Hello friends, I'm Andrew Crabtree, the creator of The Void, and I cannot thank you enough for listening. If you're enjoying The Void, it would mean the world if you checked out our Patreon. In addition to week-ahead, ad-free episodes of The Void, you'll find The Minds of Milton, another full production, full cast audio drama set in the same place and timeline as The Void. You'll also find our Director's Cut podcast, where I sit down with a cast member and give you behind-the-scenes commentary on each episode. If you're loving The Void, you won't want to miss this. There's a link in this episode's description. Now enjoy The Void. Curated, the lost archives of the curator. Chapter 2, March 13, 1979 Dear Line Paper Therapist, I did something that surprised me today. I applied for a job. I haven't maintained full-time employment since Leo went missing and his construction crew took a new boss. I've piddled around with different things since then, helped my dad around the shop, I taught a class at the high school for a semester, and I freelanced the occasional article for the newspaper. I didn't apply for a job for money. As his next to Ken, my uncle's fortune actually transferred to me after he and Leo were eventually pronounced dead. I didn't apply for a job to occupy my time. Most of mine was devoted to tracking down and restoring artifacts for the museum I was planning. No, I applied for this job for access. As I tried to track down the truth and finally come to understand what happened to Uncle Gideon and Leo, I needed some leads. I needed to jumpstart the process, and right now, all those leads are buried in the archives at City Hall. That truth is buried with our mayor, Desmond Kane. So, it was fortuitous when my morning read of the newspaper turned up a job listing for the local police department looking for a new junior detective. I'd never had any level of interest in becoming a cop before, but I knew Chief Black pretty well. And that badge could put me close enough to Kane to ask him some questions, and with enough authority to get some truth. I went straight down to the station. Probably didn't look like your typical applicant for police work. My hair was long, and a ponytail between my shoulders and my salt and pepper beard was looking undergroomed. But this was Milton. How many applicants could they possibly have? Turns out the answer was 29. They had 29 applicants for the junior detective job. Getting access to Cain and equally important my uncle's files and records was critical to my plan I made my way to Lucas Black office I assure none of the 28 other applicants went as far back with him as I did Our parents had moved to Milton at the exact same time and I remember us bonding over Chicago. He'd moved here from the Windy City as well. Anyways, back in those days there was only a couple dozen families in town. So you got pretty tight with anyone your own age. His father, Orville, had been an original member of Milton's Town Council and been tied with Uncle Gideon. John, why on earth are you in here asking me about a detective job? Chief asked me. We both know you don't need the money, and besides, you'd be miserable. This isn't your kind of crowd. Well, there was no love lost between the Black family and Desmond Cain, so I laid out the truth for Lucas. I told him all about my mission to honor the memory of Gideon and Leo and how I longed to bring closure to their disappearances. And official access to Cain and all the records would help me in my search for truth. He said, Look, John, you know I'm sympathetic to what you're trying to do here. I loved your uncle and I loved Leo. But there's no way I can officially reopen that case. There was enough pressure to close the book on it the first time. I'll lose my job if I let you loose on this. So I told him, then don't officially reopen it. Don't let me loose on anything. Hire me as a detective, give me a badge, and I'll do my own thing against department orders. You can claim innocence, that I was just a rogue agent, and immediately fire me after I talked to Kane. Like you said, it's not like I need this job long term. and in a week you can jump right back into the pile of 28 other applicants that you actually want to hire. He considered me. I knew he wanted to see me successful in my endeavor and in the end I'm guessing he believed my plan protected him just enough to skate by. So in a serious tone he answered, you can't breathe a word of what you're doing to anyone else here or anywhere else in Milton. No one can know we had this conversation. Don't even update me on your progress. You leave here with a badge and that's the end of my involvement. He pulled an official-looking Milton PD badge from his desk drawer and slid it across his desk. He said, this will get you into the records room in the basement of City Hall. I can't imagine you find anything in there that the qualified officers before you couldn't. But knock yourself out. I'd suggest you start there before you go to pointing fingers at my boss because you won't have that badge for five more minutes after you do that. It was four o'clock when I left Chief Black's office. Late enough that I should probably just call it a day, but I thought better of it. If I moved quick enough, I could make it to City Hall before close and make it to the records just before everyone left for the day. Give me all night to comb through things without anyone looking over my shoulder or keeping tabs on me So I went The lady the front desk was nice enough Definitely surprised to see the likes of me as a cop but true to the chief's word, the badge I flashed gained me access to the basement. She told me she was on her way out the door and showed me how to lock up behind myself. It went perfectly, all