Redundancy 5/8

Dave Bell wanted to start asking questions about the sale of carved teeth after a couple of days. Jennifer Jane had to remind him that events in the alternate world moved very much more slowly than in their own.

“There really isn’t any point in asking dad! George and his carts don’t get about much quicker than walking pace, while as you know perfectly well, the ships are all dependent on the wind blowing before they can move at all.”

“I know you’re right really, I just want to go and see if there’s any interest at all. I’ve got several ideas to discuss with Robert to improve the volume of production, but there’s no reason to talk about them if he can’t sell the goods anyway!”

When the Bells still hadn’t heard anything from the alternate world after three weeks, even Jennifer Jane couldn’t wait any longer. The Witches’ Home was one of the magical locations that she could now visit using her recently learned travel spell, but she thought it was a bit unkind not to go with her family. So the next time Dave suggested they all went in Misty Magic to see if there had been any progress, she agreed.

Once the lugger had tied up to the piling at the end of the Witches’ Home lawn, the crew raced off to talk to Abigail and find out what had happened so far.

“I do know that George hasn’t found any interest so far, but you might just as well ask Robert for yourselves. Judging by his expression lately I don’t think he’s had much luck either.”

Abigail smiled to herself as the family ran over to the workshop, nearly as quickly as they’d run up the lawn. Even Mary was so eager to find out what had happened that she hadn’t even stopped for her usual cup of tea and a chat.

She knew that up to now the Squire of Lurbridge was the only person to show any interest and that wasn’t going to make any noticeable difference at all to the quantities of teeth that needed to be used up.

As soon as Jennifer Jane walked into the workshop she took one look at the glum expression on Robert’s face and immediately told her parents that she’d fly off to find Sir George.

“I’ll try and find out if there have been any suggestions as to what people might want, while you have a word back here.”

She eventually tracked George down carting goods to a customer. The horse started neighing as soon as she came into sight.

“I don’t know what’s so special about these little bone things he’s trying to sell, but I can tell you that he’s nearly as fed up trying to get people interested, as I am in stopping every five minutes. Then I have to listen to the same old story time after time. If you want to get rid of the blessed things why don’t you just throw them away?”

“He’s right you know,” said George, “nobody wants them. Only rich people show an interest, and only then until they find out how small they are. I know it might be difficult, but can’t you make the things larger using magic! That’s the only way you might shift some of them.”

Jennifer Jane looked thoughtful for a moment. “It’s got to be worth a try. I should have thought of that, it seems so obvious now!”

George stared at her in amazement, Jennifer Jane was actually saying that he’d had a good idea that she hadn’t been able to think of herself!

The horse was roaring with laughter at the top of his voice. “Careful miss, he’ll be after your job next!”