Elle's fictional prose

Bard's Revenge (13+)

Captain O'Leary instructed Mayor Writon to stay put in case his wife returned to the scene of the crime, and Dorothy positioned herself at the police station to await a possible call. Maybe it was a kidnapping, and the perpetrator would call with ransom demands?

Mayor Writon was beside himself, and it was clear that the day's festivities would not begin until the mystery had been unravelled. The public announcement was kept relatively vague, but it was a small town, and it didn't take long for the word to spread. Soon, the local business owners were opening up all their offices and shops, inspecting them all for evidence of theft, damage or even the missing Matilda.

George, a young boy of 12, watched all the adults running hither and to in a panic, and had an idea. He headed out of town along Bardling Track, a rutted route that more closely resembled a goat track than a road, which led to the remains of the old shack that Mr Bard had grown up in.

Sure enough, as George crept closer to the overgrown ruins, he heard muffled shrieks and cries. He was sure it was Matilda. He finally found her, trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey, with a dirty rag in her mouth. Her eyes were wild, and she kept flinging her head about, looking, presumably, for her kidnapper.

George took the rag out of her mouth first, and quickly regretted it.
"It was Mr Bard who took me," she shrieked in his ear, "and he's going to take his revenge on all of us!"
George untied her as quickly as he could, keeping one eye out for the villain, and as soon as Matilda was loose, he took her arm and starting leading her back to town.

It didn't take long for the mayor to be reunited with his wife, but it took much longer for the town to understand what had happened. Apparently the ghost of Mr Bard was greatly disturbed by his private musings and personal belongings being paraded before the townspeople, and finally his rage led him to take drastic measures - stealing his diary back, and kidnapping the mayor's wife. The townsfolk were most penitent, having not realised they'd been tormenting the spirit, and the mayor immediately put together a committee to plan a new way to celebrate Founder's Day in future.


Written 16 September 2017