For visually challenged writers, the image shows a mass of brown mushrooms all growing on top of one another.
Did Merlin go too far last week? Will Morgarna ever forgive him?
Mushrooms.
“What the hell is going on?” Morgarna was struggling with reality. What had happened to this place where was the ensuite and the carpet! Hang on there’s a pot under the bed needs must …
Morgarna was wondering where Merlin was and why everything of comfort was gone from the room when the sound of a key turning in the door made her jump off the pot and pull her knickers up!
“Ah! my dear , Mother Superior will see you now” a young fresh faced girl dressed as a nun said smiling at her.
Morgarna rubbed her eyes and said “what the fuck…who the hell are you?”
The novice blushed visibly and replied ” well my dear you can’t deny your Anglo Saxon roots after that speech!”
“No I am not, but sister what’s going on? Where is Merlin ? “
Again the nun looked embarrassed “Merlin…there is no Merlin here. We are in a priory. No men allowed!”
“Oh!” said Morgarna” feeling smug and also annoyed at being hyjacked. “Not for much longer you’ll soon have some of your Carthusian brothers join you! “
The young woman looked fit to faint as she took in what Morgarna had just said!
The two women left the room and went down several flights of stairs and along a narrow stone passage past a huge kitchen where a number of nuns were silently busy, past a dinning room, empty, and a beautiful chapel full of flowers and stain glass windows . Everywhere was silence, so loud l could be cut it with a knife. Eventually they came to a huge wooden door the novice stood forward and in a very quiet voice she said, do not speak unless you are spoken to. Morgarna opened her mouth to reply but the young woman put her fingers on her lips and her eyes beceahed Morgarna to comply…… Morgarna did.
The inside of the room was very dark even though it was mid morning the only light to work by was candle. There was a large desk covered in papers and sat behind it was a tiny lady of advanced years. She had a kindly face and she looked every inch the Mother Superior.
The novice bobbed her knee, Mother Superior smiled and motioned that she should leave.
Once the door was closed the older woman motioned to Morgarna to take a seat. She offered Morgarna a plate of fruit, cheese and bread and a glass of golden mead , then surprised Morgarna by saying. “Eat my dear it’s getting late in the morning and I need you to think straight.We are Carthusian nuns so please listen carefully as I do not wish to repeat myself as I have taken a vow of silence”
Smiling and sipping the mead Morgarna felt at home, she also ate heartily as she felt quite hungry. When Morgana finished eating she dug out her cigarettes and lighter, as she lit one she noticed a file in her bag. Obviously it was going to be relevant. As she pulled it out she spotted ‘Hi Babes’ written on the front. Taking a drag on her cigarette , much to the silent constanation of Mother Superior, Morgarna muttered ” Don’t you Hi Babes me you shit” then looking across at the nun she winked and said, “Sorry Mother but he can be a real creep, oh! And these” she said raising her cigarette , “these will be more common place soon, maybe not tailor made like mine but definitely around! “
Mother Superior smiled and nodded while Morgarna read the file.
“Morges, Hun I know I was a tad sneaky.. Okay I was a total shit posting you back to the middle ages but Mother Agnes is a lovely lady and she has helped me out more than once.
She got in touch with me because some of the ladies of the order are acting very un nun like, high jinks , skinny dipping and generally terrorising the locals! Yup Morgs you’ll fit in perfectly!
This usually occurs after the evening meal…could you be a sweetheart and look into it please? ” The file was signed with a flourish.
Looking up at Mother Superior Morgarna smiled, “Okay Mother I am here now and very happy to help so if you don’t mind me pottering about I will see what I can gleam ” Ending on a smile she lent across the desk and picked up Sister Agnes’s keys from the desk, the nun smiled her concent. Morgarna drained her meade lit another cigarette and left Sister Agnes wondering what type of witch Merlin had sent her!
Morgarna walked along the corridor, her Doc Martin’s clonking on the stone floor. Using the keys she checked out every, storeroom and cupboard, cell, refrectory and chapel, nothing was out of place or out of the norm. She checked every herb, vegetable and fruit, there was nothing unusual or dangerous. She tried the water from the well, yuk! It was disgustingly pure and fresh. Finally she checked the wine and mead barrels in the celler. Actually she checked each barrel twice!
It was now early evening and Morgarna was sitting in the gardens enjoying the quiet wondering exactly what had she missed because so far there was nothing at all that could send anyone off the straight and narrow.
Just the she spotted one of the kitchen nuns heading off into the woods, an empty basket in hand. On a whim she decided to follow her.
The nun took a winding path to a clearing, a musty place full of decaying leaves and fungi. The nun stooped down and filled her basket from a mass of brown mushrooms all growing on top of one another.
Instinctively Morgarna hid behind a tree trunk and watched as a man dressed in monk’s robes emerged from the other side of the clearing he spoke to the nun who, startled dropped her basket of mushrooms. As the Monk help the nun gather up the mushrooms Morgarna saw him sprinkle some powder over the fungi. At once Morgarna knew what was going on……
willowdot21 