[tape recorder crackles to life]
Lorie: [in the middle of a sentence] –but how can the train only go one way, that doesn’t make any sense–
Henry: [cutting her off] Testing, one, two–
L: Stop that, we don’t have to do it anymore!
H: What happened to being professional?
L: Forget about that now, if anyone actually listens to these, they’ll care more about the information than whether we do the proper sign-off every time!
H: What sort of information could we possibly have that would even be worth listening to?
L: I’m sure we’d uncover plenty of things worth listening to if we just went to the train station and tried to figure out–
H: Here we go again–
L: –why the train only goes one way! How is that even possible? If there was a loop, it’d make sense, but does it just disappear at one end and appear at the other? Are there multiple trains? Why are you looking at me like that, Henry?
H: Because you…we aren’t supposed to ask things like that.
L: …says who?
H: It’s not something you’re told, it’s just something you know.
L: I don’t–
H: You would if you were from around here, but you’re not! You’re just asking questions for things that you don’t really want to know the answers to because you’re a bored city girl! [takes a breath, tries to calm down] Look. It’s just a Breagh thing. The train just comes. There’s no reason why or how, it just does. When somebody moves here, the train comes to drop them off. That’s just how it is.
L: And if somebody wants to leave?
H: Why would anybody want to leave?
[recording ends]
[recording starts up again]
L: [completely different tone, back to over-excited kid instead of the worry she clearly felt talking about investigating the train] Testing, one, two. This is our third recording here in Breagh! We’ve been going around the town getting to know everybody– well, I’ve been getting to know them, Henry’s already an expert, and we thought we’d tell you about some of the folks here in town.
H: Right! So we can start with Mr. Young or Sam, he runs the bookshop. He’s very nice, he doesn’t really feel like a proper adult. My mums say he’s barely out of university, but he has his own shop so he must be adult enough for that. He runs it with his cats, he’s got like four. There aren’t very many books because there’s not much of a [mispronounces it] clientele here in town, but he’s got them all divided into neat sections like and he gets deliveries on the t– he gets deliveries of new books sometimes. 
He wears button-ups and vests most of the time and he always looks way fancier than he really needs to. He’s got brown hair, brown eyes, oh, and he always offers tea and biscuits whenever someone comes into the shop. I’m in there a whole lot, he says I’m his best customer. The shop’s on the side of town that lorie and I walk through on the way to and from school, so–
L: Oh, maybe we should tell them about where everything is.
H: Oh, right, good plan. I forget some people don’t grow up here.
The town itself’s sort of a circle. In the centre, there’s a little cobblestone sort of gathering area with a big clock tower in the middle and there’s our biggest buildings on four sides. On one side’s the train station and the tracks, obviously. On another is Sam’s bookshop and past that you have all the farmland and Lorie’s and my houses. Then there’s the general store and then the fourth side’s the town hall, but nobody really uses it except for the really old folks who probably have nothing better to do than squabble all day. Then, past the town hall is the school.
People’s houses are sort of all over the place branching out from the three sides.
L: Why only three?
H: Well, one side’s where the train is. [moving on quickly] Most folks like to live close to the centre, but obviously my mums and I live a bit further away to account for our patch of farmland. My mums bought the land with the house and now there’s all sorts of animals and like…corn…on there.
L: Why’d you say it like that?
H: I dunno exactly what sorta stuff we grow.
L: Haven’t you lived there your whole life?
H: Yeah…but it ain’t like I’m the one doing all the planting, I just help them weed it and that’s usually before the actual vegetables and stuff are visible.
L: You don’t know what your farm makes except corn?
H: …goats.
L: Alright, what about the people who live further away from the centre?
H: Those are the weirdos. Nobody really likes to talk about them.
L: There’s a lot of things you don’t talk about here in Breagh, huh?
H: See, now you’re getting it.
L: What makes them weird?
H: Well, there’s a bunch of old cat ladies out there just living in tiny houses hoarding all the things they ever bought. There’s Cailleach, nobody’s ever sure if they’re still alive until they come into town to buy cat food and tea.
L: That’s sort of sad.
H: Yeah, sometimes we have fundraisers at the school where we’re meant to go door-to-door selling things like chocolate bars and, once in a while, somebody tries to go out across the moors to Cailleach and they always either don’t answer or slam the door in kids’ faces, so we’ve sort of figured out they’re happier being left alone.
L: So it’s all crazy cat…people across the moors?
H: …yeah…crazy cat people and the witch.
L: Hold on, you have a witch? Why would you not tell me about this earlier, that’s the coolest thing ever! If I lived in a town that had a witch, that’s the first thing I’d tell everybody about it, I’d be all, ‘Hi, my name is Lorie, my town has a witch!’
H: He isn’t exactly part of the town really…he just happens to live nearby.
L: He? I thought witches were all women.
H: Maybe he isn’t really a witch then, but that’s just what all the adults say. Apparently he has a whole cottage filled with candles and symbols and every time a goat goes missing my mums always sort of say the witch’s taken it. Nobody really believes it, I don’t think, but it isn’t like he comes out here to contradict it, so he’s just sort of a town ghost story at this point. He grows his own food, so we only see him a few times a year.
L: Alright, that makes sense…so that’s the rundown of most of the interesting bits of Breagh! See you– you’ll listen to us next time soon!
H: Bye!
[recording ends]
[tape recorder starts up again]
H: [almost whispering] Right. Okay. So Lorie’s been acting strange recently.
She’s still all over the idea of somehow investigating the train station to see where the trains go and I’ve tried telling her there isn’t any point, but she’s just so stubborn about it. [pause] I think it’s just growing pains or something, getting used to a smaller town with much less to do than London. Eventually, she’ll settle in and get over questioning every little thing. She’ll just get used to the fact that there’s some things we just don’t talk about here. She’ll get used to it. She has to.
In the meanwhile, I’ll just…have to distract her from poking around things that we aren’t supposed to know…I’m not even sure why we aren’t supposed to know them, but…I’ve seen the lost people. They’re the only ones around here who ask questions.
I don’t want Lorie to become like them. 
[pause]
I’ll just distract her. I’m good at that. There’s plenty of things to do around here that are safe to talk about. It’s fine. She’ll be fine.
I can keep her safe.
[recording ends]
Outro: This episode of Into The Ring stars Olivia Spreen and Thomas Malinovsky. It is created by Thomas Malinovsky and Olivia Spreen. It is written by Thomas Malinovsky and edited by Olivia Spreen. Cover art is by our friend Nick, you can find them on Instagram at @nickick._. Special thanks to our patron, Tessa Prodromou. If you’d like to support Into The Ring and any future podcasts check us out on our patreon at at malinovksyandspreen and on our instagram at @intotheringpodcast. We really appreciate it. Thank you for listening, double check your train routes before the doors close, and until next time welcome into the ring.