The Forest of legends

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The Story:

“It was a magical time, a time full of sparks and wonder, a village full of nooks and crannies to explore, a wondrous landscape to explore, and best of all, many loving families always able to help out the community”, said Greta Sandburg, the elder of the town of Jacksonverg, an old town that was a shadow of it’s former self. Greta continues, “When I was young, my friends would go play in the fields near the schoolgrounds, or on the tetherball courts down by the church. But one day, there was an outbreak. An outbreak of cholera. Perhaps it was because the people built a dam across the great river, or maybe it was because the energy company was recruiting us workers to work for them at such a young age. But then about 10 years after, the dam shut down, people moved out in search of something better, and now our community is a shadow, of it’s former self”. What Greta Sandburg meant was that the town had only a small community of 50 people, who mostly kept to themselves, and relied on farms to keep the town alive. Luckily, good souls were still out there, and people helped the farms out whenever they could. But what couldn’t be solved was the electrical outage. Ever since the dam was gone, they didn’t have electricity. Running water and heat, sure, but no electricity. In wales, it got quite cold in the winter, so people would be freezing. Only the hot water heater from the last electricity source, the well, was used to power the hot water out of people’s homes. Schools had to use campfires even!

Speaking of schools, the place where Greta is telling a story to the kids of the village is a school. She is a teacher, after all.

“Miss Sandburg”, cried Ellie, “I have a question”!

“Yes, dear”?, responded Ms. Sandburg.

“What happened to your mommy and daddy?”, asked Ellie.

“Well, Ellie, that’s a great question, but I think that’s a story for another time”, she responded.

“May I ask a question?”, said the studious James, the leader and the oldest of the kids, just turning 16 yesterday.

“Well, was is it, Big Jimmy?”, said Ms. Sandburg.

There are two James, or “Jimmy’s” in the classroom. One was the youngest, Jimmy Jimmerson, the crybaby of the group, and, well, you’ve already met the older Jimmy, James Andersen.

“What happened to your husband”, asked James.

“Oh, you mean my old Gŵr?”, said Ms. Sandburg. “Well, I lost him a long time ago, he ran to get milk from Cardiff, an 5 hour walk. He should have been back by 6 or 7 in the *sniff*, afternoon!”, she said as she started to sob. “I should have done it myself, those darn cows”, she said. She had long lost her husband decades ago, and they never had been able to find him. She was devastated by the chance that the love of her life was lost in just a small thunderstorm while fetching some milk. “He said, “I’ll be back, don’t you worry”, oh I wish he’d been for sure, I never saw him again”, she sobbed.

Shortly after, the church bells rang. It was Sunday, and she invited some of the kids to join her for a story. What she didn’t expect was every kid in town to come. The problem was that there were only 12 kids in the town, from 9 different families. The kids then rushed out of the school to go to the holy church with their families. The church is over 100 years old!

“Oh, dear Martin”, Ms. Sandburg muttered the name of her husband.

*

As the kids left church at around 11:00, it was time for the lunch. James was going to go to the bar, since he is now eligible to go there. He can play pool with his older brother, Daryl, who turned 19 last month. He wish he could taste a sip of the handcrafted wine from one of the two farms in the town.

The final score for pool was 6 to 7, over 3 long games. Neither of them were good at pool, but they tried their best, and they were getting better at it too!

At around 6’o clock, they got home and ate a dinner of sausages and Aberffraw biscuits, a famous Welsh dish prepared by their dad, Karl, the star cook of the family. Shortly after they ate their meal, James took Daryl upstairs towards his room. Apparently James wanted to tell him something, a plan, a plan only someone who had the courage, could come up with.

“Daryl, do you think we should find Ms. Sandburg’s Gŵr?”

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