Tilly loses her Sketch Book and Lucy finds it…
This story is set before Margot returns from her travels... buts she's still on Tilly's mind although they've never met.
...
"I've lost it… I've lost it… I've lost it!"
Tilly was pacing back and forth in the Detective Roger's office; clearly completely unaware how manic she was acting and quite how her words sounded.
"Calm down, Tilly." said Roger's putting a gentle hand on her arm to try and still her movement. "What have you lost?"
Tilly looked at him confused for a moment, a nervous tick causing her to tug at her hair.
"I didn't say?" she asked surprised.
"No." said Roger's with a smile. With Weaver still recovering in hospital from his gun shot wound, Roger's was still getting used to being Tilly's new sounding board. "You still have your rucksack and your coat… so what have you lost?"
"My book." said Tilly. "The one with all my drawings in."
The Detective sighed.
"Where did you see it last?"
"I don't remember. But you're a detective I thought you could help detect it for me."
"Well I can't leave the office right now Tilly, but I would recommend retracing your steps. Do you remember what you did today?"
Tilly bit her lip.
"Some of it."
"Well then start with your usual haunts; the grocery store; the troll; the storage lot… Start there, okay."
"Okay. Thanks detective… you're the best." She grinned. She then paused. "Can we have a game later?"
"Sure. I get my lunch break at one. You can tell me how your sketch book hunt goes as well."
…
Tilly; head down; hood up; hands in her pockets; had trailed a path from the police station to the grocery store, up and down every aisle, and was now headed to the troll bridge. She was watching the pavement searching for her lost sketchbook. She was following her footsteps as instructed and hoping for the best.
When she got to the Troll she looked up to give her friend a greeting. There she noticed a little girl in a pink coat with a pink backpack, looking up and down the street; a familiar blue book in her hand.
Tilly can't stop herself rushing forward and snatching she sketch book from the child's hands, startling the little girl in the process.
"My book!"
The child watched as Tilly distractedly flicked through her sketch book making sure all was as she'd left it.
"Hi, I'm Lucy." she said the slowly.
"Thank you, Lucy." said Tilly, looking up with a smile, now her fears were allayed, and her drawings were safe. "You found my book."
"Yeah. I thought I'd find it's owner here. You'd drawn so many pictures of this troll."
"That's because he's one of my oldest friends." Tilly explained.
Lucy frowned, obviously not too sure what to make of this information.
"I like your drawings." she said at last.
"You do?"
Lucy nodded,
"They're fun."
"Did you see them all?"
"Not all of them… but I did see you'd drawn my mom."
Tilly wrinkled her nose at this information.
"I draw a lot of things. Drawing calms me."
Tilly started flipping through her book.
"So, who is your mom?"
Lucy moved closer to look over her shoulder.
"There." said Lucy, pointing a finger and stopping the pages turn.
The drawing was of a pretty lady in a billowing ball-gown but standing like a swashbuckler holding aloft a sword.
"The sad lady that worked in the chicken shack is your mom." asked Tilly.
"She's only sad when she misses me." said Lucy.
Tilly contemplated her drawing for a moment.
"I thought she looked like Cinderella, the way she was always working so hard. So that's who I drew."
"But why does she have a sword?"
"Doesn't Cinderella have a sword?" Tilly asked, suddenly worried she'd gotten something wrong again.
"Not in the stories I know." said Lucy. "But it does suits my mom."
Lucy, enjoying the conversation, tried to draw the strange young woman into another picture. She vaguely recognised the figure on the opposite page to her mom.
"Isn't that the grumpy detective, I've seen him at my grandmother's offices?"
"Weaver's not Grumpy." snapped Tilly, making Lucy flinch. She flicked back a few pages to a gruff looking dwarf holding a pick axe. "That's 'Grumpy'!"
Tilly turned back to her picture of the detective and stroked the page.
"It's Detective Weaver… only I didn't get it right. I gave him a spinning wheel… Spinning isn't weaving."
Tilly started flicking through some more pages.
