Witches Incorporated

  Chapter 5.

  Sophie pulled her bag out from under the bed and pulled out a jug.

  ‘You took one,’ gasped Jessica.

  Sophie nodded. ‘It’s evidence,’ she said importantly. ‘And I thought we could try experimenting on it and see if we can turn it back into a person.’

  ‘I’m glad you chose a nice one,’ said Jessica thankfully.

  The jug bore the face of a handsome young man with a slight look of a gypsy. He wore a silver ring in his ear and had a spreading smile with a dimple in both cheeks. Sophie stuffed it back hastily into her bag as they heard Aunt Hazel calling them for lunch.

  After lunch Aunt Hazel insisted the girls go out and gather driftwood from the beach.

  ‘I need it for firewood and the wind has died down quite a lot now.’

  It was still windy enough to send the waves crashing, but the tide had gone out so Sophie and Jessica took a sack each and went out to the beach. A couple of fishermen were trying their lucks by the rocks and an elderly couple were walking along the tide line collecting driftwood for their fire.

  ‘Why does she try and get rid of us all the time?’ complained Jessica.

  ‘She’s not going out today and no one has come. Perhaps the afternoon is the time she does her spells.’

  ‘I thought witches did things at midnight.’

  ‘Perhaps old-fashioned witches used to but I’m sure modern witches can do anything,’ said Sophie confidently. ‘I’ll collect the driftwood while you go and sneak back and see what she’s doing.’

  Jessica recoiled in horror. ‘Why me? Why do I have to do it?’

  ‘Because I’m going to sneak in on her tonight to see her without her face on. That’s much more dangerous.’

  Jessica couldn’t argue with this and weakly agreed to go back to the house.

  ‘If she sees me I’ll tell her I forgot my hat,’ she said bravely. ‘It’s true and my ears are freezing.’

  ‘Hurry up. I’ll wait by the boat when I’ve filled these sacks.’ Sophie began picking up small pieces of driftwood as Jessica ran back to the house. As she got nearer she became more confident.

  ‘I’m sure Aunt Hazel won’t hurt me,’ she thought, and crept around the side of the house. As she reached the spare room window she heard a wild cackle of laughter. Jessica stood frozen to the spot beside the window. The curtains had been pulled across but there was a small crack between them in the centre. Cautiously Jessica sidled along and put her eye to the crack. What she saw made her gasp in terror. Aunt Hazel was dressed in a tall, shiny, black witch’s hat and a long, flowing black cloak. She was cackling gleefully as she chanted what appeared to be a spell out of a large book propped up on a chair beside her.

  ‘Bubble, bubble, I’ll make trouble,’ she croaked, then gave a scream of eldricht laughter. Jessica had seen enough. Whimpering in fright she bolted back to the beach and gasped out what she had seen.

  Sophie was not surprised. ‘I told you she was a witch. No wonder she keeps that room shut. What else was in there? Did you see any skeletons or toads?’

  ‘No.’ Jessica shook her head. ‘At least, there might have been some, but I could only see in a tiny bit. She was definitely wearing a witch’s hat though.’

  ‘I wish I’d seen it. Come on, we’ll take this wood back and I’ll have a look too.’

  By the time they got back to the house Aunt Hazel was in the kitchen preparing dinner. The spare room looked perfectly normal, at least what they could see of it through the crack, and the door was locked.

  ‘Put the sacks in the back of the shed please,’ instructed Aunt Hazel. Sophie obeyed with a scowl. She was tired of being treated like an unwanted dog. Jessica helped drag the sacks into the shed, past an assortment of gardening tools and sacks of fertilizer and potting mix.

  ‘Yuck, toadstools.’ Jessica pointed to a damp patch in the corner where green mould and a few straggly pale fungi grew. She moved aside a carton of newspapers to make more room for the driftwood. There was a loud clattering sound as a rake fell to the ground beside her. Jessica jumped.

  ‘Bother. I must have bumped it.’ she reached over to hang the rake up again then gave a gasp. Sophie turned and saw a small broomstick propped against the wall in a dark place between two boxes.

  ‘It must be her broomstick. I wonder if she rides it?’ breathed Jessica.

  ‘Of course she does,’ replied Sophie scornfully. ‘All witches ride broomsticks. Hey, it might work for us.’

  They spent the next few minutes taking turns to stand over the broomstick commanding it to fly but nothing happened.

  ‘Perhaps it’s broken,’ Jessica suggested.

  ‘No, you just have to know the right magic words,’ came a voice from behind them. The girls whirled around to see Aunt Hazel watching them, an amused expression on her face. They stood helplessly watching as Aunt Hazel calmly plucked the broomstick from their unresisting hands and propped it back against the wall.

  ‘Time for dinner,’ she said as if nothing had happened. The girls followed her inside, Jessica clutching Sophie’s hand for reassurance. That night they added to the list. This now read:

  1. Black cat

  2. Belongs to Witches Incorporated

  3. Name on bottle from Pharmacy. Witch Hazel.

  4. Has to put face on each morning.

  5. Turns people into jugs

  6. Wears witch hat and cloak

  7. Casts spells from book

  8. Has broomstick and knows how to make it fly

  ‘Wow! People will have to believe this when we show it to them,’ said Jessica in awe.

  Sophie was pleased. ‘I reckon we’re doing really well. But I still want to see what she really looks like.’

  Nothing Jessica could say would persuade her against this. Sophie took out the small travelling alarm clock that she had borrowed from her mother and set the alarm for midnight. ‘Aunt Hazel is bound to be asleep by then,’ she decided. She put the clock under her pillow next to her torch. ‘I’ll wake you up so that if I don’t come back you’ll know I’ve been enchanted,’ she told Jessica. Jessica agreed to this but was very cross and grumpy when Sophie shook her awake at midnight.

  ‘I’m going now,’ she said. ‘Wish me luck.’

  ‘Good luck,’ whimpered Jessica, and lay in bed quivering as she heard Sophie tiptoe out their door and down the hallway.

  Taking a deep breath, Sophie crept into Aunt Hazel’s bedroom, where she could hear a soft snoring coming from the bed. She shone the torch across at the bedside table, where, among the clutter of tissues and books, a set of large white teeth grinned at her from a glass of water. Sophie nearly dropped the torch but steeled herself to step closer to the bed. Holding her breath she shone the torch on Aunt Hazel. What she saw made her scream in fright. She raced back to her bedroom as fast as she could.

  ‘What is it? What did she look like?’ asked Jessica frantically, but all Sophie could do was to shake. The next moment the door opened and the hall light went on.

  ‘What on earth were you doing, Sophie?’ asked Aunt Hazel. The girls looked at her in terror. Her whole face, apart from two large dark rings where her eyes were, looked like a blank mask. It appeared to be covered in a thick green paste, which glowed in the dark.

  ‘Nothing. I mean, I went to the bathroom and I went into the wrong room on the way back. I got mixed up,’ stammered Sophie.

  ‘Well, go to sleep now,’ said Aunt Hazel crossly, and shut the door again. Jessica hopped across into Sophie’s bed and the two girls clung together.

  ‘Did you see her face?’ Sophie shuddered.

  ‘It didn’t even look like a proper face. More like someone had thrown a mud pie at it.’ Jessica giggled hysterically. The girls decided they would push their beds together so they could reach out and hold hands if they got scared again in the night.