Star polishing 5/11

At last he recovered sufficiently to explain himself. “Jennifer Jane is one of the greatest witches in the world where Esme and Dulce work. She’s nine feet tall, kills trolls before breakfast, makes giants behave themselves and tames dragons just by talking to them. You’re not even grown up yet!”

Jennifer Jane did her best to look impressive. She drew herself up to her full height; waved her arms in the most theatrical flourish she could remember and twiddled her fingers. Unfortunately nothing happened. The man just leaned against his tree and cried with laughter again.

“Good try kid, but there’s no such thing as witchcraft in this world, unless you really know what you’re doing like your friends!”

‘Oh crumbs!’ thought Jennifer Jane, ‘somehow I’ve done it again. I’ve come through to a world that’s parallel to the Witches’ Home. It must have happened when the cottage disappeared.’

“Is there a village near here?” she asked the man, who still had a big grin on his face but had finally stopped laughing.

“Down the path about half a mile, turn right and you’ll come to a road. Turn right again and after two miles or so you’ll come to Lurbridge.”

He pointed in the direction of Tornak’s cave, then walked off in the other direction shaking his head and chuckling to himself. “I’m Jennifer Jane,” he said in a squeaky voice, “I eat trolls for breakfast, giants for dinner and keep fire breathing dragons for pets!”

Just before he reached the corner he began skipping along, flapping his hands by his side as if he was pretending to fly. ”And I’m the queen of the fairies,” he sang, in the deepest possible voice.

He started laughing again, while the singing faded slowly, as he rounded the corner and went out of sight.

Jennifer Jane had never met anyone like him and wondered if he was mad, or just had the most peculiar sense of humour. Still if this world was similar to the one she’d just left, then he’d given her the right directions. Lurbridge sounded right and the way there was just as it would have been if she’d been going to the timber yard.

Thinking about the timber yard gave her an idea. If she could persuade someone to lend her a boat, she could go down to the transport fog and wish herself back to world fifty-seven. There shouldn’t be any problem crossing the bridge, the strange man she’d just met had said there were no fairy folk in this world.

Clutching her broom in one hand, she set off. The path back towards Tornak’s cave was familiar, except that there was no cave when she arrived at the end. She turned right and walked down the track leading towards the Witches’ Home and was surprised to find that the path leading to the village had been made into a proper road. It was only surfaced with crushed stones but it made walking a lot easier. She was lucky enough to be offered a lift on a cart travelling towards the village, which saved her legs and a lot of time.

The cart rattled over the bridge without any trouble and the carter let her get off near the pub.

“I’m away to the port to pick up a load of bricks, maybe I’ll see you in the pub on the way back.”

Jennifer Jane thanked him and walked into the ‘Three Tuns.’ After the friendly greetings she usually received at the ‘George and Dragons’, she was very surprised at her reception as she walked through the door.

“No kids in here, do you want me to lose my licence?”