Return Of The Ring: Bedtime Tale

In this bedtime story, you head to a quaint village where you visit an antique shop. You are seeking a ring lost by your great-great-grandmother. You are greeted in the shop by an owl. The owl recommends you visit another shop. You head to this shop where the shopkeeper is a magpie. They try and help you find the ring.

Unfortunately, you don't find the ring. They lend you a bottle that contains a genie. The genie helps you get the ring back to your great-great-grandmother.

Transcript

So just take a moment to allow your eyes to close and allow yourself to begin to relax.

With your eyes closed I don't know whether you'll drift to sleep faster to the sound of my voice or whether it will be to the spaces between my words.

And as you comfortably fall asleep I'm just going to tell this bedtime story in the background.

And you find yourself walking into a quaint antique shop in a small English village.

And as you enter the antique shop so the door trings with a bell and you close that door behind you and you can smell the smell of old things.

And this shop has a distinctly antique shop scent and you walk around the antique shop looking at the different items as you go admiring glassware on some of the shelves,

The crockery,

Some plates standing on display,

Some brass ornaments,

Some wooden boxes containing knick knacks and rummaging through those feeling the weight of them as your fingers move them around.

The sound of moving those around under your fingertips,

Seeing some interesting and curious paintings on the walls and heading deeper and deeper into the shop.

And at the back of the shop is a counter and so you head up to that counter and on the counter is a bell and you ring that bell and then you wait for a moment for the shopkeeper to come and serve you.

You're here looking for a specific ring and after a few moments from behind a curtain behind the counter an elegant owl with small glasses perched on the tip of their beak walks through to greet you and with a hoot to their voice and a pleasant tone to their attitude they welcome you to their shop and ask what you're searching for and you explain that you're looking for a specific ring and you give a description of this ring,

The green stone in the centre of the ring,

The gold trim to the ring and the owl pulls out a few trays,

Scours through those trays but can't find the ring that you're looking for and you explain that you'd been told that the ring might be in this location,

In this antique shop,

That it was lost by your great great grandmother when she visited this town many moons ago and you've read her diary which spoke of her sadness at losing the ring here and through your investigations you're told that this antique shop is the best place to start to try to find it that if it had been found in this area it would probably end up here and the owl explains that they haven't seen it and they've been here a long time but if you're after an investigator you might be able to find it,

They know just the person and they hand you a card and you thank them and you leave the shop and out of the shop you look at the card and you read the name on the card and you read Hope McFreckles and so you head to the red telephone box down the street you walk into that telephone box door closing heavily behind you,

You pick up the receiver hearing the dialing tone you place the card down on the little shelf beside the telephone and you turn the dial for each number,

One number waiting for it to turn back and the next number waiting for it to turn back and the next number and you do this for each number and then you wait a moment and then the phone starts to ring and then you hear a voice at the other end answer saying hi Hope speaking and you explain your predicament and how the owl who runs the antique store had recommended that perhaps they could help and they tell you to come along to their place and they'll see you right away and so you thank them and hang up,

You pick the card up and put it into your pocket push with your shoulder to open the heavy phone box door which swings shut almost faster than you're able to get out and you walk along the cobbled streets of this village just as the distant sound of the church bells ring and you head down the street round the corner along the edge of a park and a pond listening to birds singing in the trees,

Feeling the warmth of the most beautiful countryside sun and then down another street where there's a row of small shops and as you walk so you look at the names of each shop and you're looking for the flaming sword and you see the shop with the ornate writing saying flaming sword above the door and its slight curved window and the display of bric-a-brac in the window and you enter into this shop and you meet Hope McFreckles who turns out to be a magpie and she explains she's very good at coming by things and she asks for more details about what you're searching for and she pulls out a strange device and on that device which has a slight green glow to it that's almost like a TV without a screen she seems to tap in coordinates or something in mid-air as you talk and she says she's entering in the coordinates in space as well as the coordinates in time to try and pinpoint exactly where and when the ring was lost and she identifies the location and says that she can close up the shop for a moment and together you can head to that location and she'll take a scanner a little bit like a metal detector only it looks more like a brass pipe and she'll scan and try and find the ring and so you head with Hope hoping that Hope can help and you make some small talk asking about this unusual town as you walk to the location down a bridleway along some fields behind a hedge or two and through a forest over a hill where Hope says this is the location and she begins to scan the ground and it looks like she's just waving that pipe across the ground you can't hear anything or tell exactly what it's doing and after a little while she says it doesn't seem to be here now she can find a disturbance in the ground where it once probably was she can find evidence that there were footprints in this location back in that time but there's no evidence of any of that here now and so Hope says she has one more potential way of dealing with this and helping and together you head back to her shop she asks you to wait for a moment while she heads out the back of her shop and you can hear her rummaging around,

You can hear clattering,

The sound of moving boxes and then the sound of acknowledging the discovery of something and she hands you an old dusty green bottle and she says to you here this will help and you ask what you're supposed to do with it and how it is supposed to help she explains that when you get outside and find a quiet location off the beaten track where no one's looking sit down,

