Captain Blizzard to the rescue 1/7

Jennifer Jane was sitting quietly in a tree house at the far end of her dad’s garden. It had been built in an old May tree, whose trunk only grew three feet or so above the ground, before forking into several large nearly vertical branches.

The house had been made at the top of one branch, which had all its little sticky-out boughs and twigs cut off, so that it couldn’t be climbed. It could only be reached by climbing up another branch and crossing a short drawbridge made out of an old plank.

When the drawbridge was raised from the tree house, no one could reach her but just in case something went wrong with it, there was a rather wobbly rope ladder that she could lower and climb down.

The walls of the house were made of old sacking to keep out the worst of the wind, while a piece of plastic sheeting made a roof, in case of rain. It was a very private place and she sometimes went there to have a quiet think all by herself.

Today, Moggy was curled up by her feet, with his nose pushed well into his tummy. He had no trouble climbing the bare branch using his claws and could often be found there whether the drawbridge was raised or not.

“It’s nice up here,” he’d said the first time he’d found her there, “but a proper house should have had a cat flap.”

Jennifer Jane had been wearing a warm coat when she first climbed into the tree house, but once out of the cold wind, had taken it off and put it by her feet.

Now she was sitting cross-legged on an old cushion, wondering whether to visit Barnacle Bill, or go to the Witches’ Home for a flight on her broom, when suddenly something flashed past and landed in a flower bed near the house.

She peeped over the top of the sacking and saw it was Jumping Jim arriving for his weekly visit to do the housework. A few moments later her mother walked along the garden to the tree and looked up to see if the drawbridge was raised.

“Jim won’t let me stay in the house while he’s working, so I’m off to the village for some shopping,” she called, “is there anything you want?”

“No thanks mum, I haven’t made my mind up what I want to do today, so I think I’ll just stay up here for a bit.”

Ten minutes later Moggy opened one eye, “It’s getting foggy!” he said and covering his nose with both paws he went straight back to sleep.

He was quite right. Jennifer Jane looked carefully at the gathering fog and had the feeling that it wasn’t natural.