Previously:

As we entered the cottage, I got out the two metal cans, yellow and blue. The scoop sunk in, stirring the wonderful aroma of coffee grounds, pouring out, enough to make a full pot. “I got information about how the sadness we felt permeates the other cottages.”

“I got information about the chicken we purchased and attempted to eat. Which do we want to discuss first?”

The coffee pot began to gurgle in the background.

************

Cordelia grabbed the yellow tin and using her strong fingernails, pried off the silver lid losing her grip, sending it spinning, with cat-like sounds ‘waal, waal, waal’, ‘til it landed with a thunk. I was distracted with the musical lid, but Cordelia was already grabbing and gorging herself with one of the tea biscuits. 

I guess we didn’t have to worry about apologizing to the tea gods for breaking the ritual of tea biscuits with tea. “Boy, you must be hungry.” 

“Concentroiting mates me hungwy.”

Is this why we were told as children not to talk with our mouths full? Since the chicken conversation wasn’t going to be as serious as my plans for after supper, I said, “So what did you learn about the strange chicken we purchased and attempted to eat?”

Cordelia announced the coffee was ready and poured a fresh steaming cup for each of us. I’ve heard research has shown, just smelling the aroma of coffee will change a person’s disposition and level of energy. Even though it was from a tea cup, that first sip made me a believer in research. 

 Deciding to be more formal, Cordelia placed some biscuits on a blue patterned saucer. As we ate one biscuit after another, the image of a cathedral began to peek out. We had no idea this was a colorful foreshadowing of things to come.

“Back to my question, what did you learn about why that chicken looked so different from any we’d ever seen or eaten?”

The coffee had a softening effect on the biscuits, especially when dunked. Cordelia was able to chew more quickly and efficiently, thus being more coherent.

“First of all, some of the others laughed when I asked about the chicken. As I described what we observed, they glanced back and forth nodding their heads.  I wasn’t sure what that meant.”

“Well, what information did you finally get out of them?”
 

“They said it was probably a chicken called the Malay Chicken, the tallest or nearly tallest chicken ever. It was introduced to England around 1830.”

“Ooof. So that’s why the legs were so skinny and long. I wonder if it tasted different because we’ve never had that kind. Wow, been around since 1830.”

“Yuh, they said the taste would be affected by the foods they were fed. I guess there are special recipes with spices for this chicken.”

“Maybe we should have looked around in these cupboards and dug up some spices to bury that 1830s taste?” 

Cordelia glanced at the row of cupboards and nodded, rolling her eyes.“Some said it is very tasty with the right spices. So maybe it could have been more palatable. Oh well, now we know.”

We had kind of mindlessly eaten from the plate full of biscuits. Another point of foreshadowing was uncovered. We both stared at the images on the plate, then at each other. “I just had this weird wave of chill come over me.”

I was stunned she’d sense something too. “M..me too,” I mumbled.  

Now that only crumbs remained, there was another building resembling the cathedral but, not really. We would discover the identity and function of that building, in a startling reveal.

“That plate gives me the heebie-jeebies. Let’s go over to the couches, so we can discuss what I learned about the sadness here, and little building we discovered.”

Vibrating her lips, and hugging herself, “bwooa haw huh haw”, Cordelia's whole being shook.

Remember, I said Cordelia is an inner dowser, so she was unfamiliar with device dowsing, so I needed to educate her. She had told me she was looking forward to learning as much about it as she could. Messages just seem to come to inner dowsers. They just have a way of knowing. 

I didn’t totally trust my inner dowsing. Most of the time I have to double-check with my dowsing device, a pendulum. A pendulum is anything that swings. Some people think they have to have a special crystal, a specific type or color. 

I have gently swung my fanny pack when in the grocery store to determine whether to buy a particular product. I want to state a disclaimer here. I did not dowse about the chicken.

An uneasy Cordelia made her way to the couches as if she couldn’t put enough distance between that plate and herself, soon enough. She plunked down into the cushions of the worn navy blue couch facing me in the brown plaid overstuffed one.

“So what’s going on, why so serious all of a sudden?” She had a curious, concerned look.

“I saw two of them sitting outside and was curious, as to whether any others had experienced the heaviness we have felt. They had specific descriptions for how the energy came across for them. ”