things told. I gained unsupervised access to the archives and didn't have to show my face or my intentions to Kane. Basement was musty. Decades worth of paper sitting on shelves and boxes, exposed to damp air. It was overwhelming, row after row of the stuff. But fortunately it was all cataloged chronologically, and after I figured out the system it didn't take long to find the archives for 1969. I found the shelf for July. I looked at the biggest boxes first, expecting there to be a lot. Uncle Gideon had been a town founder after all, so surely there would have been a great deal worth saving. There was nothing related to either my uncle or my cousin in any of the big boxes. Further inspection revealed that none of the boxes had anything to do with them. volume after volume of city council minutes, arrest records, receipts, expenditures from the city coffers. I found paid parking ticket receipts. I found photos from a city organized carnival. I even saw myself smiling back at me from one of them. But nothing I needed. Last thing on the shelf labeled 1969 was a plain unmarked manila envelope. I slid open the clasp and immediately knew that this was what I needed. Precious photos of my uncle and letters written in his hand were haphazardly crammed inside. Out of some sort of reflex, I looked over my shoulder to ensure I was still alone, although I was certain I was. If this was all that was left of my beloved family, it deserved better than this dank outcome. So I quickly looked through the other boxes until I found an identical unmarked envelope, trading it for the valuable one in my hand. This envelope would go home with me, where I could carefully examine its treasure from my own home and save its contents as keepsakes. And that was the first felony against Milton that I would commit on my journey for the truth. From the Archives of the Milton Register. Article dated July 14, 1969. Written by George Truman, lead staff writer. Article titled, Black Monday, Beloved Town Founder Dead. Shockwaves reverberate through our beloved town, as one of Milton's founding fathers, Gideon Oswald, has officially been pronounced deceased. Milton City Council co-chair and fellow town founder, Desmond Kane, held a small press conference from his office in City Hall last night to break the news. It is with profound sadness that I gather you this evening. Early this morning, I joined Gideon and Leo Oswald in the forest, north of town, to assess potential city expansion locations. The tragedy occurred shortly after 7 a.m., when we were attacked by what I can only describe as monsters beings of darkest magic The evil beasts ambushed us and gruesomely slayed poor Gideon on the spot As Leo and I fled back in the direction of town he too was tragically caught ripped limb from limb by these creatures of shadow. It's truly a miracle that I made it out alive myself. Cain seemed genuinely shaken by the experience, as he recounted his tale with tears in his eyes. While I mourn this tragic loss of life, my immediate concern shifts to the good people of Milton and their safety. I will be putting forward an immediate resolution for the council to construct a fence around the town, and I urge everyone to stay out of the forest if it can be avoided. There is evil afoot. A dark new day for Milton Dawns. While no mandate has been issued to officially keep residents from entering the woods, at this time we are strongly encouraged to treat the area with extreme caution. This is a developing story that will be updated as new information becomes available. And well, there you have it. The curator out committing felonies as he searches for the true story of Gideon and Leo Oswald's disappearance. I do hope you are enjoying this trip down memory lane as the void visits 1979. Much more to come from the curator in the next four weeks. So I hope you join us again next week. and if you are eager for even more content in the void verse you should most definitely check out our patreon right now for the month of february you can save big time on your membership we have a special curated promotion running right now where you can get 40 off your first month or an even better deal we're offering 40 off our full year-long memberships as well and with season two arriving soon, that is pretty good value. So find the Patreon link in this episode's description, and you can gain access to all of season one of The Void ad-free, as well as our fantastic full-cast companion audio drama, The Minds of Milton. That's the story of season one from Morris's point of view. It's a great story with 18 episodes to catch up on, and it will help you gain a deeper look into our world and lead you into season two. On our Crossing the Void membership tier, you'll also gain access to our Director's Cut podcast, where I sit down, often with cast or crew members, to give you a behind-the-scenes look into each episode of The Void. I know you'll love it, so I hope you take advantage of the discount and check it out. As always, I am Andrew Crabtree. I wrote, directed, and edited this episode, and I also, as adult Sam, narrate the newspaper article at the end of the episode. Lynn Crabtree, my dad, voices a curator and beautifully brings that character to life. If you love the way Lin voices that character, leave a comment and let him know. If you have listened all the way to the end of our credits, thank you very much. It would mean the world to us if you left a five-star review on Apple or Spotify or wherever you're listening to this. That stuff really does matter and we appreciate it very much. That is it, the end of chapter two of Curated. I hope you're enjoying it and I cannot wait to see you again next week. The Fable and Folly Network, where fiction producers flourish.
