Earnest Heinz glumly turned the 'Open'-sign around on his door and gazed sullenly out of his store window at
the reason for the lack of footfall to his Dry-Goods Store. The ridiculously-named Fessel Cloud Walkway was
still there, the massive pair of four-hundred year-old oak pillars wrapped in thick ropes and anchored down with
chains into the bedrock above the heavily-arboraceous chasm it was erected to traverse.
It was still too early in the day for the supposedly-mysterious cloud to appear on the wooden crossing and the
grocer wistfully realised the once-hoped-for notoriety of such a wonder had become as intangible as the rolling
vapour that engulfed the midpoint of the now-obvious burthen. The people from the surrounding villages had
failed to show with their purses ready to buy from his store, those of wealthy backgrounds had never arrived
in their swanky chariots to ogle at the useless pathway to nothingness and purchase away their desires in his
inherited establishment.
No, the swaying monument to absurdity was a duck egg and as Earnest watched the figure in the dark-brown
duster standing close to one of the bridge's pillars,
With a very old warm-water brook flowing down through the wide ravine on its way to the Great Sea, the midpoint
of the two-man-broad bridge would disappear every late-afternoon when clouds of balmy condensation rises from
the lush foliage. This natural phenomena was captivating enough to cause Percy Fessel -the owner of the nearby
Borax mine sited on the other side of gorge, to purchase the land from Earnest's now-deceased father and have
the planked-walkway built across the void.
Up to this point, Fessel's current mule-drawn vehicles had used the stone bridge that spanned a narrower part of
the deep chasm a full league to the east. The same conventional overpass that involved Calder's Way stretching
north. But now with a shorter passage available to the excavation of the highly-cherished salt-crystal, the wagons
would pass the Heinz's premises and Earnest gratefully accepted the occasional trade the journey caused.
However, when the mules began to violently protest at their journey across the slowly swinging platform, Fessel
reluctantly agreed with his employees to return to their original route and the fancy trestle was accepted as a folly.
But in regards of extracting any tourist-generated prestige from the nebulous cloud formation around the suspension
bridge's centre, this only lasted until winter came down over Bowes County and the inconvenient incidents of visitors
going missing.
Something that explained why the funereal grocer standing at his door spotted someone he recognised standing close
to the Walkway's entrance. It was Wilbur Delphi... Constable Wilbur Delphi.
.................................................................
"...And being an elected officer of Munderville and this shire, it is my task to solve the problem of the vanishings of the
four ladies that crossed yon transit" Constable Delphi assured his only audience to the statement. The single spectator
adorned in a scuffed pinafore nodded absently as he adjusted his sleeve garters and needlessly went back to tidying
a shelf behind his counter. "Well Sir, I'd say that you've certainly got your work cut out" Earnest replied and wondered
if the policeman would buy anything.
Wilbur Delphi raised his bushy eyebrows, features that matched his moustache that hung down on either side of his
mouth. Heinz's suggestion was accurate, but what the skinny shopkeeper hadn't grasped was that the proximity of
his establishment placed him in the paddock of suspects. "Nobody is beyond my suspicion and I'll leave no stone
unturned" Wilbur softly assured the owner of the failing business and stepped close to the front door in order to
gaze out at the assumed crime scene.
Nobody had ever lived in the gorge, a fact that Wilbur discovered from conversations with Fessel employees and the
mine owner himself. With the Borax carts now using Calder's Way again, Heinz would normally be a prime candidate,
but during two of the disappearances, a wholesaler with the odd name of Pudding over at Munderville had informed him
that the grocer spent the whole day purchasing stock at his place. "Maybe the Kaffajinn got 'em" Eugene Pudding
had quipped as Wilbur had turned to untie his horse and it was this dark badinage that had led him to next step.
Wilbur Delphi's appointment was fairly new and with the idea that local law enforcement was becoming more important
by those in positions of power and wealth, the middle-aged man had foreseen a fair future for himself as long as he kept
boffo options open when addressing a crime. The silly legend of the invisible demon had been around for a long time and
Pudding's boffo-notion that these strange evaporations may involve a possible paranormal aspect, the strait-laced officer
had thought it prudent to request a Midnight Mail carrier to seek out someone appropriate in this sort of business.
It was this person the priggish officer was now waiting for in the Heinz Dry-Goods Store.
The quietude that settled in the outlet was somehow pleasing to the stuffy agent of Bowes County waiting at the door
and yet he knew that vital counsel could still be gleaned from the thin-framed man humming to himself as he handled
wax-papered packages behind the counter. Delphi speculated his requested partner in solving these confusing atrocities
would ask such questions and so it may be prudent to have the answers when she turned up.
Clearing his throat, the conventional constable stepped stiffly up to the dark-grained barrier between himself and the
engaged grocer and coughed again to accentuate his need to begin his interrogation of Earnest Heinz. "Now listen
here my good-man, if you do have anything that could help us with the..." He paused to underscore his dislike on
implying the women were dead, "...with the exodus of these ladies, it may be now would be a better time to donate
such information."
"If its not the bloomin' Kaffajinn showin' up agin', Ah'll eat me-hat" a voice stated from behind the two men and
turning to see who had broadcast this unusual proclamation, they both showed signs of bewilderment. Earnest
Heinz's door was open and standing there was Constable Delphi's imminent companion, a woman with dirty feet
and a wearing the submitted meal on her head.
the reason for the lack of footfall to his Dry-Goods Store. The ridiculously-named Fessel Cloud Walkway was
still there, the massive pair of four-hundred year-old oak pillars wrapped in thick ropes and anchored down with
chains into the bedrock above the heavily-arboraceous chasm it was erected to traverse.
