The statue 3/15
By Geoffrey
- 640 reads
“We’ve got a strange one here ma’am,” said the guard as a senior witch came in, “just turned up from the front of the Home and has never seen the statue before!”
The senior witch looked at Jennifer Jane with a frown. “You’re certainly not one of ours and you can’t have come from out there,” she pointed out over the drawbridge as she spoke. “That means you must have come from the front of the building and there’s no way in from there except along the river or flying! Who are you and how did you get here?”
“Please Ma’am I’m a second year human apprentice called Jennifer Jane and I came in...”
Both witches burst out laughing. “You’re Jennifer Jane are you?” said the senior, “well my girl for sheer bare faced cheek you certainly take the biscuit! I think you’d better come with me and explain yourself to the rest of us.”
Her guide led her into the senior common room. “This young lady says she is a second year apprentice and her name is Jennifer Jane!” she announced.
As before, this statement was met first by unbelieving stares and then with a roar of hearty laughter.
Jennifer Jane looked round the room in her turn. She’d never seen so many senior witches sitting down doing nothing. It was rather like seeing all the teachers in a school staying in their common room during class time.
Not only that, but she was getting rather fed up with being laughed at every time she met someone for the first time.
“What’s so funny about my name, or is it that I’m only a second year apprentice?”
“I’m sorry kid,” said the witch who’d lead her there, “but you should have chosen a different name if you wanted to pretend to be a witch.”
“But I am a witch, look I’ll show you.”
Everyone in the room watched with amusement as she twiddled her fingers for a chocolate Swiss roll. Strangely nothing happened.
She looked puzzled and thought for a moment. “Has this room been shielded against magic?” she asked.
“I don’t know where you’ve been hiding my dear,” said the witch who seemed to have taken charge of her, in a rather more kindly tone. “Magic hasn’t worked for years now! You obviously have been an apprentice somewhere; some of us can recognise the rather old-fashioned twiddle that you just did. Rather strangely the history books say it was one of Jennifer Jane’s favourite methods of defence, but you still haven’t explained why you chose her to try and impersonate.”
“I’m not impersonating anybody, I really am Jennifer Jane and I’ve come forward in time to see what the future might hold for me!”
The witches all burst out laughing again. “It isn’t possible to time travel in any case, unless you happen to be an elf, but even if it were possible, magic isn’t working any more. I think you’d better think of another story before you go back home again. However, whatever the truth may be, at least you’re filling in an otherwise boring morning.”
Jennifer Jane stood still for a moment while all the others in the room looked at her expectantly. “Wait a moment,” she said, “did you say history books just now?”
“That’s right my girl, Jennifer Jane has been dead for about 200 hundred years now, you couldn’t have picked a better known name if you’d tried!”
Jennifer Jane went very white and sat down as quickly as she could in the nearest empty chair.
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Intriguing twist for JJ to
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