Birch Manor -- Unicorn Farm Revisited

"Susan," Knud said one day. "Now it's summer, the sun is shining and all the children are coming in a week's time. I think we need a mini-vacation before the invasion?"
"What are you thinking about," Susan asked. "You know, I'm always ready for an outing or two - as long as it does not involve too much social mingling. For being a witch, I'm actually rather shy."

"Yes, yes my own sociophobic witch," Knud said smiling. "I know you are. But the trip I have in mind does not involve any people - that is, except for bus drivers, ticket inspectors, waitresses, etc. along the way. I would like to go back to Unicorn Farm."
"To the Unicorn Farm!"  Susan exclaimed. "Yes, why have we never thought about it. Do you think there is anything left at all? The farm burned down, and it's been a long time and all that."

A few days later, Knud and Susan were again biking to the station. The bikes were loaded; they carried a tent and sleeping bags, backpacks, and of course Susan's old brown suitcase.
"It's just like when we were young, just the two of us and a tent," Susan said happily as they finally got off the train after a few hours of rumbling in different trains. They found the bus onwards, there was plenty of time and after another half hour they were as close to Unicorn Farm as they could get. "Phew," Susan said, "why didn't we bring our bikes along? I did not think this trip was quite as long when I was young, but now ... sigh."
"Yes, we are not used to long hikes any more," said Knud, "It's probably good for us."
"You sound just like Thora," Susan said with a longing smile. "She also always teased poor Gilvi."
"Poor Gilvi! I beg your pardon! He was not poor. He was amazing."

The terrain had not changed, but new houses had been built, the old ones renovated, re-painted, expanded and so on in the past over 50 years. The roads were not simple dirt roads any longer, but broad tarmac roads with lamp posts, road signs, house numbers and so on.
"Well," Susan said, "I remember the name of the road, my aunt and uncle's summerhouse was on, but not the number - only that it was somewhere around the two-hundreds." She said as they found a winding path down to the cliffs. "So, let's go down there and follow the path along the edge. It might be easier for me to recognize the houses from the sea side."
But even the face of the cliffs had changed. Finally Susan stopped. "I think this is it, do you see that row of trees, that could well be the line separating the lands of the Unicorn Farm from the rest of the island ... at least I think it is. That house up there could be my aunt and uncle's summer house. and the cliff has the right lay here, not as tall as I remember, but I was smaller then," Susan said with an insecure smile.
Knud lookd at the house, the line of trees, and finally back at Susan. "I always arrived via the road, and as soon as the portal was built, I used that exclusively, so my memories are quite vague," Knud said shaking his head, "And I was not out there wand-singing every now and then. Let's get closer. Maybe that will help."
They left the cliff and walked over to and along the line of trees. Behind the trees the land was still mostly virgin land. Some houses had been built, but it was clear that the building boom had subsided before reaching this end of the island.

