The Birthday Present

Then – suddenly – there it was!

‘Oh,’ she said as the smoke cleared.

‘Is that all you can say?’ I was a bit put out, especially after all the trouble I’d gone to. Eye of newt is not that easy to come by, not around here.

‘I’d expected something a bit more….’ She made one of those vague-shaped gestures that are not easy to interpret.

‘What is that supposed to mean?’

‘Well, y’know?’

‘What?’

‘Magic… and all that?’

‘Yes?’

‘I’d just… I suppose… expected something a bit more….’

‘A bit more what?’

‘Well, magical, basically.’

‘Oh.’

‘Not that I’m complaining,’ she complained. ‘Another thing?’

‘Yes.’ I realised I was tapping my arm with my magic wand. I remembered what that had done to the handsome prince – handsome toad now, of course - and stopped. ‘What other thing?’

‘It smells of pumpkin.’

‘Right. What do you expect it to smell of?’

‘I dunno… leather, metal? That new car smell.’

‘It smells of pumpkin… because….’ I gestured in the air with the wand, making sure I’d turned it off first.

She sighed. ‘Typical.’

‘What?’

‘I never asked to be the daughter of a wizard. Other dads  on their daughter’s birthday, they at least go out and buy something special, not this.’ She pointed down at the car. Maybe bright pumpkin orange is not the right shade for a teenager’s first car, but I’ve seen worse.

‘I bought the pumpkin,’ I protested.

But, by then it was too late. She had already stormed off.

‘Don’t slam the…!’ I yelled as the door slammed.

‘Well, that went well,’ her mother said in her I told you so voice.

‘Yes,’ I agreed. ‘At least, I didn’t have to tell her about having to be home by midnight with it before it changes back to the pumpkin. That could have been awkward.'

Kids, eh?