The 75th Magic Show 6/8

They continued wandering round the show. Jennifer Jane’s bag was soon bulging with the catalogues that she’d collected from every stand and she had to put some of them in the bag that Abigail was carrying. Soon people were starting to whisper amongst themselves and point at the pair as they walked along.

“I think its time to leave,” said Abigail. “Everyone’s beginning to look at you and if we’re not careful it’ll take us a long time to get back to the scooter.”

Abigail hurried out of the exhibition with Jennifer Jane trotting along beside her. The travelator soon carried them back to where they’d parked the scooter and they both gave a sigh of relief as the heavy bags were stowed away in the luggage compartment.

“My turn to drive,” said Abigail, “I think we’re only just in time!”

Witches and wizards were beginning to stream out of the hall; all eager to catch a glimpse of the nine-foot high witch who’d saved R.T.25 from disaster. Jennifer Jane looked down and waved, as Abigail flew off towards Smallport and the wishing fog.

Brooms and carpets of all shapes and sizes were hovering just in front of the fog as they arrived. There were two wizards standing on a big carpet controlling the traffic.

“We have to wait until they display our world number,” said Abigail, “then every one who wants that world can go through at the same time. Otherwise the Dispatchers at the various Wish Warehouses would be far too confused with all the requests for different worlds and destinations.”

Jennifer Jane could see that there might be a problem now that it had been pointed out, so she sat patiently on the pillion seat until one of the wizards held up a sign with ‘57’ written on it in big letters. Abigail followed several brooms into the fog.

“Timber Creek please,” she said loudly.

The journey through the fog seemed to be taking much longer than usual. Jennifer Jane was beginning to think that it must be due to the volume of traffic, when the scooter suddenly started wobbling.

“Hold on tight,” shouted Abigail, as the scooter came down through low cloud and seemed to be heading straight for the sea. “Something’s gone wrong with this contraption, I can’t keep it flying properly!”

The wobble increased, while the scooter flew lower and lower. Abigail managed to steer so that they were heading along the beach, instead of out to sea and then braked hard as they touched down on the sand. The scooter stopped with a crunch.

They both got off and had a good look in the failing daylight, to see if they could find any reason for the forced landing.

Jennifer Jane saw what the trouble was almost at once. After all she was more familiar with the way the scooter was supposed to look. There was hardly any glitter at all remaining on the machine.

“Thank goodness there’s a spare!”

“No use now,” said Abigail, “it’s too dark for the spell to work when you take the lid off the box. I don’t think the glitter is sticking properly on the metal and its all washed off going through the fog. Robert will have to do a re-think when we get back.”

“Do you have any idea where we are?”

“Could be anywhere,” replied Abigail cheerfully, “if you remember the diagram your tutor drew showing the connecting fog system between the worlds, you’ll realise that we might have to pass through several, before we reach the one we want. What with that and the delay due to today’s heavy traffic, the dampness in the fogs has removed all our glitter.”

They pushed the scooter up to the nearest sand dune for a bit of shelter. “I’ll show you one of the advantages of our cloak and hat system,” said Abigail. “Put your hat on, and then do up the top button on your cloak. Now put your cloak on over the top of your hat so that it hangs from the brim.”

Jennifer Jane got her uniform from the boot and did as Abigail asked.

“There you are instant tent! Find somewhere dry to sit and then we’ll have to wait for the morning to open that spell box.”