***

They found a trail leading through the hedge, Susan thought she recognised it as the place where she went trough the trees on her very first visit, but she was still uncertain, The trees had grown, some had been cut down, new had grown in to fill the holes, and it had spread, it was no longer a nice line of trees and large bushes, but an unruly giant hedgerow. No more was it only one of each tree, but still the variety was bigger than in any other hedgerow.
  "If I am right," Susan said, turning to Knud, who followed her at a respectful distance, to avoid the swiping, long, thin branches, "the Farm building will be ahead and left of us when we get trough this thicket."
  She pushed away some more branches and wormed her way through. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "There's a small forest placed where I'd expect the Farm to be!"
  "Makes sense, Knud said, joining her, "If it was left to itself after burning, it would be very overgrown today. Let's have a look." And he set off towards the copse of trees. Susan walked slowly after him. Holding back. She did not know whether she wanted it to be the ruins of Unicorn Farm or NOT to be the ruins
  "Come here!" Knud called. "I think I've found something!" And he had. Between the trees a perfect square arose.
  "Susan looked at it. ""This is a chimney, she said. "From the placement, I'd say it's the kitchen chimney. Let me see, if it is, there has to be a wall connected to it there," she pointed to the furthest corner. Knud put down his backpack and had a go at the ground with his staff. Yes, here's stones under the turf, they turn here, he said, jabbing the iron spiked end of the staff through the grass again and again, marking the jabs that hit stone. "Yes,!" Susan said excitedly. "This is where the Nisser used to cook, they called it an inglenook." Do you remember that new years party?" Knud nodded. "we sat here, Kensuke and me, peeling that giant root. Now it's a normal thing, but back then Daikon were a new, strange thing to eat. Teiko prepared that root, and it tasted lovely. It was at that party, I overheard Tristan and Torben's plans for taking over the government."
  Something white fluttered in the gentle breeze. "What was that?" Knud asked.
  "What was what?" Susan asked, looking at him. She had been lost in the past recounting the happenings of that long gone party.
  "I saw something, something white, big and fluttery." He shook his head, "and I feel chilled. Like a cloud covered the Sun. Maybe it's just from thinking of Torben and Tristan."
  An uncanny laughter sounded from above them, and cold tendrils touched Susan's arm. Then the cold feeling enveloped her, and a moaning, dreadful sound came from behind her.
  "No," Susan said. "I think I know what, or rather who it is."
  "Percy!" Knud exclaimed.
  Susan just nodded smiling. "Percy, is that you?" she added. "Are you still here?" A white thing came rushing by and paused in the old chimney.
  "Yes, I'm Percy," a disembodied voice sounded from the whiteness. "But who are you, coming here and speaking of those terrible people here of all places? Why can't I scare you away?"
  "Because we know you. Don't you recognise us? I'm Susan, and this is Knud."
  "You're lying." Percy said flatly. "Susan is like 16 or 17 years old and you're what? 60? same goes for Knud."
  "How long have you been in these ruins?" Knud asked softly. "You do not age, for being a ghost, but we do. How many years have passed since this place burned down. Do you remember?" Knud's voice was deliberate, strong and soft. Percy began crying, and small branches and leaves fell from the trees around them
  "Stop it!" Susan commandeered. "You always made thing fall when you cried. Please stop."    
  "Some days have passed, maybe even some months or a year or two," Percy said. becoming steadily less transparent. "And I have been so lonely. The Farm was a happy place, filled with people, and then the Bad Man came, and The Very Old, Wise Man made him stop. He made it all stop. All the magic. all the fun. He died. But first he did some very bad things. He broke your wands, he threw people around, he was ungentle, very much so to all of you. I tried to stop him, but I could not. I went right through him. He did not listen, only stopped long enough to say he was busy. He disappeared. pulling people with him. He let out all the animals, he magicked all the books, cauldrons and so on down into the old well. And when he was alone ... then he ..." Percy started crying again, silently.
  "He put the Farm on fire," Susan finished the sentence for her. Percy nodded. and raised her head.
  "You knew?"
  "We guessed. And then he laid down and died?"
  "Yes."
  "He had drunk an antidote to the Mondrian. I remember Tristan asking him how he was going to explain away a barn full of idiots to the police, and I remember Gilvi answering that he had drunk an antidote, so as to keep his magic, but in return dying within 24 hours. That was why he was so busy, so ungentle. He had to clean up, get people away before he ran out of time."
  "And now you come here, telling me that you are my Susan."
  Knud spoke again: "Dear Percy. Look at the trees growing here, where the kitchen once was. They did not get this big in a year or two. Over 40 years have passed."
   Percy nodded, "I might begin to believe you. But first I am going to test you." She looked straight at Susan: "Where did you live. What was the name of your mother, my mother and who were my best friend ever?"
  "I lived in Elsinore, my mother's name was Edith, You never told me your mother's name, and your best friend ever was Sandra, the mom of Heidi, Tue and Lis." Susan answered. Percy nodded. "I believe you. But I'll need some time to get used to this. Just like I needed some time to figure out that Sandra had grown."
  "Sandra is a very old lady by now." Susan said quietly "I know that Kai, the father, died some years ago. Sandra is old, but I suppose she's still able to do magic."
  "No." Percy said, shaking her head and looking very sad. "Now I know who they are. They have come here recently, once or twice, when the sun is shining, three ladies, one very old, two as old as you are, and a man. They talk of magic, of the good times here, and bemoan the necessity of breaking their wands. I have never tried to scare them away. Like I normally do to visitors here. They make me feel so lonely."
  "Gilvi found them!" Susan smiled. "I'm sure he did not need to feed them Mondrian to make them renounce their magic!"
  "You said when the Sun is shining?" Knud said, "does that mean in the Summer, and have they been here yet? We would very much like to meet them, you know."
  "Yes," Percy said. "In the Summer. And it has been some time since they were here the last time. I would have liked to follow them, and I tried, but I have forgotten how to move anywhere. I'm sure Gilvi did something to me as well."
  "Gilvi did not do anything to us. We did. We spoke the words of the forgetting spell - all of us!" Susan said vehemently.
"I did too." Percy said with a surprised look at her face. Even if I had not drunk any Mondrian of course. Do you think it worked on me as well?"

