Miss?

"What child? What child? Clover, were you not on a case before you came to my little establishment?" Andy huffed. He pulled his robe tighter around himself. "It wasn't even that long ago. Surely you remember." 

Clover rubbed her head. "I... don't remember. Why don't I? I must have... my head it hurts. I..." She looked at her wrist. 

"Something was on my wrist where did it go?" 

"You were certainly not wearing anything on your wrist when you came into the shop. If you were wearing something it should be a watch, because now we have..."

Andy reached down into the pocket of his robe and pulled out a fancy gold pocket watch, inlayed with silver into the shape of a flower. He opened it, studied it for a second then shut it with a loud snap and deposited it back into his pocket. 

"... fourteen minutes to closing time, and I really want to get to sleep. Is that really all you've come to tell me, you could have waited to tell me all of that in the morning."

"Yes? No... maybe?" 

Andy let out a very long sigh of disapproval, annoyance and resignation. 

"What was the wristband for?" 

"I don't remember... I don't even know if it was a wristband..." 

"Then it must have been to help you to remember something. Silly girl. Probably something to do with the case that you were on." 

"Was I really on a case? Andy..." 

"I would not lie to you girl. You know  I would never. Lying is bad for business." 

Andy motioned to Clover to follow him and they walked over to one of the large holes in the ground. He pulled out a little satchel from his robe pocket and released it's contents into the hole. 

The hole shined yellow, blue, then purple and held it's glow. 

"Quickly now. I want to start my bedtime routine," he said then jumped into the hole. Clover jumped right after him. 

She landed in a little circular kitchen. The were curved light purple marbled counters affixed to the wall, with various kitchen appliances around them. In the middle there was a round table with chairs around it. The chairs had round purple cushions with cross stitched white flowers on them.

Andy pulled out a little white teapot, dotted with purple and yellow flowers, and filled it with water and dropped a teabag inside.

He placed it on top of the table and motioned for Clover to sit down. 

He tapped the top of the teapot twice. The teapot started to hum as it boiled by itself.

"It's going to take a few minutes to steep as you should let all good tea do." 

"Yeah, I know. Please let's not do another lecture about teas Andy, we've done enough in the past." 

Andy sighs again. "And yet, you never remember. Why I still remember you squeezing a tea bag for 'faster brewing'." He shuddered.

"It works though, doesn't it? If you squeeze it the essences comes out faster" Clover said, slumping onto the table. 

"Barbarian. Never do that again." 

"Can't make promises I don't intend to keep," she smirked. 

"Alright, enough, enough. Tell me what you last remember doing." 

"Well, I was at the river. The Traveller's River."

"Aha..." 

"And I remember that you wanted me to take a look at it..." 

"Clover, you know that you would not go back there unless you really had to." 

"Yeah... that's why it's kind of weird." 

"And you had this wristband then?" 

"I... think I did." She looked down at her hand. "I think I had something there, and it hurts my head to think about it too hard. Is something happening to me or is something happening to someone else?" 

"Well... tea first, mysteries of the universe later." Andy poured out the tea into little white teacups, also patterned with purple and yellow flowers and handed Clover one. 

"Thanks," she mumbled. 

"You're welcome. Nothing like a good cup of tea after a very long stressful day. Let me get to the point. Whatever you think was on your wrist was just a trinket Clover. We don't need trinkets to help us. Never did, you are perfectly capable of breaking through and remembering yourself." 

"I'm trying." 

"Try harder," he said sipping his tea.

Clover took a sip herself. "It's not that easy... this tea, it doesn't taste like much..." she said looking down into her tea cup. "Have you let it brew enough? What tea is it?" 

Andy looked at her. Really looked at her.

"You're making me a bit uncomfortable Andy, what is it?" Clover said. Sipping more tea. "I mean the tea is okay, but..."

"Clover. You're not really here are you? At least not yet..."

"What? What are you..."

 Miss why do you have your hand in my waters?