85 night in the woods - bea's pageant

Dear Readers,

The Ol' Pickaxe was drastically different from the Harfest festivities outside. It was dead silent in here. Bea was here and Danny was here too. I guess he found work.

Bea was like "seriously?" when she saw me. She was stressed about the pageant that she was putting on here and arrangements weren't going so well. She then told me about a thing, that I wouldn't have many lines... She wanted me to be part of it!

She said she had 3 no shows and I asked why. She said it was because this whole thing was stupid and nobody cared about it. She stressed some more and I said I would totally save her butt! I said I had it memorised from when we were kids and she said they rewrote it like 6 times in the past 2 years to be spookier... It was 20% actual history now and 80% spooks. Yeesh.

I said "So it's like fake history now?" and she said it was like the bad remake that doesn't respect the source material. She said I only had a few minutes to look at lines. I said I'd wing it but she begged me not to.

The show started! On the counter top Bea stood along with Danny and another worker. There was an audience here too. They seemed enthusiastic! Bea was like the narrator and said "ye" like we do in Ireland :) She presented Danny and the worker as fur trappers, Brother John and Brother Steven. They spotted a place to quench their thirst and said out their lines as best they could.

I then stepped out onto the counter. I said "Ho! Travellers! Spare a crust of bread for a needy woman?" and the audience giggled and cheered. The brothers dissed me as a witch and I called them cruel. I said "I shall curse ye, and thee,", saying they shall perish this very night. One brother was scared, the other was defiant, I was all cursing. Bea said that I didn't curse in vain, and that was the first act.

The transition chime was kinda nice. The audience really liked the show too!

In the next act, Gregg was part of it! He said stuff like "Zwounds!". One of the brothers despaired over his brother losing his life and I said "A curse upon rude young men!", which, by the sounds of the audience, music and co stars, sounded like the wrong line. Whoops! The right line was about cursing the spring and it carried on from that. Danny dropped from the counter in a dramatic death and so did Gregg, as he drank from it too. I told him not to leave me and he said "Byeeeeee!" haha :) Bea ended the act by saying the curse's lust for blood would not be sated. That was that act.

In the next act, Bea introduced the brothers as the ghosts they now were. They walked off to the left and I walked on. I had lines but I forgot them! Bea helped me by saying "Fooor" and I said "For what is a ghost," and continued the line. Then someone from the right continued the line and walked on. It was the janitor from the bus station! Even though I said so, on stage no less, he introduced himself as the god of the forest. He said he was banishing me to wander through the stranger places and I said "Oh god... how did you know...", which seems to imply about my first night back where I had to walk  home from the bus station! He said he was going to say some wisdom here "at night, in the woods."

Title namedrop!!! Is it all about this pageant and local legend stuff I wonder?

I stared at him and paused for a moment. Bea piped up, saying it was my line. I said "How do you know so much about me?". I chose this because it seemed to be a genuine thing I was asking the janitor, rather than something about the play. Where does the play end and the events of my life begin? :)

The audience seemed to react in a negative way to this. The janitor carried on as god of the forest, saying he knew more than I could ever know as he was as old as these trees. He then said to mind how I went as there were ghosts here(the brothers went "woo!" here) before he walked off to the left. And that was that!

Bea, Danny, the worker, Gregg, and myself stood on the counter again. Bea wrapped up the narrative, saying through these events that Halloween was the dying of the year and the founding of Possum Springs. Danny was dressed as a ghost mayor and the worker said the beaver population was down and now the exports were corn and pumpkins. Gregg said something and I said "Now leave, before I curse you all!!!!". Bea wrapped up the show, telling people to take care and to take a flyer from the Possum Springs Chamber of Commerce. The audience cheered one last time and that was that!