Relax and then just clean the bottle and she says just remember to return the bottle when you're done with it and explains that she doesn't lend this bottle out very often and so you thank her and you leave the shop you head back towards where that location was where the ring was lost you know that to be a quiet location and while there you find a fallen down tree you sit down on the trunk of that tree you place the bottle in front of you you take a moment just admiring the view thinking about what you're doing looking at that bottle curious why you should clean it and what you're supposed to gain from cleaning the bottle and then you decide okay here we go you pick up the bottle and with your sleeve you begin to brush off the dust and you begin to rub the bottle and make it clean until you can see your face in the glass and you feel a sense of pride and satisfaction and something almost therapeutic about cleaning that bottle up and as you place the bottle down following cleaning it the strangest thing happens the air pressure seems to get slightly heavier heavy enough that you notice it clouds seem to draw in the bottle seems to be shaking and vibrating and that shaking and vibrating seems to be almost imperceptible it's just making it look like the bottle is very slightly fuzzy and out of focus and then out of the bottle erupts a green mist and that green mist becomes thicker and more dense as it seems to rise a certain distance above the bottle and then just stop and yet more mist is rising behind it and so the mist just seems to be filling up a specific location in space and as that mist continues to fill that location so you notice the mist seems to be taking on a form and you watch as that mist continues to pour from the bottle and then you notice the mist gently starting to move almost like it's a being and the mist starts to form the shape of a being and then just as the mist stops rising from the bottle so the being comes crashing down with a thud to the ground and it looks like a large green cow and it shakes its head and the green seems to fall from it like dust from a shelf and the cow now just looks like a normal cow and it coughs a little in a very human kind of way before starting to talk explaining that it's the genie in the bottle and it has no name they've only ever been referred to as the genie and people really only care about it being a genie they don't think of it as having a name and to them their time in the bottle is timeless they have no awareness when they're in the bottle and only have awareness when they're out of the bottle so to them the last thing they remember is the last time they were outside the bottle just moments before they went last into the bottle and they explain they take on the form of something that makes sense for the person who's called them up and the location they've been called up and here with all this grass around in the British countryside a short distance from a quaint village no one would suspect a cow no one would think oh look there's a genie the only thing people might find strange is seeing somebody talking to a cow and the genie explained that to everyone else they only hear the sound of a cow mooing the only person that can hear a voice is the person who called up the genie so anyone walking by will hear them talking to the genie but they'll think the person's just talking to a cow and they'll just hear the cow mooing and mooing and so the genie asks why they were called up and explained you've only got three wishes and the person says that they were reading their great-great-grandmother's diary and they read a love story about their great-great-grandmother and great-great-grandfather and she had worn the ring he'd given her for their whole lives together and they'd met in this town and they used to come back to this town every single year and they used to come to this spot and look at the view and then year after year following the great-great-grandfather's passing she continued to come here and she came here even when she was very frail but once she became very frail while sitting here one day unknown to her her ring fell from her finger and she didn't feel it at first and her fingers were frail and more skeletal than they had been in her youth and like every trip here she left feeling her husband in her heart,

Feeling the joy and the pleasure,

The memories of their time together feeling the warmth of that almost like he was here with her,

Almost like he would be sat beside her with his arm wrapped around her and she could deeply sense that feeling of love,

The closeness with her husband and she was so preoccupied and absorbed in those feelings as she left she made it all the way through the village onto the train and travelled all the way back home before almost coming out of her psychical reverie she'd been in and then realising once home the ring was missing and in her diary it spoke of how she felt the ring was likely lost in this location it must have fallen off her finger,

It had become more loose on her finger over the years but when she returned the following year which was the earliest chance she had she was unable to find the ring and every year until she joined her husband she visited this place,

Searched for the ring and tried to enjoy those times like she had been before,

Reminiscing about her husband but it was now clouded by a pang of guilt at losing such a precious item that bound them together she always found there was something magical about this place,

It was like a village at the end of the world with strange characters and curious stories to be told and her husband and herself loved this place,

Enjoyed visiting this location and you tell the genie that your biggest wish is that you can somehow find that ring but you don't know exactly if wishes are real,

Whether that's the wish you should make,

Because if wishes are real there's an even greater wish that you would choose and the genie asks you to go on and you explain if it's true that wishes are real,

You came out here to find the ring hoping you'd be able to almost talk to the sky and say I found it,

You can rest now and feeling a sense of closure on behalf of your great great grandmother however if wishes are real then you wonder if it's possible to somehow reunite your grandmother with the ring at the time that she lost it so that she doesn't leave here without it and the genie says that that wish can be made real and in that moment the world around yourself and the cow and you tell the genie that your biggest wish is that you can somehow reunite your grandmother with the ring at the time that she lost it back to a point where it's the night of the lost ring and the genie tells you to move from your place to head into the tree line with them and together you head into the tree line watching from the trees and from the trees you see your great great grandmother arrive you see her,

