Journal October 2022

Synopsis

The story of a series of puzzling and unexpected deliveries. On the first day everyone in England had them, a week later the British Isles, a month later all of Europe and eventually the whole world.

Only one retired nurse had the key to unravel the mystery of the perplexing devices that no one else could seemingly fathom, Mrs Tiggywinkle.

Where did they come from? Who sent them and why? How were they made and by who? Know one knew. What was their purpose? Only Mrs Tiggywinkle and her elderly neighbours truly found out along with what was inside. This is their amazing story.

Chapter One: The Mystery Box

Once upon a time Mrs Tiggywinkle received a very large and unexpected heavy box which was placed in the middle of her compact little kitchen on the floor. Mrs Tiggywinkle herself was by this time fairly old and frail and so didn’t go out much except to pop in on her neighbours or potter about in her gorgeous little garden feeding the wild animals and birds that daily visited. She had once been a hedgehog herself in a former life with the same bright cheery eyes that always shone no matter what ailed her, no matter what happened in the noisy, hectic world beyond her little patch of heaven she called home. 

She was a wise lady and, having once been a nurse, she had never lost her gentle kindness toward all she encountered throughout her younger life. Even now she would never interfer or be a nosey parker, never spread gossip but always spared a thought for others or remembered what to do if a friend was ill or injured according to their wishes and not what she might think would be better. 

But this box, being so unexpected, she was both curious and wary of. She looked at the label first to be sure it was for her. It read,

Mrs Tiggywinkle

8 Oakapple Close

Bramley Edge

West Slumberville

England

It was the correct address and name so it must be for her, but who could have sent it? She decided to have a cup of hot tea before her care worker popped in to check she had everything she needed as usual at 10am on the dot. Though to be honest sometimes her care worker was dreadfully late due to all manner of reasons she sometimes found hard to understand. It was a bit more difficult than usual for Mrs Tiggywinkle to put the kettle on her stove until it whistled and get her teapot out excetera with such a large heavy box in the way but she managed it and when she had she sat down beside it and looked for any sign of where it might have come from. It somehow seemed to have shrunk ever so slightly when she sat down but sometimes things do when you look at them from a different angle. No, there was no clue at all as to where or who it had come from. Even the postmark was one of those business franking jobs so it literally could have come from from anywhere in the world. 

Now, you might think that Mrs Tiggywinkle never got cross, but this isn’t true. She’d get cross with all sorts of things but just refused to show it. She’d get cross with herself for losing things and for the sun shining too much, or being pestered to do things she didn’t want to do, or by silly rules or endless forms to fill in or price rises, nasty folk and we’ll pretty much the same things you and I do. One of the things she hates most was being forced to change because technology had even though she welcomed some of it. “That’s no reason to force folk into accepting all of it.” She’d mutter quietly to herself at times when dusting with her mother’s old feather duster. 

She was just working through in her mind who she knew that might have sent such a large heavy box again, which now seemed bigger than ever when her care pulled on the chord to ring the doorbell. “Hello, come in” said Mrs Tiggywinkle as brightly as ever, “I’m afraid I have a bit of a puzzle to solve today, Mary.” “Really, Mrs T, that sounds exciting.” “Yes,” said Mrs Tiggywinkle, “I’ve received an unexpected… thing, and you know how I feel about those at my age. Cross, that’s what!” She laughed. 

So Mary, was shown into the kitchen and the pair of them were astonished to see that the box hardly left any room in the kitchen at all! “What on Earth!” They both exclaimed! And then the strange delivery shrank again right before their eyes. A few minutes and another cup of tea later, with both of them glaring at the by now rather alarming box to see if it would get bigger Mrs Tiggywinkle firmly said. “Well, one thing’s for sure, it can’t stay there if it’s going to grow in size again.” And the box then shrank as if it had heard her and was both upset and afraid of being turfed out into the rubbish. 

“Can you help me lift it please, I’m afraid whatever is in it is too heavy for me to lift on my own”. “Sorry” said Mary, “I’m afraid it’s not in my remit these days especially as we don’t know what’s inside it either. Not insured is what they’ll say. You know that.” 

“Bother, yes you’re right. Blinking jobsworth, what is the world coming too. Oh well let’s at least take the paper off, there might be a note inside to give us a clue as to what to do with it then.” 

The wrapping came off in a trice, but there was no note. “Bother,” muttered Mrs Tiggywinkle again before adding, “look it’s got some sort of elaborate decoration which at least makes it less unsightly but there seems to be no way in. Oh well, I’ll just have to deal with it later as you haven’t got that much time before your next call.” And with that they both left the kitchen and shut the door. The box then shrank in size again and was now quite a bit smaller than when it had arrived but no less heavy. It was as if it had decided on the appropriate size it needed to be for Mrs Tiggywinkle’s kitchen and had settled in. It also seemed very much as if it meant to stay.

The full story requires a publisher. Mrs Tiggywinkle is thrilled with it is all I’ll say. If it ever is published we’d like donations to be made to Age UK, the World Wildlife Fund, Heads Together, Rethink, and Save The Children. Thank you for reading.