A Spoonful of Magic

  Chapter 8. Canine Capers

  There was a sudden ‘pop’ and the children found themselves back in Andy’s bedroom. They looked at each other sickly then all spoke at once.

  ‘That was the worst experience of my entire life,’ groaned Ryan

  ‘Of all the birdbrained ideas, asking for wings,’ spluttered Andy, glaring at Joanne.

  ‘Don’t talk about birds. I feel sick thinking about it,’ moaned Joanne.

  ‘I want to go home,’ wailed Mindy loudly. ‘I want to go home,’ she repeated loudly. ‘Magic is horrible. I hate fish. I thought we’d be like, like, fairies or angels. But it was birds. It was awful.’

  ‘It’s all your fault,’ said Andy. He glowered at Joanne who looked on the point of tears.

  ‘I didn’t know we’d be birds,’ said Joanne defensively. ‘I thought we’d just grow wings. I thought it would be cool.’

  ‘I told you the spoon magic wasn’t very good,’ apologised Ryan. ‘But that was truly gruesome.’ He shuddered at the memory.

  Andy rubbed his throat, as he absently put a book back on his bookshelf. He was sure he could still feel a ring around it and his voice sounded very squawky. ‘I’d better go and tell Mum we’re back. She’s probably been frantic. We’ve been away at least twenty four hours.’

  ‘How did we get back anyway,’ Ryan said in puzzlement. ‘Someone must have made a wish.’

  ‘I’ll ask Mum.’

  Andy raced down to the kitchen and reappeared a few minutes layer, holding the spoon triumphantly.

  ‘Look what I’ve got,’ he said. ‘And it’s okay, Mum didn’t even notice we were gone so time must have been different where we were.’

  ‘Who made the wish?’

  ‘Mum did’, Andy admitted. ‘She said she found the spoon in the doorway when she was going past and she said she wished I’d be tidier. Oh no!’ he looked wildly around the room and found he had a sudden compulsion to tidy it. The others looked on in amusement as he frantically started folding his clothes neatly and thrust a pile of dirty socks into the washing basket. There seemed to be layer on layer of stuff. No sooner had Andy finished tidying his construction set than he methodically lined all his model cars along his shelf and straightened the pictures on his walls.

  ‘You guys could always help,’ snarled Andy, as Joanne giggled from the bed.

  ‘We wouldn’t want to spoil your fun,’ Ryan assured him. ‘Besides, I’ve never seen your room so tidy.’

  Andy gave him a frustrated look but began lining his shoes up in neat rows in the cupboard and throwing an assortment of lolly papers and chocolate wrappers into the waste paper basket.

  ‘What stops the wish?’ Joanne wanted to know. Ryan explained that each new wish appeared to cancel out the last one.

  ‘I reckon we should give Tracey her spoon back,’ he concluded. ‘It’s not much good to any of us now, anyway. We’ve all had a wish.’

  ‘Mindy hasn’t,’ Joanne pointed out. Mindy sniffed and scrubbed her tears away with the back of her hand.

  ‘I don’t want a wish that makes me eat raw fish,’ she gasped. She started to cry again with big heaving sobs. Joanne patted her awkwardly on the back while Ryan and Andy felt embarrassed.

  ‘Please make a wish,’ begged Andy, as he carefully put the lids back on all his felt pens and arranged them in his pencil case. ‘I hate being like this.’ He sighed as he began lining all his books into alphabetical order and packing his cricket gear carefully into his sports bag. ‘I’ll have to get the vacuum cleaner. This carpet is far too messy still.’

  ‘You could just make a little wish,’ Joanne suggested. ‘A really nice wish. Just for you. That would make you feel happier, wouldn’t it?’

  ‘Don’t know,’ sniffed Mindy. Joanne leant over and whispered in her ear and gradually her sobs subsided.

  ‘What are you two up to?’ Andy wanted to know.

  ‘Mindy’s going to make a wish with the spoon,’ said Joanne defiantly.

  ‘Do it quickly then,’ Ryan sighed. ‘I really have to take the spoon back to Tracy. And please make sure it is a good one.’

  ‘This can’t fail,’ Joanne assured him as Mindy grasped the spoon and mumbled, ‘I wish I had a chocolate cake.’

  There was a popping noise and a large cake on a round china platter appeared on the bed beside her. It was covered with whipped cream and cherries and dotted with large lumps of chocolate. It seemed to have at least six layers all joined together with a rich chocolate filling.

  ‘Wow! I wish I’d thought of something like that,’ gasped Andy.

  ‘You can have some if you like,’ offered Mindy generously. ‘You all can.’