Sit down in a somber kind of way,

Be still,

Be silent,

Be thoughtful you see her lower her hands down beside her and notice the ring fall off her finger into the long grass and then the genie takes a step and as their foot lands back down on the ground in a flash the foot is a squirrel's paw and they've turned themselves into a small squirrel and they scurry out from the tree line and you watch and they tentatively as a squirrel would scurry over towards the great great grandmother and they tentatively head round in front of the great great grandmother and then burrow their nose into the grass and as a lover of animals she finds herself pleasantly watching this curious squirrel and then as the squirrel lifts its nose from the grass she sees that instead of a nut or some other item of food in its mouth it's holding her ring and she looks at her hand and sees that the ring is missing from her finger and you notice that she gets a slight twinge in her heart but realising she'd almost lost the ring and a smile to her face and tears to her eyes as she looks down at that squirrel and the squirrel moves forward and jumps up beside her and carefully places the ring down beside her and she thinks that squirrel as she picks the ring up and puts it back on her finger and talks to the squirrel as if it would understand thanking the squirrel saying I nearly lost that and how precious that ring is she then reaches into her handbag pops open her handbag and pulls out some dainty white lace gloves and places the gloves on her hands the squirrel scurries off the great great grandmother says goodbye and continues watching and enjoying being in the moment and you almost have a sense as if you see a slight ghostly figure wrap an arm around her pull her in close and lean in with their head and you almost have a sense that you see her reciprocate as if she's aware that this is happening and as the genie is scurried back to you you watch until the experience is over until you see the great great grandmother leave knowing that she now has that ring and it isn't lost and then the world around you fizzes,

Pulsates,

Spins and changes again as you find yourself back in your normal time and the genie is back as a cow and you head back out into that clearing and the genie says I hope that that was helpful and that everything is done and you decide to take the diaries from that point that you have on you out of your bag to take a look at them and sitting with the genie you read through those diaries skimming through some areas and reading other areas seeing that the ring was never lost and she describes the experience with the squirrel how she'd nearly lost that ring and how from that moment on she almost never took off the dainty white lace gloves and it became a feature she became known for but for years and years she wore these white lace gloves and she never explained why she started wearing them and why she wouldn't take them off she only ever took them off at times when she knew it was safe to do so where she could place the ring safely down like washing her hands before putting the ring back on and then the gloves back on but whenever anyone saw her she always had those gloves on and yet you know it was to make sure the ring never got lost and you thank the genie for their help and the genie explains you still have two more wishes if you'd care to use them but you feel that you have no need for wishes for your life will be what it is you did what it was you wanted to do and so the genie says goodbye and in a puff of green smoke vanishes back into the bottle and you take that bottle back to that store you head into the flaming sword you speak to Hope McFreckles and you explain that you've achieved what you set out to achieve and you thank them for lending you that bottle and they take the bottle from you taking a look at it and smiling and saying this will probably sit on a shelf for another hundred years to be dusty for the next person who needs it who has the right heart to manage being given the choice where they can wish for anything and you ask them about this place saying that your great great grandmother said there was magic here and clearly she was right because here is where that bottle is with the genie and there's also a shop run by an owl who talks and a shop run by a magpie who talks and you've not been in any of the other shops to know who or what runs them and they explain this is a magical village nothing ever dies here it's a village of hope and love where spirits come to stay with each other and so you say goodbye and head back through the village and then you head home but you put something in your diary because you have a curiosity you put the date in your diary that's the anniversary of the date that your great great grandmother used to head to this location every single year and you head back to the village on that date you stay in a quaint bed and breakfast run by two of the most lovely otters and on the evening of the anniversary of when your great great grandmother visits here you head through the clearing through the woodland you head to that location and you sit and you wait and you have this sense that you see two almost ethereal hazy figures walk out into the clearing sit down together and arm in arm just sit there watching the evening sky listening to nature enjoying the peace of this moment and then as the experience comes to an end they stand up and like they've probably done many times when alive and many times since they both passed on they walk away from that location only this time instead of walking straight back the way they came you notice them veer towards you these hazy figures shimmering translucent stopping before you reaching down touching your hands and you see the faces,

Smiles,

The eyes,

The love and compassion,

The gratitude for what you did last time you were here before continuing to leave this area and walking back through the woodland and you sit there for a moment longer absorbing and processing the experience before going into your bag opening a tiny jewellery box you have and looking at that ring and holding that ring knowing you're the only person who knows that the story changed that that ring was initially lost to time and only you know that because everyone else has only ever known but when the great great grandmother passed away she left that ring in the family and it continued to pass down through the family no one was aware there's another timeline where it was lost and now you have it in your possession a sign of love,

Compassion,

Connection with others and the world around you and with this magical quaint unusual English village and you head back to the B&B you head to bed you settle down for the night and drift and float so peacefully so comfortably asleep into slumberland