The Motorway Protest 5/7

When they arrived, everything had changed. Nearly everybody had gone and there was just a circle of seven witches facing each other, pointing to the middle of the circle and wiggling their fingers.

"Goodbye Frosty, thanks for the ride," called Jennifer Jane as she walked across to the witches. She could see that one of them was Abigail but they were all concentrating so hard that they didn't see her coming.

"No, no! We must get the timing absolutely right," said the witch who seemed to be in charge.

Then Abigail saw Jennifer Jane.

"Excuse me a moment Ma'am," she said, "I think I can see a way round the problem."

"Hello, Abigail, what are you doing?" asked Jennifer Jane.

"We're practising a very strong spell but we can't get the timing right. Let me explain: we've all learnt the magic gestures but to make it really powerful, we all have to do it at exactly the same time."

"I thought you just had to boil things up and say magic words!" said Jennifer Jane.

"Oh no, not for magic this powerful. The words we use are only to impress people if we do magic in public and we only use magic potions if the spell is to be kept for a while before being used. The secret of magic all lies in the way we wiggle our fingers and it's very difficult to remember all the different movements."

"Why are you standing in a circle then?" asked Jennifer Jane.

"Well, if we all point to the middle of the circle, the magic cancels itself out and we don't do any damage but next weekend we'll all be facing the same way and then you'll really see the earth move. Except that we can't find a way for us all to do the magic at exactly the same time."

"Could I help by giving the time?" asked Jennifer Jane.

"That's exactly what I thought when I saw you coming," said Abigail. "We can't do it ourselves because we have to concentrate so hard on our gestures and we can't have another witch because that would spoil the magic number. Will you be able to go to the woods next weekend?"

"Yes of course I can," said Jennifer Jane "and I'd love to help."

"Good. Now you go home and practice saying 'Am Te, Rov He', then go to the roadworks at midnight next Saturday. Don't worry about your parents; we'll make sure that they don't know that you've gone. I expect you'd like a snack after all your work this afternoon. After all, Barnacle Bill's has had his tea already." Abigail reached into one of her pockets and gave Jennifer Jane a small chocolate Swiss roll wrapped in silver paper. Then she saw the look on Jennifer Jane's face.

"I often have a few rolls in my pockets in case I feel peckish when I'm working," she laughed.

The paddle steamer was still moored at the end of the garden. Jennifer Jane went on board and found Barnacle Bill asleep in the saloon. He woke up as Jennifer Jane came down the companionway.

"Hello, Jennifer Jane. One of the witches gave me a smashing tea. Did you get on all right with your job?"

Jennifer Jane told him about all her adventures with the dragons, in between mouthfuls of chocolate Swiss roll, while Barnacle Bill was busy raising steam. It wasn't long before all was ready and Jennifer Jane gave a quick 'Toot, toot' on the steam whistle as they pulled away from the landing stage and headed downstream.

"The witches are going to do something to stop the motorway at midnight next Saturday," said Jennifer Jane. "Will you be there?"

"Oh yes," said Barnacle Bill, "I wouldn't miss it for the world. I think most of the fairy folk from round here will come along to watch. It's not very often the witches interfere in the human world and this is an occasion none of us would want to miss."