***

Of course it did," Knud said. "You are a witch as well, even if you're a ghost. You have to obey the laws of magic."
"I'm a tired ghost," Percy said. "Everybody's getting old and dying, only not me."
"No, only not you," Susan said kindly, "well not getting old, at least ... the dying part ... well, you are a ghost after all."
"It's terrible," Percy said in a broken voice.  "Always, always just hanging around here. Watch people growing up ... getting children." She started crying harder, and once again twigs and leaves began raining down.
"Yes. I can see it's hard," Knud said, his voice soft and husky with compassion. "But can't you go on, I mean, ghosts are not supposed to hang around here for so long now, are they?"
Percy looked at him in astonishment and stopped crying. "No," she said. "Normally only greed or revenge keeps them ... us here. But I'm not greedy, and I had my revenge. I helped stop the Bad Man ..."
"We could not have done it without you," Susan said honestly.
"You were a big part of it!" Knud said simultaneously.
"I did ... I was .. I'm free to leave!" The look on Percy's face was one of genuine wonder.
In that same instance they heard a car stopping close to the trees.
"Quick, hide," Percy said, "I'll scare them off!"
Susan and Knud hid behind some trees, and they drew their wands and murmured the "do not notice me-spell".
Very shortly after they heard voices from direction road and sounds of feet shuffling trough long grass and last years' dry leaves The they heard Percy close to them. "I can see you .. and you know what ... It's them!"
"Them?" Susan whispered, "Who? ... No, it can't be true. I don't believe it. It's too much of a coincidence."
"No," Knud whispered as well. "It just can't be. Or maybe ... yes it can. I dare bet Sandra still have bouts of premonition. Let's stay hidden for just a short while and listen."

The travellers could be seen clearly now. An elderly tall, well groomed man with a pointy beard and an imposing moustache had an elderly lady by the arm. Two women tagged along, carrying baskets, blankets and a foldable chair. "Let's put all this down in the yard," one of the women said. Lis, Susan realised.
"Yes. It's about the only place left with level ground," the younger answered, and neither Susan nor Knud had any trouble recognising Heidi's voice.
"Mom,Tage said. "Why did you want to drag us out here today. We should have been at the cemetery, visiting father's grave, as it's his death anniversary today.
"No," Sandra said in a surprisingly strong and steady voice. "Here and now is the time and place for us to be. I can feel it in my bones."
"Do you mean to say that you still think you can foresee the future?"
"Yes and no. I can at best feel an inkling, like a dream, like cobwebs. But I've come to rely more and more on these premonitions. I think it makes them grow stronger."
"Oh, I wish we still had our magic," Heidi said. "It would be so good to ..."
"Shh!" Lis said: "Even the trees have ears. Or at least I'm afraid they have."
"You're still afraid after all this time?" Tage asked. "I'd give anything to have my wand back. I have come to remember more and more of how it was, how it used to be in the year since we last were here .."
"... I think it's something in the air here," Lis continued, and Heidi and Sandra looked at one another and rolled their eyes.
"I think we should join the party," Susan whispered to Knud and Percy. "Percy, please turn invisible and help us to not be seen until we've come somewhat away from the buildings. We can't just turn visible and possibly scare them."
They did as planned, and turned visible some way from the Farm. They then picked up their backpacks and walked along the road, leading to the Farm.
 
