Cookies for Constables

[Teddi]

On the same day that she was awakened from her bed by the sound of her own screaming, Teddi also helped bake more than two hundred sugar cookies. The two events were not wholly unrelated.

As she sat in her bed that morning and clutched the cross that had been hanging around her neck since she was a small child, a gift from the Abbess of the convent where she was raised, she thought not about the ground-dwelling monsters that chased her from her dreams; instead, she thought about the kind concern of the constable that she met a few days ago, and she thought about her new friend Janessa - who'd lost all her friends to disappearance or death.

Teddi was a shy girl for the most part, but she could feel her sense of self and strength blossoming now that she was no longer secluded by the blessed walls of the abbey. She never doubted that she had made the right choice when she did not take the oath. Although she did not know what her calling might be, she felt that God wanted her to go out into the world and find it there. Janessa had reminded her of that on the quiet afternoon before, as the elegant lady sipped her tea and spoke of her calling as a healer.

When she went into the kitchen that day and put on her apron for work, all she could think about was the importance of gratitude and how it lifts the spirit. She bustled in and out of the kitchen as she brought the patrons their lunch; there seemed to be an air of discontent amongst patrons and workers alike. The rising prices and all too recent murders and attacks were taking their toll on the people of Myrken Wood, and she wondered how far and how many times these people could spiral into despair and return from it with their full hearts in tact.

That was when it came to her.

Nothing says thank you like a cookie.

No.

Nothing says thank you like hundreds of cookies ...

She laughed to herself and worked her way through a shift of busy lunch.

It was not until later in the day when all was quiet that she went to some of the chambermaids, scullions, and cooks with her plan; some of them were delighted and some of them were dubious, but she got enough people to pool their shillings so that the Broken Dagger would not suffer financially for this project of gratitude. Between cooking for patrons, they began to make the cookies; doing something humorous, productive, and thoughtful caused more laughter than usual, which in turn affected many patrons that day. It was a subtle difference in a day that went by faster than Teddi hoped in all the fun that they had.

It was nearly sunset when they finished the cookies and divided them amongst three fantastically coloured, large boxes. Teddi and two other girls at the end of their shifts took the gifts into the town; they knocked on the door of the most public headquarters of the Constabulary, leaving the boxes behind in front of the door.

They giggled as they ran across the street and hid to watch from around a corner, wanting to be sure that the cookies were properly intercepted.

The constable who answered the door was surprised to find the boxes, and he read the lightly scented note resting, very simply folded, on top of the middle one.


To Each and Every Constable,

Thank you so much for the wonderful job that you are doing in this town. All of the Constabulary's men are in our thoughts and prayers as they fight to keep Myrken Wood a safe place to raise children and live in peace and happiness. There are only so many ways to say thank you, and we hope that these cookies that we baked for all of you speak loud and clear!

Love,

A Few Hastily Assembled Employees Of The Broken Dagger



Everyone who helped pitch in with the cookies signed the paper, though not everyone who helped could write; there were a few large X's and a few, sweeping signatures.