Jennifer Jane and the Wish Warehouse 1/3

It was a miserable autumn day. The rain was pouring down the windows and Jennifer Jane and her parents were sitting in their living room, very bored and trying to think of things to do.

Suddenly, dad spoke up with a large smile on his face. "I know what we can all do," he cried, "Jennifer Jane can take us all out to see her friend Mr Jones, I'm sure he won't be doing anything on a nasty wet day like this and he'll probably be pleased to see us. Besides that, I've never met him and I owe him several 'thank you's' for the favours he's done us all in the past."

Well, as you can imagine, Jennifer Jane didn't know what to do. Mr Jones was the real name of her goblin friend Barnacle Bill and goblins aren't supposed to show themselves to humans at all, especially to grown-ups.

Still, she couldn't tell her parents that, so she said that she'd have to go and see him first, as he wasn't on the telephone and see if it would be all right for them all to pay him a visit.

She put on her rain coat and wellington boots and pulling her sou'wester hat firmly onto her head, went out into the rain.

She hurried along the garden and into the woods and was soon at the magic clearing. She closed her eyes and wished herself onto the path, which led to the giant's pool. From there she hoped she would be able to arrange to see Barnacle Bill.

She walked quickly forwards and then.....bump. To her amazement she had walked right into a tree.

‘That's strange,’ she thought and closed her eyes and wished again. Bump, "Oh no, not another tree,” but sure enough, there she was, standing right in front of the same tree that she had only just walked into a minute ago.

‘I wonder what's gone wrong,’ she thought, ‘I know, I'll try wishing to see the Clerk of the Weather, perhaps he'll be able to help me’

So once again she shut her eyes and wished. This time there was a loud rushing noise and a rather large bump on the ground in front of her. When she opened her eyes, she was amazed to see a very large pumpkin and a cage with four white mice in it, but before she had a chance to say a word, there came another rushing noise and the pumpkin and the white mice disappeared again.

"Well I never," said Jennifer Jane, "I wonder what ever could have happened then. Still, I must have one more try to see Barnacle Bill." And she wished again, "I want to go and see Barnacle Bill," she said it out loud this time and as she opened her eyes, she wasn't quite so surprised to see a golden coach drawn by four horses waiting for her.

"Well, I've been to see Barnacle Bill in some funny ways but I never expected I would actually ride in Cinderella's coach."

She climbed up into the coach and as soon as she settled herself down, they were off with a rush. Rather strangely, the coach seemed to be flying and before very long they came to a halt in front of rows of long low buildings which seemed to be resting on top of a large cloud.

Jennifer Jane was just about to get out and see where she was, when she heard voices. It certainly wasn’t the Clerk of the Weather or Barnacle Bill who was speaking.

"Now look what you've done," said a very cross sounding lady’s voice. "I know you're only young and this is your first job but really you should have known better than to use Cinderella's coach."

"It was the only thing available," came the very tearful reply. "The magic puffs of wind have all been used up and the whole of the cloud transport was fully booked."

Jennifer Jane put her head out of the window and stared in amazement. A grown-up fairy in a silver dress with three golden stripes on her sleeve, was talking crossly to a younger fairy in the same sort of dress but without the stripes.

"Now off you go and take special care not to make any more mistakes to day, or I'll put you back on star polishing."

The small fairy walked away looking very sorry for herself and Three Stripes was just opening her mouth to say something else, when she caught sight of Jennifer Jane looking out of the coach.