Tuesday…0:600…
Somewhere in the Pennsylvanian Woods, a small cottage made of cobble-brick and charcoal -wood sat lonesomely amongst the forest trees. It was an old as shit cottage, made sometime long ago— probably around the sixteenth century. Almost no one knows about this cottage, but the ones that do are unaware that it is where of one of America's finest tea brand; Fairy Wings, gets its ingredients.
Oliver's truck is parked nearby in a small dirt lot, designated for only a few trucks at a time, though, rarely does Broomhilda's Harvest require more than a single truck in a day.
Inside Broomhilda's home was cozy and warm, and the smell of blueberry filled pastry and milky egg porridge filled Andrew and Oliver's noses. They were sitting in some scraggily wooden chairs that were anything but comfortable, like sitting cradled in the hand of an old tree. Broomhilda is an elderly woman with ash colored hair and apple green eyes and who claims that her great, great, great, great, great grandmother founded Fairy Wings and made a great fortune from all over America and Britain before she was executed based on claims of her being a witch because it was back in those times. Nevertheless, the business survived and has been handed down ever since.
"I'm so glad you have arrived in a timely manner", Broomhilda stood at a counter that separated her front room from her kitchen and wrote in cursive on the Bill of Ladings. "Some of the freight almost escaped."
"Escaped?" Andrew asks suspiciously.
"Did I say escaped?" She says, shuffling the papers together. "Pardon me, I haven't had my morning cup of tea."
"You and I are in the same boat there, madame", Oliver says. "So speaking of which, would you mind we try a sample of your finest?"
"Why of course!" Broomhilda says happily. "Just one moment."
Broomhilda turns around and starts preparing the tea on the counter behind her. Andrew takes this opportunity to whisper about her to Oliver.
"Is it just me or is there something off about this old lady?" Andrew whispers.
"The only thing off is your head if she hears you, gets offended then takes us off the load!" Oliver whispers back. "So shut it and lock it!"
In almost no time at all, Broomhilda turns around with two cups of tea and sets them on the counter in front of her truck driving guests.
"Here you are", she says, "Lemon and ginger with a hint of lavender. All ingredients harvested here at my home."
"That's wonderful", Oliver says with a wide smile, "Thank you, madame. Just what I needed."
"Sorry, I don't drink tea", Andrew says at the last minute. Oliver elbows him in the ribs.
"Take the damn tea, boy! And drink the whole thing!" Oliver snaps. "How dare you turn down the best tea in the world from the harvester herself!"
"Oh, that's so kind of you, Mister Moreworth", Broomhilda says gently. "But I can't force someone to drink something that they dislike. I don't like being an imposing woman."
Broomhilda takes Andrew's cup of tea.
"No worries, young man", She says before chugging down the tea like a dehydrated athlete in the Arizona desert. Andrew cringes at the sound of her gulping the tea down her wrinkly ass throat. Meanwhile, Oliver leans in to Andrew to give another stern talking- to in whisper fashion.
"Dammit boy! Do you know just how valuable the ingredients for Fairy Wings tea is?! Never turn down fairy wings tea from the source while under my supervision again, is that clear?!" Oliver scolds.
"Whatever, she didn't even care!" Andrew replies.
Broomhilda sets the tea cup on the counter then retrieves an old book-like package from behind the counter and stuffs the Bill of Ladings inside.
"Here you are", Broomhilda hands Oliver the Book of Ladings. "You two have a very safe trip, and please, do be gentle with the freight, it is very fragile."
"That'd not be a problem, madame", Oliver says grabbing the book." This load is in professionally careful and safe hands."
"More like careful wheels", Andrew chuckles.
"Didn't I tell you to shut it?!" Oliver snaps as they walk towards the door of the cottage. Suddenly, Oliver turns around as he just realized something. They never backed in to a dock and there was no sign of the trailer being loaded. Furthermore, they had only been there for about ten minutes.
"Oh, excuse me, madame, but it just crossed my attention that we haven't been loaded yet? As a matter of fact, I don't recall seeing a dock door or anything…" Oliver says.
"Why, sure you have", Broomhilda grinned. "Your trailer is closed and sealed."
Oliver and Andrew look at each other in confusion. Outside, they investigate the back of the trailer and find that it was already sealed with some thin, thorny branch tied in a knot.
"Hmph, well then, let's get going", Oliver says and starts walking to the truck, Andrew following him.
"Don't you want to know how the trailer got loaded?" Andrew asks. "We weren't even in a dock and there's no workers around."
"All we need to know is the route we're going to take to the customer to get there in a timely and safe manner, just as madame Broomhilda requested." Oliver answers.
Broomhilda stood on the porch with a cup of tea in her hands, watching Oliver and Andrew get into the truck and start driving away, an almost sinister smile on her face.
Andrew glances back at the cottage and sees the old woman standing there, just watching them leave and smiling. A shiver crawls up Andrews spine and he turns away from the mirror.
Who the heck is this creepy old woman? How the hell did the trailer get loaded with no one around and in ten minutes? Why are the fairy wings tea ingredients so valuable? And not just because Oliver said so, Fairy Wings tea goes for twice the price as the most popular tea brand and three to four times more than any other tea brand on the shelf.
Andrew's mind is flooded with all kinds of questions and wonderings about Broomhilda and her company as Oliver drove them out of the forest and towards their destination.
"So that was the weirdest distribution center I've ever been to", Andrew says.
"Oh that wasn't a distribution center", Oliver answers. "That was the source of the ingredients that the distribution center gets from to make the tea, then distribute it. Didn't you see it was called, Broomhilda's Harvest, and not fairy wings distribution?"
"Guess I wasn't paying attention." Andrew says then turns his attention out the window. With the load heading to Iowa, it was going to be a long drive, plenty of time to think about what that tea could really be made of and who or what Broomhilda really is....