Birch Manor - Summer - Part 6

They rang the bell next to Annas name, she still was Anna Berggren. but they knew this from their searchings.
"Anna speaking. What do you want?" her voice sounded on the comm device
"We're old schoolmates of yours," Susan said - she had cast the language spell on them earlier. "We've come to invite you to a reunion."
"Well," Anna said. "Tell me your names and the school."
"Knud and Susan from the 4H summer school," Susan said. "We're having our 50eth anniversary coming up this summer."
"Just a sec." Anna's disembodied voice said. "I'll be right down.
After somewhat more than a second, the door opened and Anna joined them. The blonde, archetypical Swedish girl had grown into a just as archetypical Swedish woman. Her hair was still blond. She was dressed in a shirt and a blouse neat, not quite a lady, but respectable.
"Let's go for a walk while we talk," Susan said "I'd like a soft ice. I have a soft spot for pear soft ice."
"There's an excellent soft ice stand in the park over there," Anna said pointing.
"Let's go then. It's a great day for a walk in the park." Knud said.
"We are Susan ans Knud," Knud continued. "Do you remember us from the Farm?"
"I'm not sure," Anna said. "I mostly remember being afraid of the horses there, and not being allowed in the big girls' group for that reason. It was not a very happy time."
"I think most of us have some bad memories from those summers," Knud said. That's why we organised this reunion. To get rid of all the bad feelings."

They bought an ice, Susan of course ordered a big pear ice cream in two colours. "Ohh, they look exactly like I remember them. I hope they taste as good too. We're living in Denmark, she said at Annas quizzical looks, "They don't sell pear soft ice there." She bit into the ice and voiced her satisfaction.
"And now, Susan said.  we want to show you something. We're still looking for more children from the Farm. You might be able to help."
"I think not, Anna sad. The only one I really remember is my brother and he died many years ago. Cancer took him."
"I'm sorry to hear," Susan and Knud said.
"But show me, I'll see what I can do, even if I'm not keen on this reunion thing," Anna said sitting down on one of the intricate green painted benches in the park.
"This old skirt," Susan said. "Do you remember who it belonged to?"
"Can I have it!" she asked. "I have a feeling, I've seen it before."
"Please," Susan said.
The skirt did its usual magic. Anna gave a start, and said: "Ohh. You fooled me. No, you freed me, my memories. It all comes back now. It was so not a 4H Farm after all. "Oh I'm so happy. My life seems to suddenly have expanded, found it's place. I don't know how to express it. But I see from your faces. You know!" Susan and Knud nodded in unison. "I'll be happy to come to the reunion," Anna continued. "When and where?"
"At our place, Birch Manor in Denmark. When is still to be decided," Susan said.
"Is there something I can do to help?" Anna asked.
"Most certainly yes," Knud said. "Can you help us find Helge?"
"I sure can. Easily," Anna said. "As a social worker I have access to the data base of all Swedes. But there were more than Helge. Many more. I remember The Eklund children and that older girl ... Ingrid. Have you found them already?"
Susan bowed her head, and Knud hawed and hemmed before finally speaking: "We found them, sort of. We found their obituaries."
"They died. All of them? How terrible." Anna said.
Susan decided not to withhold anything: "All the Eklund children, Harald, Bo, Lukas and Britta died from carbon monoxide poisoning in their summer house the first summer after the magic was lost. Ingrid died in a traffic accident only a year or so later. And that's not a unique thing. It's the same in Denmark, Norway, everywhere. Only a few left. Fortunately all us wandsingers."
"Wandsinger? Oh yes. I'm remembering more and more every minute. I think I've got a lot of catching up and work to do. Can I sing my own wand as well? Yes you did, I see, can do it too." Anna sat for a bit just looking at the trees and everything around her. Then she spoke again: "My holidays start Friday. I'll surely be able to look up Helge before then. And I could go and look for him during my holidays. Would that be acceptable?"
"It sure would be great and spare us a lot of work," Susan said smiling. "Here, you take this. It is one leg of Helge's old trousers, as a way of restoring his magic. Only fair to use it. I had them for mending. I often did, I was a quick seamstress back then."
Knud laughed an turned serious again: "By the way, Martine is the only teacher still alive, she lives at our place until further notice."
They exchanged addresses, phone numbers and other information, and Susan promised to keep her up to date with any and all news they had. Whereupon Anna promised the same. "One last question, I dare hardly ask. ... David, Torben and Tristan ... They are not still around? Are they?"
"As I said, all teachers except Martine are dead," Knud said. "That answers for Torben as well. He died at Tristan's place together with him. They were trying to make it big in aqua-places." Anna smiled sickly, and Knud continued: "And David is dead too. He died as the last as I still think of them as "post loss of magic deaths", 8 years after. Only your brother has died since."
"You knew?"
"Yes, we did. I stalked your Facebook profile and found the anniversary notice." Susan explained. "But I did not look much further. Only to find your address. We were not out to pry, only to find."
"Oh yes, I see," Anna said, "That notice pops up once a year, and as I'm not very active on Social Media any more, it's bound to be almost on the top."
They walked back to the station, Susan considering and deciding against telling of Tristan's sister. That could wait, and she was long dead after all.
"Hope to see you soon," Anna said as they boarded the ferry. Susan and Knud had remade their travel plans to visit Susan's home town and look for magic traces there.
"You're always welcome at Birch Manor," Susan called.