***

"Good day to you." Knud said sas they once again came into hailing distance. "Sorry to distur your lunch al fresco."
"Pleased to meet you," Tage answered, Can we help you?"
"We're looking for an old, burned down farm, but we cannot seem to find it," Knud said.
"It's because it's not here any mpore," Tage answered. Is has disappeared, gone back to nauter if you like. You are actually satnding in what once was the inner yard."
"But why are you looking for that old place?" Lis asked with suspicion oozing from every pore.
"Well I suspect for the same reason yoiu're here," Susan answered innocently. "To relive those happy, golden years of youth."
""I think I know that voice," Heidi said. "Please tell, who are you?"
"I'm Susan Thorsen nee Olsen," Susan said, "and this is Knud Thorsen. Pleased to meet you!"
"Did you marry!" Heidi exclaimed. "I always thoiught you fancied Helge!"
Susan laughed out loud. "Oh no, I pitied him, I loved him, yes, but only as a sister loves her brother. He was in many ways the brother, I never had. And we know who you are: Heidi, Tue. Lis and Sandra even if you do not use those names any more."
"How did you know?" Lis asked, still suspicious.
"You were never alone, when visiting the farm." Lis turned white. "Oh, no it's not as you think, Susan hurriedy said. It's not David, Torben or even Tristan - they are all long dead - who wathced you. It was Percy here."
Percy turned visible and Lis laughed, a nervous, thin laughter. "Are we all alone here, ezxcept for you and Percy," She asked.
Susan drew her wand, cast the human-discovering spell she had awoided those many years aog and slowly turned full circle. "Yes," she said. "Nobody nearer than the summerhouses on the other side of the trees."
"You have a wand" Heidi said.
"You can do magic!" Lis and Tage said as one.
"It was you, we came to meet. It all makes sence now," Sandra said looking terribly pleased with herself. "Please have a seat. We have no paucity of home made food, and we'd happily share food and tales with you."
"Yes, I have a wand. I can do magic, and what more is, I can sing wands, and awaken your magic. But first you have to tell me why you are so afraid." Susan said. "As I said earlier, I am positive that Torben and Tristan died many years ago. Their greed grew into madness, they tride to take over, not any longer the whole world, but Tristan's tropical holiday paradise. They were killed in a flooding there only a few years later. And David is dead too. There's no reason to be afraid any more."
Oh yes there is, Lis said. Gilvi told us that he suspected that Tristan's sister was the real mastermind behind all those plans. He could not stay for long, or tell us very much. Not because he would not, but because he did not know very much by then."
"Teresa!" Knud exclaimed. "Fiona told us about her."
"No, she was not called Teresa," Lis said.
"And any old how," Susan added. "She is probably dead as well. All the apprentices who died, did so in the first 8 years after the magic left us - David as the last of those. Only Kalle died later, 7 years after David, and that might very well have been a genuine accident. We've found almost everybody - yes including you, she said with a wink to Heidi. "You once told me you would have liked to be called Tania. The only one we've found no trace of is Aamu,"
"And I can solve that," Sandra said. "She married someone in Germany and took a new first name as well. I do not remember, but I have it somewhere in a note book at home. You know Thora tried to find the apprentices as well. She never did well, but now with internet and so on, we should be able to fill in the holes."
"Yes, we'll have to meet again all of us, and puzzle together all the small pieces of this riddle. I think we have to ascertain what really happened," Knud said. "But we, Susan and I - and Fiona and Martine as well - think that we have no more reasons to be afraid. As Susan said, no apprentice have died in the last 41 years. So for today, let's celebrate,  let's eat, drink and be merry."

"But first. I think I have a job." Susan said. "Percy, are you still willing to go on the way a soul should go, and not be hanging around here any more?"
"Oh, yes," Percy said. "The next time you come here - and for me that would be both an eternity and only a short while - you'll come to bury Sandra, or one of you younger ones. I am lonely. I would stay lonely forever here. I've had my revenge, Tristan, Torben, and David, are all dead. And that lady you call Teresa  She was Eileen, Tristan's sister, not his wife." Sandra nodded. "That was what she was called!"
Percy continued: "I can do one last thing for you. I can find her - if she's still alive, I can get
to her, and if she has died I can tell that too. Only I NEED MY MAGIC BACK!" This last was almost a roar, and they all backed up a couple of steps.
Susan pulled herself together and opened the brown suitcase. "Come here, Persephone. Touch this piece of cloth and be a witch once more!" She held out her old skirt. Percy drifted towards it, and at the touch of it turned totally solid, then transparent. Then she re-appeared and with a jubilant sound flew over their heads and teleported off so fast that the incoming air made an exploding sound momentarily deafening them all.

