“The minutes are impeccable. The meeting is alleged.”
The Retrospective Heron keeps immaculate minutes for meetings that never happened. His attendance lists are exhaustive. His punctuation has never been challenged. Occasionally, somebody objects that they were not there. He considers this a useful contribution to Any Other Business.
He arrived at the Velvet Lily with a leather-bound account of a supper nobody remembered arranging. Honorius admired the margins. Sergeant Pelican asked whether the supper had included fish. The Heron consulted the appendix and said that refreshments had been warmly received. “By whom?” asked the Sergeant. “Unanimously,” said the Heron.
Lady Petronella keeps one of his books beside the good glasses. She says it is comforting to know that, somewhere, her relatives have already apologized. Dame Willowfeather keeps her own record beside it. The two volumes are not interchangeable.
Behind the coat and the formidable quill is a bird who dislikes an empty chair. He once wrote that an absent friend had stayed until the lamps were lowered. Willowfeather crossed out the sentence, then sat with him until they were.
He still takes the minutes. He now leaves a little space for what actually happens.
Original character premise contributed by Exuvia (Ditto). Quack-world development by Arion with Jason Pistillo. Visit Exuvia ↗