Return to New Arden

Don't be a donkey

It began as a school project to interview a community member. Elsie Major who fancied herself a future journalist chose the police force as her target. When she first contacted sergeant Nick Bottom he didn't want to talk but with some persistent wheedling she whittled down his resistance until he agreed.

So it was on a Saturday afternoon Elsie came waltzing up the drive to his beachfront house. She was met by Mrs Bottom at the front door who ushered her out onto the back deck and offered them ice tea. After some pleasantries Elsie fished out her phone and set it to record. What follows is Nick's story.

"My name is Nick Bottom, I work on the New Arden police force. Many people see New Arden as a quiet beachside town but there are powerful undercurrents here. I would even go so far as to say the town is divided into factions."

"The most obvious cause for disquiet is of course Club Oberon. I would say that there are a lot of drugs that move through that establishment, but getting samples has proved difficult. People also have a nasty habit of disappearing."

Elsie leaned forward and made a note but did not interrupt.

"Getting people to talk is very hard in this business. We often get such garbled stories, this one remembers this, that one remembers something different and then there are the ones that remember things that could not possibly have happened. So far we have not managed to convict anyone at the club."

"Who runs it?" asked Elsie

"A nasty piece of work named Oberon. I have even heard people refer to him as a king. He's an imposing personage, I'll give him that. I met him once and I found I could not speak in his presence."

"You said there were factions?"

"Yes that brings me to Titania or Lady T as she prefers to be known. I think that back in the day she and Oberon had a thing but they are as different as chalk and cheese. Where he is all darkness and menace, she is a glittering light. That said some strange things go on up at her establishment too. Tom Woods swears his wife disappeared because of her interference but we have not found anything to substantiate his claim. We also suspect she helped put some fake makeup on the market but we can't get a sample of that either."

"Is there anyone else in town we should know about?"

"Well I wouldn't call him a menace exactly but there is this young character named Puck. Sometimes he goes by the name of Robin Goodfellow as well. Now you may only know Puck's place for it's coffee but at night he runs with a whole different crowd."

"But that's not illegal."

"No it is not, what is illegal though is all the gambling that goes on there. Yet again this is not something I can prove, lets just say that I have sources who have seen things. It is most frustrating, once I thought we had the evidence only to find the money had changed into a bag of leaves in the morning. That kind of thing happens on a regular basis but I can't catch who's doing it."

"Is Puck connected to Oberon and Titania?"

"This is the most difficult thing to work out. I would say he has an ear in both camps. I was at Puck's place once and in comes Oberon with a whole group of beautiful winged women and he sits down to watch the comic. Then a moment later Titania strolls in with a coterie of handsome young men and she sits on the other side of the room from him. The two of them don't say a word to each other but you could cut the air with a knife. Then out runs Puck and he's going from one side of the room to the other carrying messages back and forth between them like the child of a bad divorce. I would have loved to know what all that was about."

"What do you think it was?"

Sargeant Granger leaned forward and asked, "Can this be off the record."

Elsie quickly switched her phone off.

"What I think is that it's fairies. I think perhaps they really are the king and queen of the fairy court and I'll tell you why. When I was young, I got lost in the forest up in the mountains and I swear I met her, Titania that is. I was a complete Ass but she told me she loved me and for a while it was like being in paradise but it was also all kinds of topsy turvy. Then that Puck turns up and has me running ragged through the woods, he says Oberon is her king and I had better never come back. When I got home it took me a while to feel my normal self again, there were the ears for one thing. I don't think they remember me from that time but I remember them."

Elsie stared at the sergeant, she was sure now that he was completely crazy. Even as she thought this, similar stories whispered in the back of her mind. In the end she didn't want to believe any of it. Elsie packed up her things and politely left. Perhaps there was still time to find another community member to speak with. Nick smiled, sometimes it was good to let the truth out even if there was no way he would be believed.