The 75th Magic Show 7/8

“E.O.G. Mary, E.O.G!”

Jennifer Jane woke up with a start. She thought she could hear someone talking to her mother, but it wasn’t any voice she recognised. She carefully opened the front of her cloak and peeped out. Just coming round the nearest sand dune was a lady with a small child.

The little girl was nearer to the sea than her mother and they were both walking slowly with their eyes fixed firmly on the ground. Then as they came a bit closer, the girl suddenly noticed the scooter with two strange shapes close beside it. She ran over to her mum and held on to her skirt with one hand, while she pointed with the other at Jennifer Jane.

“Mum that looks funny! We’ve found two small tents and a peculiar looking cart! and that tent’s got eyes looking out of it!”

At that point the tall tent became even taller, as Abigail stood up. She raised her hand over her head and holding on to her hat, stepped out from underneath her cloak.

“Good morning,” she said brightly, “can you tell me where we are please?”

The lady looked at her rather strangely. “On the beach my dear,” she answered.

“Oh dear,” muttered Abigail under her breath, “one of those!”

Jennifer Jane came out from under her cloak and decided to take a hand. “Is there a village nearby, or a port of some kind?”

The woman pointed back the way she’d come. “Fishing village back there,” then she pulled the child back down the sand towards the water. “E.O.G. Mary, E.O.G!”

“What does she mean E.O.G.?” asked Jennifer Jane.

“They’re beach combing, hoping to find something useful washed up by the tide, and she’s telling the little girl to keep her eyes on the ground.”

Abigail twiddled her fingers. “Bother, there goes breakfast! Magic doesn’t work here! Oh well nothing for it I suppose, but try and scrounge a lift back to Smallport, or somewhere where there’s a wishing fog.”

Jennifer Jane helped pack their clothes into the scooter and then ran up to the top of the sand dunes to see if she could spot the village. “We’re in luck,” she said as she went back to Abigail. “There’s quite a good track running along just behind here and it leads toward the village that woman pointed out.”

Between the two of them, they managed to get the scooter through the sand dunes and on to the track. After that it was a lot easier to push and it didn’t seem too long before people were staring at them, as they walked into the village and began asking their way to the harbour.

It was still very early in the morning and some of the village fishing boats were sailing into the small harbour with their catches of fish. Abigail chose one that had just unloaded and asked to see the captain. She spent quite a while talking to him, before coming back to Jennifer Jane.

“He says he’ll take us out to the nearest wishing fog. If I promise that I’ll magic him up a full hold of fish when we get to Timber Creek.”

One of the fishermen came over and picked up the scooter to put on board the fishing boat. “Bit lighter than it looks that is!” he said with a grin. “Whatever is it any way?”

Jennifer Jane tried to explain what a scooter was. Why it didn’t have an engine and how it was that it wouldn’t fly any more.

The fisherman gave up trying to understand her as soon as she’d reached the word, ‘engine’. However, he seemed friendly enough and made sure that it was tied down securely before they put to sea.