When the twitter of birds once again could be heard Susan spoke again: "Let's awaken your magic, too, now we're at it. The secret is to touch my old skirt, or for that matter Helge's old pants, that were left in my suitcase for so long. They are a source of magic somehow.
As if they had discussed it, they all gave way for Sandra. As she touched Susan's old skirt the colour returned to her cheeks, her back straightened and she looked younger.
"Ahh," she said. "I never realised just how much I have missed!"
The changes in Lis, Tue and Heidi were not as marked, But still they looked younger, healthier for having their magic back.
They tucked in and let the good homemade food serve its purpose. Not long after the last bite was eaten, Percy returned. The thunderclap made by her arrival was not as bad, so that they were still able to hear what she said. "Eileen/Teresa is no more among the living," she bugled triumphantly. "She died 40 years, 3 months and 27 days ago in Paris." Percy then hugged all of them; if you could call her misty, chilling embrace a hug. They all cried and said things like "We'll miss you," "Take care." And even a soft spoken "We'll meet again!" from Sandra. Then Percy seemed to shrink, she grew smaller, or maybe further away, and the second before she disappeared, peals of laughter and a great feeling of joy filled the air.

They all stayed still for some minutes, filled by the intensity of the emotions, then Sandra spoke: "Much as I'll miss Percy, both as the girl she once was and the ghost she turned into, I miss my magic more. Susan, Pray tell, where did you get that wand of yours? Thora and Tähti are no longer among the living. Did you travel to Germany, or maybe somewhere else?"
"No," Susan said, almost unable to contain her mischievous happiness. "I took a walk in the village, where I live." She looked at their confused faces. and then she could not keep her good news to herself any more: "Thora taught me the art of wand-singing. And I'm sure that the old trees of the Unicorn Farm will be delighted to give you new wands."
Heidi ran to the trees, still so much the young girl she once was. "My tree is over here, Susan," she called. "That alder over there. My, it has grown, but I can still recognise it."
Susan well remembered the tree, and the beech tree that had given the wands to the twins. "Sandra, what was your tree?" Susan asked, "and what colour were your sparks?"
"My wand was made of yew, and my sparks were smoky grey and mysterious like the oracle in Delphi," Sandra answered, looking at the row of trees. "I can see one a bit further down the line."
Susan could too, and while Knud, Sandra and the twins sat and nibbled the last bites of cake and just basked in the sun and their magic, Susan was hard at work singing wands for them. Then they of course had to try the wands and put out a myriad of small fires from the resulting sparks. Soon the yard was pockmarked like an old battlefield.
 
***

"This has been one of the best days of my life," Sandra said. "But what about my grandchildren, We ought to open a new school of magic."
"Actually we have thought of doing just that. But we miss books," Susan began explaining.
"BOOKS!" Knud exclaimed and jumped up so quickly that he overturned a stack of cups and four bottles and had to catch his equilibrium for a second before continuing. "Percy said that Gilvi magicked all the books and so on down the old well. I do not remember a well at all, it must have been dry even then. We always used one of the pumps." They all looked at Knud as if he had fallen from the moon, but he just continued thinking out loud: "Now where would a well be placed. They are almost always outside the farm, and here I would guess away from the water, so as not to have any salt water come into it. Let's go searching for it. But carefully. The old cover may have rotted away over time. Don't fall in."
Armed with branches and Knud's walking staff they first marked the outside walls of the Farm, and then searched the area west of the Farm buildings.
"No," Heidi said after half an hour's unsuccessful searching. "We ran too much on this side of the Farm. We would have remembered a well here. I'd say North of the Farm. Only the broom shed was in that direction, and the meadows, and we always followed the paths going there. I dare bet that old well is somewhere on that side of the Farm."
"Smart thinking, a lot of bushes and so on grew there. They might have been left there on purpose, preventing people from falling in. Let's get over there, searching." Knud said. "Let's tackle the North-west corner first. It's still far from the beach."

***