Anita and Marvin part 3

Chapter 4 - Anita Grows

The dwarves stood outside the hut and slowly turned to walk away. Anita stood in the library by a book shelf, looking up at Marvin. Marvin sat on a bench in the middle of the room surrounded by a pile of books, resting his elbows on the table as he read a book quietly to himself. Anita shuffled closer to him, and began pulling his shirt.  Marvin ignored and carried on reading.  She carried on, pulling at the corner of his red shirt, and coughing quietly.  Marvin was aware Anita wanted something, but he wasn’t ready to speak to her yet.  Anita moved again closer, climbing up onto his shoe and jumped hard onto his big toe.

“OUCH!” He yelped. “What do you want?”

Anita sulked and smiled shyly at him. “I understand you’re mad. But can I ask you something?” Marvin grunted and shuffled on the bench, turning the page of his book. “You’ve taught me a lot, being this small, life is hard and isn’t just an adventure. I only got your friends because I knew it was the right thing to do. I need to ask you this because I have to know, but I don’t want to make you mad.” Marvin looked down curiously, “What happened to the little boy?” she murmured nervously.

Marvin turned his face away and became saddened; “He vanished.”  The words fell to the floor near Anita and hovered around her making her panic and confused. 

“What do you mean he vanished? Am I going to vanish?” Marvin placed his hand on the ground and scooped Anita up calmly.

“Hush, just because it happened to him, doesn’t mean it will happen to you.  We will find a way to change you back. I give you my word.”

Marvin stands up, scurries to the top of the ladder and reaches to the top shelf; “Potions with Friends” sat at the side with the photo peeping out the top.  He flicked through the pages, running his fingers through the words, muttering “big, big, big,” as he scrolled through.  “Ah-ha!” he announced triumphantly. “Here we go, ‘Giant Potions’ that should do the trick.”  Anita asked;

“Marvin, are you sure this will work?”

Marvin climbed down the ladder, “don’t you worry about that. It’s my responsibility.” Marvin pushed the books off the table and began measuring out his ingredients. 

Marvin pours a light green liquid into a thimble, and hands it to Anita. She holds it up to the light and she sees it fizzing. Holding her breath, she tips it up and gulps the liquid down quickly. She swallows hard, and with a blink, her stomach shoots out in front of her! Slowly each part of her body balloons, and grows.  Just as suddenly as it starts, she stops growing. Marvin becomes surprised, and waits for a few minutes. Both Marvin and Anita wait for what feels like an eternity, but that’s it, she’s stopped growing. Anita stands up tall and is just the same size as Marvin.

Marvin looks astonished at her, murmuring; “my my, what a change! Never before have I failed in my experiments then how could this one go wrong?” Anita wasn’t sure whether this experiment would work,

“Marvin, I will become big again, won’t I?” Marvin pours a glass of water,
“Calm down. I will find a way out of this.”

The other dwarves heard Anita panicking from as far away as the lake, on their way home. Realising that it was their turn to help, they rushed back, and kicked open the door to the hut. Following the noise from Anita and Marvin, they ran to the library.

Anita stood looking worried, but much taller than when they left. Sparky walked towards her; “Anita, what’s wrong?” Anita replied,

“Marvin tried the green potion to make me big again, but it’s just stopped working.”

The dwarves quickly took another cylinder, and handed it to Marvin.

“Quick, try these?” They filled it with different colour liquids, then handed it back to Anita, “try this one? We give our guarantee that it will work.”

Anita gulped down that potion as well, and again starts growing.  Anita smiled, “Woo Hoo!” she cheered and thanked the dwarves. Marvin sighed, with relief he held out his hand to Sparky;

“Fellows, I was wrong about you. All of you have changed.  I apologise about the way I behaved with you earlier. We are better as a team.” The dwarves touched him by the shoulder,

“That’s ok Marvin. No need to apologise. We’re just happy to have the old you again.”

Anita stood up high above the rest of them, “I need to go back to my own world. I’ll miss you all, especially you Marvin,” she said with a tear in her eye. Anita waved goodbye preparing to leave. She saw the other dwarves begin to look sad, so she knelt down kissing them, one by one on the cheek. “Marvin, I would like to say how grateful I am for sharing the great times you spent with me. You truly are a good friend. And as for the rest of you, I hope you all work together as a team now that you’ve become friends once again. I want to hear all about another successful magic show. I give you my best compliments. I know I will miss you all don’t worry, I’ll try and visit you one day.” This cheered the dwarves up.

Anita turns away from them, and walks back along the path, through the woods, until she saw the rock that Marvin hid behind. She smiled and looked back, but the hut was gone.