  They needed no further invitation. The next few minutes passed in a delighted silence, apart from squeals of delight, as four hungry children ate an entire Black Forest gateau between them.

  ‘That was divine,’ breathed Joanne as she licked her fingers.

  ‘Mmm,’ agreed Andy, trying to scoop up the last cherry that had fallen onto the bedspread. He looked at the crumbs strewn on his bed and was relieved to find that his normal nature was now in place and he had no desire tidy it up.

  ‘Maybe we should have done this to start with,’ said Ryan dreamily, ‘and wished for food.’

  Mindy beamed. ‘It was a good wish, wasn’t it?’

  ‘It was great,’ they assured her.

  ‘I’m almost too full to move,’ groaned Ryan. ‘But I’d better get going. Where’s the spoon?’

  ‘Here. I used it to eat some of the cream so it’s a bit sticky,’ apologized Joanne. ‘I’ll wrap it in a tissue for you.’ She went to her bedroom and came back a few minutes later with the spoon neatly wrapped. ‘There you go.’

  Ryan grinned and made his way out the front door. He was halfway down the path when he heard Andy’s mother give a shriek.

  ‘Andy! Have you seen my chocolate cake? I’ve spent the last two hours making it and it seems to have vanished! You haven’t touched it, have you?’

  With a guilty look behind him, Ryan ran the rest of the way and didn’t stop until he reached his own front gate. He stopped in the hallway and told Yecart about his adventures with the spoon. ‘The cake was really delicious,’ he sighed. ‘But Andy’s bound to get into heaps of trouble for it. It was worth it though. It was his stupid sister’s fault we ended up as birds.’

  ‘Who ended up as birds?’ demanded Tracey, as she came out of the living room.

  ‘We did.’ Ryan told her about his experiences when Joanne has wished for wings. Tracey laughed until she cried. ‘You must have been cormorants in China,’ she gasped at last. ‘That’s how they fish in some parts over there. It’s really famous. Oh dear.’ She giggled again.

  ‘You wouldn’t have thought it was so funny if you’d been the one eating raw fish,’ muttered Ryan indignantly, as he handed Tracey her spoon back.

  ‘At least it didn’t last long,’ said Tracey soothingly.

  ‘Yes it did, we were there for ages,’ complained Ryan. ‘It’s just as well Andy’s mother found the spoon or else we might still be there.’

  ‘Oh, we would probably have missed you eventually,’ said Tracey callously. ‘Probably after a week or so. Come on Yecart.’ She unhooked the mirror from the wall and turned to go to her bedroom.

  ‘What are you doing?’ asked Ryan suspiciously.

  ‘Giving Yecart a turn with the spoon. Not that it’s any of your business,’ said Tracey haughtily.

  ‘Don’t expect me to help if it all turns to custard,’ muttered Ryan as she flounced off. He stretched out on his bed, full of chocolate cake and feeling too lazy to do anything other than listen to a CD. He was tapping his fingers to the drumbeat when Tracey reappeared a few minutes later. ‘It doesn’t work,’ she said. ‘Are you sure that’s the right spoon, Ryan?’

  ‘Yep, that’s what Joanne gave me,’ he nodded. ‘She wrapped it in a tissue because it was sticky.’

  ‘It wasn’t sticky when I unwrapped it.’

/>   ‘Perhaps she washed it first,’ said Ryan impatiently. ‘Be quiet. This is the good bit where the drummer does the solo.’

  ‘We’ll try again then. But if it doesn’t work this time it must have been all used up and it will be your fault.’

  ‘You said I could have a wish!’

  ‘Well, yes I said you could, but I didn’t mean everyone in the neighbourhood as well,’ said Tracey huffily.

  ‘What are you wishing for?’ asked Ryan idly.

  ‘None of your business,’ said Tracey briskly, slamming her bedroom door.

  Ryan tried listening outside the door but his mother found him in the hallway.

  ‘Oh good, there you are Ryan. Come and help me with the garden. I need a strong boy to do some digging.’

  ‘I’m not strong,’ protested Ryan. ‘I’m very weak. Digging would be bad for me. It’s a well-known fact that growing boys shouldn’t over exert themselves.’

  ‘Is that right?’ laughed his mother. ‘I’m sure a bit of digging won’t hurt you. Now come on. I tell you what, as a special treat I’ll cook up some fish and chips for you for tea.’

  Ryan choked. The thought of eating fish again made him feel ill. ‘I’ll never enjoy fish and chips again. It’s not fair. Life sucks,’ he thought gloomily as he reluctantly followed his mother out to the garden.