The Rally 9/11

Half an hour later, a two-foot long mole was digging industriously around the edge of Esme’s cottage garden. Abigail was following the progress of a series of giant molehills; having already checked that the magic world attached to the back garden was safe to enter. She was wondering if Jennifer Jane’s idea would work, they usually did, but she wasn’t really all that keen on changing people into animals. When they were returned to normal they occasionally had strange ideas about things to eat and had been known to try and use a back leg to scratch themselves behind the ears.

For her part Jennifer Jane was having a wonderful time. As she’d suspected, the Ley line under Esme’s garden was blocked with lots of old plant roots and fallen earth. She’d even found one or two old mouse nests and she was enjoying herself pushing everything back into place with the huge shovel shaped paws she now had.

Every now and then she had to push the excess amounts of soil and rubbish out of the tunnel, thus making the molehills that Abigail was using to check her progress. Now she’d suddenly come to a dead end. A huge brick wall lay across her path and a rather elaborate archway passing through it had been almost completely blocked by a tangled root system. It was far too thick for her to do anything about in her present form so she surfaced and gazed blindly about in the daylight, hoping that the first thing to pick her up would be Abigail.

Once back in her normal shape, she could see that the roots that had stopped her belonged to the thick mat of ivy that almost completely hid the strong brick wall at the back of the garden.

“That’s the problem,” she said, “I think I’d better go and check with Esmerelda in case she prizes the plant for some reason.”

Esmerelda was a little upset when she was told why her cottage didn’t work properly.

“I forget how many great-great grandmothers ago it was, but one of ‘em planted that ivy to hide the wall. She reckoned it was very dangerous over the other side and wanted to stop the kids from having a look. My grandmother told me the story and said never to cut it down or it would bring bad luck on the family. But if you’re right, it would be nice to have a proper working cottage again. Just think Dulce, we could go on holiday whenever we wanted and come back whenever we felt like it, as well!”

“The problem is that it’s been planted at one end of the wall. You could plant another in the middle and it would probably never get as far a blocking the magic again. Would you like to come and help dig it out?”

Abigail was pleased to see Jennifer Jane come back with all three witches following her, carrying spades and garden forks.

Esme cut off the healthiest looking piece of greenery, then everyone helped tear down the dusty old growth that covered the wall. Finally Esmerelda herself dug out the roots. It didn’t look quite so thick now that Jennifer Jane was above ground and back to her normal size, but then Abigail turned her back into the mole form and this time she was soon able to repair the tunnel. A quick run all the way round the garden underground, showed that the other end of the Ley line also passed through an archway built into the brick wall, this time only being blocked by grass roots.

She soon dealt with those then re-surfaced and smiled happily as she was turned back to her normal shape. The three witches were watching Abigail with great admiration, then everyone looked expectantly at Jennifer Jane.

“It should all be working now, why don’t you go inside and move yourselves into your correct space.”

She stood in the road opposite the cottage and watched as it wobbled for a moment or two before settling down exactly in the middle of the space that had been allocated. Esmerelda came out beaming all over her face.

“That’s fantastic kid, I’ll soon get used to handling all that power. I’ll just go round the back and replant this sprig of ivy in the middle of the wall, then get rid of all the rubbish. It’s marvellous knowing that it’s all working again. How can I ever thank you?”

“Oh that’s quite all right,” said Jennifer Jane modestly, “Just think of it as ‘thank you’ for all the lessons you’ve given me in the past. Now I think I’ll go and have a word with Martin, he should be pleased to know that you’re in the correct space at last.”