, and white shutters on the windows.  It sits far back from the road at the end of a long driveway lined with trees.  Large, blooming lilac bushes reach up to the second-storey windows, which are all adorned with window boxes just waiting to be filled.  Tulips and daffodils grow along the bottom of the porch and lush, green fields radiate all around.  Behind the house, a small storage shed is covered in ivy and wild rose bushes whose sweet fragrance drifts through the entire backyard.

Magpie loves the farmhouse.  It feels like it is filled with history, and the energy of the families that lived there before hers.  The massive front door opens to a wide stairway leading to the second storey.  Wide planks of dark wood make up the floors of the house.  The sheen of varnish can still be seen along the edges of the walls in some places, but mostly, an uneven patina has formed in the areas where countless footsteps have tread.

To the right of the entryway, a large opening with pocket doors leads to a dining room which features a large built-in hutch with ornate etchings in its rich, dark wood.  Behind the dining room is the kitchen where bright light filters through ruffled lace café curtains in the windows and a large porcelain sink divides the heavy wooden countertops that line the back wall.  Along the side wall, an old-fashioned turquoise enamel stove gives the kitchen a feel of days gone by, it faces the long kitchen island in the middle of the room.  A row of hand-made wooden stools lined up along the back of the island provides a more casual place to grab a quick bite.  

To the left of the entryway is a spacious living room with a brick fireplace and a thick wood mantle on which someone has left an old clock.  But Magpie’s favourite room is the sunroom; it sits in the back corner of the house, connecting the living room and the kitchen, and is painted bright yellow with white trim around its many windows and along the ceiling and floor.  Through the sheer curtains billowing in the breeze she can see rolling fields of tall grass.  

Upstairs, three mid-sized rooms with creaky wood floors make up the bedrooms.  Two of them face the front of the house while the master bedroom faces the back and connects to a small bathroom with a claw-foot bathtub.  Magpie’s room has a big, bright window looking out toward the front of the house where she can see the quarry and pond across the road.  The uneven floorboards are faded and scratched from years of furniture being moved across them, but Magpie is absolutely charmed by the sense of history.  Her favourite thing about the room is the closet.  Though it is awkward, with its door tucked in the corner of the room, the inside stretching along the entire wall like a tunnel, and its ceiling angled by the roofline of the house, Magpie doesn’t mind that it’s weird.  She plans to use it as a secret hiding place where she can bring a lamp and do some quiet reading or draw sketches.

There are a few remnants of the previous owners strewn throughout the house.  The back shed is filled with gardening tools, a wheelbarrow, shovels and plant pots.  Inside the house, a thick rug sits in front of the stone fireplace and fills up most of the living room, a coat rack stands guard by the front door, and a red antique coffee pot sits on the stove.  The massive oak table in the dining room also came with the house, it shows wear and scratches from decades of family meals and Magpie can’t help but imagine the sounds and smells of holiday dinners with children racing around from room to room.

 “I’m bushed, what do you say we order a pizza and call it a day?” says Mrs. Phaeton, flopping onto one of the kitchen stools. She kicks off her sneakers and brushes a strand of copper coloured hair off her forehead

Magpie giggles, “Mom!  We live in the middle of nowhere, they don’t deliver pizza here!”  they both get caught up in a laughing fit before Magpie offers to walk into town to grab some food to go.

 “Here’s some money, see what you can find and make sure you’re back before it gets dark, ok?”  says her mom.

“Will do!  See you in a bit!” shouts Magpie over her shoulder as she walks out the front door. She steps out into the early evening sun, a gust of wind ruffling her hair. It’ll be her first time venturing into the town of Pocket, and for some reason the thought sends a shiver down her spine…

Thank you so much for listening.  Join me next week as we pursue our adventure and read Chapter 2 of Meadow Lane and the Skylark Bell, where Magpie meets the boy next door who takes her on a tour of the town, and mentions a mysterious old woman named Farfalla.  – So don’t forget to subscribe, you don’t want miss a thing! 

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

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