April 14, 1958
What strange delights follow the springtime's blossoms! Whilst enjoying warmth’s return to these oft-dreadful meads, I chanced upon a local fraternal organization’s jumble sale. My predilection for immersing myself in the tiniest of arcane minutiae that has been lacking for so long returned with a cold fury; I soon lost myself in determining the origins of the artifacts that had no doubt pilfered from grandparents’ hope chests in order to obtain coin for all-numbing sandwiches and beer.
Perhaps my pulse quickened slightly after paging through the journal of a plague-ridden hero of this community’s past, for resting between where I deposited the journal and a pair of novelty salad tongs was the long-lost Lovers’ Dulcimer.
Tracing its stained filigree work to ascertain its authenticity, I quickly arranged a transaction with the youth manning the event. Even now, the dulcimer rests by my side, humming softly in the diffused moonlight.
Earlier, I hammered out a simple elegy from the winter semester and was met with Eustace Clockfeld’s final message to his ailing wife. Not too detached from such matters to feel unembarrassed, I quickly turned my attention to other matters. Were mine the first set of ears to hear this message, or were those infamous dulcimer performances sprung from the mind of a jealous rival?
It is of no matter. Nevertheless, I cannot push from my mind his revelations regarding the Path of Thoth. I never even had my suspicions!
April 16, 1958
Having returned to the Lover’s Dulcimer, I have attempted melodies more cheerful as a start to my map of its zephyric resonance patterns. After much trial and error, it appears that many of the instrument’s prior owners were more fortunate than the Clockfelds.
(Source: The private journal of Dr. Orlando Laswell)