The chain of coincidences 5/11

"Thought so, those cakes must have been produced by conjuring. Very clever sleight of hand but it doesn't prove anything," said Professor Edwards.

"What about the oil fired cars?" asked Peter.

"Just window dressing old chap. Tells us she's used to primitive technology and that's supposed to make us believe her story. I don't know what your game is young lady but you can't tell me you can work magic and come from another world, without producing more evidence than that!"

Jennifer Jane had been thinking as quickly as she could while the professor was talking. The swiss roll spell had worked alright but the large metal frame had not responded to her twiddle. Either the metal wouldn't accept the spell or perhaps it was just too big a task for the amount of magic remaining in the laboratory.

She looked round the room desperately, hoping to find some wooden poles that could be used to make a small doorframe. She spotted a trestle table in the corner of the room and asked if she could borrow it for a moment.

Very carefully, with Peter's help, she moved it until it was exactly underneath the metal frame of the laboratory experiment and equally spaced from each wall. Professor Edwards watched with an amused grin on his face.

"You don't give up easily do you? You don't really think I'm impressed by all this mumbo jumbo. My experiment cost thousands of credits and I'm still not sure if that succeeded. How you expect me to believe that you can produce the same effect with only a trestle table... oh!"

Jennifer Jane had positioned the table to her liking and signed for the door. Very slowly the space under the table became transparent and the woodland path near her home reappeared mistily.

As the air from her own world came through the newly opened 'door', the effect of the spell strengthened. She crawled underneath the table as quickly as she could and knelt down on the other side so that she could see Peter and his Dad.

"I'm home now, I hope you have good luck with your experiment. Everything I've told you is true, maybe I'll be able to come and see you again one day, if I can find out which number identifies your world."

She signed once more to deactivate the door. She still had her copy of the Holmwood Advertiser in her pocket. Perhaps if she'd remembered to show them that they would have believed her more readily. Anyway, now she could continue her walk and show her friends the photo of herself receiving the patrol leader's camping permit and badge.