A quiet day with Jennifer Jane 2/7

When they arrived back home, dad unloaded the bags and put them on the garage floor. “Just look at the state of the car, it’s covered in mud, I think you ought to help me clean it, after all it only got that filthy because we went up the lane to get your saddles.”

“Don’t worry dad, I’ll do it all by myself, you just put the car in the garage, go indoors for a cup of tea and leave everything to me.”

Dave looked at her rather strangely but did as he was asked. “Are you sure you can manage on your own?” he said before he went indoors.

“Yes of course, I didn’t waste my time when I was in the past for six months. I’ll be indoors in a minute, only I’m afraid you mustn’t be here while I’m cleaning!”

Once her father had gone, she shut the garage doors. Then she opened all the car doors, including the boot and twiddled her fingers.

All the dust from inside the car came out in a big cloud, while the dirt on the outside just fell off. Another twiddle moved all the dirt and dust into a heap, then she opened one of the bin bags that dad kept in the garage for rubbish and the mess obligingly disappeared inside in a large swirl. Finally she opened the garage doors again and went into the house for her cup of tea.

“Given up already?”

“Of course not, it’s all done.”

Dave rushed out into the garage and looked at his gleaming car in astonishment. “It looks as if it’s just come out of the showroom,” he said, when he came back in to finish his tea. “Clean inside as well as out. I thought you weren’t allowed to learn cleaning spells, isn’t it supposed to be bad for discipline?”

“Yes, but only nowadays. Two hundred years ago the witches didn’t mind how everything was cleaned, so all the apprentices were taught the right sort of spells to clean and polish things.”

He was so pleased with his clean car that he asked Mary to come and have a look at it.

“It’s almost as if Jumping Jim had done the cleaning,” she said.

“I wonder if that’s his secret,” said Jennifer Jane, “after all he won’t let you watch while he’s cleaning and he always does a perfect job! I’m afraid I mustn’t say anything though, I’m not supposed to know that sort of spell nowadays and anyway he’d be out of a job if I started cleaning the house for you!”