Sketches from the Café Confictura

An unprecedented 7.2 earthquake rocked tiny Applewood, CT. Then things got weird. This blog chronicles the mysterious happenings of the town and the one structure untouched by the destruction: the Café Confictura.

The Ongoing Story of Confictura

Sketch № 19: Watching the Train from the Tracks

The quaint town of Applewood, Connecticut, is as restless as the Housatonic River that rushes through it. Since the mysterious Quake…

Clarissa J. Markiewicz

Sep 2

Sketch № 18: The Lightning Underfoot

When I first came to Applewood back in April in the wake of the mysterious 7.2 Quake, rumors of dark mysticism swirled like the dust…

Clarissa J. Markiewicz

Aug 26

Sketch № 17: Mending Fences

Technically, “criminal trespassing” is the charge Clarke, Samantha, and Brandon got slapped with when they were caught breaking into the…

Clarissa J. Markiewicz

Aug 12

Sketch № 16: Crickets on a Summer Night

Overlapping conversations in a public place sound to me like a field of chirping crickets on a summer evening. Voices rise and fall, they…

Clarissa J. Markiewicz

Aug 5

Sketch № 15: What They Found Behind the Wardrobe

Two weeks ago, the flame began wavering on one of the few hopeful candles still lit in Applewood. A cold, cruel breath threatened to…

Clarissa J. Markiewicz

Jul 29

Sketch № 14: Shadows on the Horizon

The O’Connor house, practically the oldest structure still standing in little Applewood, Connecticut, has been through enough renovation…

Clarissa J. Markiewicz

Jul 15

Sketch № 13: Fresh Paint and Bandaged Bones

Just about two weeks had gone by since Mrs. Creaverton was visited by the ghost of her late husband when we all finally got…

Clarissa J. Markiewicz

Jul 8

Sketch № 12: A Ghostly Visit

Reading or watching a good ghost story, I’ve found, allows us a safe way to occasionally open that creaky, warped door to the crawlspace…

Clarissa J. Markiewicz

Jun 24

Sketch № 11: The Flickering Lamps

Last Tuesday — one day after Mrs. C, Roscoe, Violet, and I vowed to call on the citizens of Applewood to come together and save a gasping…

Clarissa J. Markiewicz

Jun 17

Sketch № 10: A Cold Café’s Call to Action

When there are too few customers inside the Café Confictura, the air changes. What were cool breezes of relief rolling off the Housatonic…

Clarissa J. Markiewicz

Jun 10

Sketch № 9: Catching Up Over Coffee (A Recap of Sketches 1–8)

A recap of the strange happenings in Applewood and Café Confictura so far, along with links to the first eight Sketches of the story.

Clarissa J. Markiewicz

Jun 3

Sketch № 8: The Eyes of Applewood

For anyone in Applewood who may be following this blog, please know that rumors of Mrs. Creaverton’s arrest have been greatly exaggerated…

Clarissa J. Markiewicz

May 27

Sketch № 7: The Spiral Rocks

One minute before the mainshock of a mysterious 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Applewood, Connecticut, seven weeks ago, family SUVs and…

Clarissa J. Markiewicz

May 20

Sketch № 6: Cheesecake and Thunder

Given that Pastor Sweeney blamed the Quake on certain people who frequent Café Confictura, and blamed the place itself for offering them…

Clarissa J. Markiewicz

May 13

Sketch № 5: Inside the Glass Church

There are two main churches in little Applewood, Connecticut: Pastor Beauregard Sweeney runs Our Lord of the Ascension, and Father Jack…

Clarissa J. Markiewicz

May 6

Sketch № 4: Round Table Salon and Saviors

One year ago this week, an article appeared in The Applewood Timber that began:

Clarissa J. Markiewicz

Apr 29

Sketch № 3: A New Recipe

Whether Violet had imagined Nessie’s plot to kill Mrs. Creaverton via poisoned key lime pie or it was true we might never know, but…

Clarissa J. Markiewicz

Apr 22

Sketch № 2: The Poisoned Pie

At six a.m. last Tuesday, April 10, under a rainstorm that flooded the town’s corroded gutters and bubbled over broken streets, I knocked…

Clarissa J. Markiewicz

Apr 15

Sketch № 1: Café Open on Darkened Street

In the broken heart of Applewood, Connecticut, the café is bright, even at this late hour. The last reporter just left, their van chugging…

Clarissa J. Markiewicz

Apr 8

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