It was still too early in the day for the supposedly-mysterious cloud to appear on the wooden crossing and the
grocer wistfully realised the once-hoped-for notoriety of such a wonder had become as intangible as the rolling
vapour that engulfed the midpoint of the now-obvious burthen. The people from the surrounding villages had
failed to show with their purses ready to buy from his store, those of wealthy backgrounds had never arrived
in their swanky chariots to ogle at the useless pathway to nothingness and purchase away their desires in his
inherited establishment.
No, the swaying monument to absurdity was a duck egg and as Earnest watched the figure in the dark-brown
duster standing close to one of the bridge's pillars,
With a very old warm-water brook flowing down through the wide ravine on its way to the Great Sea, the midpoint
of the two-man-broad bridge would disappear every late-afternoon when clouds of balmy condensation rises from
the lush foliage. This natural phenomena was captivating enough to cause Percy Fessel -the owner of the nearby
Borax mine sited on the other side of gorge, to purchase the land from Earnest's now-deceased father and have
the planked-walkway built across the void.
Up to this point, Fessel's current mule-drawn vehicles had used the stone bridge that spanned a narrower part of
the deep chasm a full league to the east. The same conventional overpass that involved Calder's Way stretching
north. But now with a shorter passage available to the excavation of the highly-cherished salt-crystal, the wagons
would pass the Heinz's premises and Earnest gratefully accepted the occasional trade the journey caused.
However, when the mules began to violently protest at their journey across the slowly swinging platform, Fessel
reluctantly agreed with his employees to return to their original route and the fancy trestle was accepted as a folly.
But in regards of extracting any tourist-generated prestige from the nebulous cloud formation around the suspension
bridge's centre, this only lasted until winter came down over Bowes County and the inconvenient incidents of visitors
going missing.
Something that explained why the funereal grocer standing at his door spotted someone he recognised standing close
to the Walkway's entrance. It was Wilbur Delphi... Constable Wilbur Delphi.
.................................................................
"...And being an elected officer of Munderville and this shire, it is my task to solve the problem of the vanishings of the
four ladies that crossed yon transit" Constable Delphi assured his only audience to the statement. The single spectator
adorned in a scuffed pinafore nodded absently as he adjusted his sleeve garters and needlessly went back to tidying
a shelf behind his counter. "Well Sir, I'd say that you've certainly got your work cut out" Earnest replied and wondered
if the policeman would buy anything.
Wilbur Delphi raised his bushy eyebrows, features that matched his moustache that hung down on either side of his
mouth. Heinz's suggestion was accurate, but what the skinny shopkeeper hadn't grasped was that the proximity of
his establishment placed him in the paddock of suspects. "Nobody is beyond my suspicion and I'll leave no stone
unturned" Wilbur softly assured the owner of the failing business and stepped close to the front door in order to
gaze out at the assumed crime scene.
Nobody had ever lived in the gorge, a fact that Wilbur discovered from conversations with Fessel employees and the
mine owner himself. With the Borax carts now using Calder's Way again, Heinz would normally be a prime candidate,
but during two of the disappearances, a wholesaler with the odd name of Pudding over at Munderville had informed him
that the grocer spent the whole day purchasing stock at his place. "Maybe the Kaffajinn got 'em" Eugene Pudding
had quipped as Wilbur had turned to untie his horse and it was this dark badinage that had led him to next step.
Wilbur Delphi's appointment was fairly new and with the idea that local law enforcement was becoming more important
by those in positions of power and wealth, the middle-aged man had foreseen a fair future for himself as long as he kept
boffo options open when addressing a crime. The silly legend of the invisible demon had been around for a long time and
Pudding's boffo-notion that these strange evaporations may involve a possible paranormal aspect, the strait-laced officer
had thought it prudent to request a Midnight Mail carrier to seek out someone appropriate in this sort of business.
It was this person the priggish officer was now waiting for in the Heinz Dry-Goods Store.
The quietude that settled in the outlet was somehow pleasing to the stuffy agent of Bowes County waiting at the door
and yet he knew that vital counsel could still be gleaned from the thin-framed man humming to himself as he handled
wax-papered packages behind the counter. Delphi speculated his requested partner in solving these confusing atrocities
would ask such questions and so it may be prudent to have the answers when she turned up.
Clearing his throat, the conventional constable stepped stiffly up to the dark-grained barrier between himself and the
engaged grocer and coughed again to accentuate his need to begin his interrogation of Earnest Heinz. "Now listen
here my good-man, if you do have anything that could help us with the..." He paused to underscore his dislike on
implying the women were dead, "...with the exodus of these ladies, it may be now would be a better time to donate
such information."
"If its not the bloomin' Kaffajinn showin' up agin', Ah'll eat me-hat" a voice stated from behind the two men and
turning to see who had broadcast this unusual proclamation, they both showed signs of bewilderment. Earnest
Heinz's door was open and standing there was Constable Delphi's imminent companion, a woman with dirty feet
and a wearing the submitted meal on her head.
Read The TV Guide, yer' don't need a TV.