"I like the pirate." said Lucy, putting out a hand again to stop the pages turn.
"Detective Rogers on the Jolly Roger." said Tilly grinning, "I even gave him a hook… Although I think in reality he's too nice to be a pirate. I sometimes think he'd make a better knight."
"So, do you only draw people you know?"
"People I see. People I know. People I like. I've got a picture of you in here somewhere I think."
"Me?"
Lucy got apprehensive as Tilly flipped a few more pages.
Lucy's jaw dropped seeing the drawing.
"You made me a princess."
"Of course… was that wrong?"
"No it's wonderful."
"And who's that? You've drawn her a lot. Is she an elf?"
On the opposite page was a figure, her back turned. She wore a long cloak and a quiver, held a bow in her gloved hand and wore her hair in a long single braid.
Tilly's mouth turned up into a small sweet smile and she caressed the image.
"I don't know who she is. We haven't met… I don't think. She's not an elf. I don't think she has magic. I think she's important though. I keep looking but I haven't found her yet"
"Maybe she's you."
Tilly shook her head and flipped through her book to her own self-portrait.
"That's me."
"Alice in Wonderland?!"
"A crazy person in a crazy world. It seemed to fit."
The cloaked hooded figure was on the opposite page here too – More a silhouette in this drawing, her profile looking across the page to Tilly as Alice.
Lucy couldn't help but notice Tilly stroke this picture too.
"I do like your pictures." said Lucy. "I... I was wondering as a reward for returning your book if I might have one. The one of my mom. It's so good!"
Tilly recoiled and hugged her book protectively to her chest. Horrified at the thought a page being taken from its cover.
"No!" she said fiercely. "You can't touch my book."
Lucy was startled by her reaction, still not comfortable with Tilly's very changeable moods. Her bottom lip quivered.
"I'm sorry I shouldn't have asked."
Now Tilly felt bad. Her eyes darted in panic as she tried to think of a solution. She'd upset Lucy, who'd done nothing but help her and be nice. Suddenly, she had a plan. Tilly reached into her pockets and looked through her meagre change.
"Do you have a fifty cents?" she asked.
Lucy reached around for her bag and then paused.
"Why?"
"Because you found my notebook and you deserve a reward."
"But if I'm giving you money to give to me…"
"I'm not giving you money. Come on."
Tilly grabbed Lucy by the arm and dragged her down the street.
…
Tilly led her to the copy centre just across the way from Roni's.
"Hi Mr Wei, we need to make copies!"
With their money pooled they had the two dollars needed for three copies.
Tilly photocopied the picture of Lucy's mom as Cinderella and the one of Lucy as a princess.
"Which other would you like? We paid for three."
Lucy flicked through the sketch book. She was very tempted by the one of her grandmother and Ivy dressed as evil witches around a cauldron, but she thought she should do something nice for this woman instead. She clearly didn't have much, in the way of money or friends.
"Maybe if you copy this one." said Lucy pointing at the drawing of the cloaked girl with the braid. "Maybe then if I see her I'll recognise her and I can let you know I've found her."
Tilly grinned.
"You'd do that?"
"Of course." said Lucy, "We're friends now, right? It's the least I can do for a friend."
"Thank you, Lucy."
"You're welcome… um I just realised I don't know your name."
"Tilly. My name's Tilly... friend Lucy."
She shook Lucy by the hand and grinned.
…
CODA
Weeks later Lucy has been distracted by her father's curse and finding the magic to cure him. Tilly and her pictures had become a faint memory.
Arriving at Roni's to help her Great-Aunt Zelena brew a spell, Lucy met Margot for the very first time. She looked familiar; but it took Lucy a while, beyond remembering a cousin, to know why.
Now if Margot was Robin… and Robin was the cloaked figure in Tilly's drawings. Then Tilly really was Alice; the 'Girl from the Tower' she'd never had the chance to meet.
As she left the bar in a rush Lucy headed towards the troll bridge. She knew she couldn't tell Tilly who she was and who Margot was, but she could tell her she'd found the cloaked figure from her drawings…