The Plot. September 2005

We had been working hard all August, lots of visitors to our B&B, lots of fun. September is a month we always look forward to - not that we are any less busy but it has a different feel to the main block of summer. The light starts to be kinder, there is a more mellow feel to the air. You start to relax.
Perhaps because of this, I had forgotten about my strange postcard of August, so was totally unprepared when, in the second week of September, I picked up the post and found myself looking at another envelope addressed to me, posted from overseas.
I didn't open it immediately but went to find Michael. "It looks like another one." I was waving the envelope under his nose. "Another one what? Keep it still, I can't see a thing if you wave it around like that. What are you talking about?" He had obviously forgotten all about my first delivery.
"Another envelope posted from abroad, Bulgaria this time" Mike looked up. "How do you know it's the same sort of thing?"
I turned it over in my hand. "It has the same sort of feel, addressed to me personally at Firwood Country Bed and Breakfast. I suppose I should open it?"
"What a good idea!" Sarkie husband!
Inside was a little blue envelope with 'Beth' written on the front. Opening revealed a rather superior looking cat called Mackintosh, very handsome indeed.













The inside of the card had pasted in a cut out page from a small calendar with the month of August crossed out.
I just kept looking at it.
"Well? Is it the same? Pass it over. Mmmm, velly intelesting." In not a very good imitation of Peter Sellers. "Who do you think it is from?"
"I haven't a clue. I can't even think. Obviously someone who is travelling - from Germany to Bulgaria? And why the calendar? Why crossed out and a month behind?"
"I suppose it is because they have now left that country..... are they on their way to somewhere else? Do you recognise the writing?"
I looked at it. "Possibly.It seems to remind me of someone - but not who would, or could go out of the country."
I went to fetch the original envelope from August to compare the handwriting. It was possibly, maybe, could be, was.....not the same. I was stumped. I put both postings together and put them back in the drawer. The day's work beckoned.
I found though, that I couldn't quite forget about the cards and over the next week or so, my mind kept coming back to them and musing on their origin and meaning.

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