The land line phone in Harmony Café hadn’t worked in years. Which made it extra concerning when it started ringing at exactly 3:33 a.m.

Jo was alone, closing up after a long night of inventory. She stared at the dusty rotary relic on the back wall. It rang again. It was sharp and hollow like the sound came from behind the walls, not the line.

She picked it up. “Polly?” she said before she even realized she was speaking.

A crackle.

“Jo. You listening now?”

Jo gripped the receiver tighter. “How are you calling me? You’re a ghost. And a telegraph?”

“I’m resourceful.”

There was a pause.

“Jo,” Polly said, her tone more serious than Jo had ever heard it. “Tea’s got secrets. Like you.”

Jo felt her throat tighten. “I don’t…what are you talking about?”

“You ever wonder why the Silent Steep whispers to you?” Polly continued. “Why the steam sings in your dreams? It remembers you, Jo. From before.”

“Before what?”

But Polly was already fading.

“You need to go to the well,” she said. “Before they remember first.”

Click. The phone went dead.

Behind Jo, a single teacup rattled on its saucer.

The next morning, Mira found Jo standing barefoot outside the café, staring toward the edge of the woods. Staring towards the direction of the old sealed well that had long been forgotten.

Jo didn’t turn when Mira stepped up beside her. “Polly said I need to remember.”

Mira blinked. “Remember what?”

She shrugged and whispered, “Before they remember first.”