The Witches of Holmwood 3/7

The feeling that the new neighbours were a little unusual soon left Jennifer Jane’s mind. A new thought came into her head the next morning when she woke up. She remembered her father saying that her next adventure would probably involve dragons.

Well he hadn’t been quite right, since her last unusual journey had been into the past, when she had tried to walk round the Witches’ Home.

However, that made her remember Cyril, shouting to any one who was within earshot, that his aunty Megan was going to lay an egg. ‘I think I’ll go to see Abigail and ask her if it would be all right for me to visit Megan. I’m sure she’ll have already had lots of friends coming to see her and she may prefer to be quiet.’

She canoed through the fog to the Witches’ Home and went down into the basement to find Abigail. The red light was shining over the spell room door, so she knocked and waited until she was told it was safe to come in.

“I think you’re quite right,” said Abigail when she finally opened the door, “I’m sure she’d rather not have too many visitors all at once. I’ll ask the Wish Warehouse to let me know when the next batch of food is due for delivery and perhaps we can both go together on the cloud.”

Jennifer Jane popped into the alternate world and flew down to the George and Dragons to see how the locals were taking the news about Megan.

Nobody seemed very interested in her story. To them it was just another dragon laying another egg and it would have been a bit of a nuisance except for the fact that it was in the other world, so they weren’t really bothered.

“Now if Tasmin was going to have another, then there would be a bit of a problem. We have to find the money to pay for the coal which keeps the dragons from eating us. Things have become a lot easier now that Cyril spends most of his time in your world, one more mouth to feed would mean less for us!”

Jennifer Jane had to agree that from their point of view, the event was only of passing interest. So she flew back to the Witches’ Home and spent the rest of the day talking to Abigail and helping out with the production of the latest batch of spells to be sent to the Wish Warehouse.

Her parents agreed with Abigail, when she told them that she hoped to visit Megan with the next batch of dragon food to be delivered.

However, she was pleasantly surprised when they both asked if they could come with her. So the family settled down to an ordinary quiet life, waiting for a message to tell them when they could pay their visit.

Nothing further happened for a week, until Dave came home from work one day with some unusual news. “I’ve just left the station car park and you’ll never believe it but there’s a load of witches and wizards all dressed up in their Sunday best getting into a couple of vans.

I’m pretty sure I spotted them behind me as I came home, but I left them at the traffic lights and I’m not really sure whether they’re coming this way or not.”

Jennifer Jane ran down to the front gate to see if she could see anything unusual. Dad was right; two vans were driving slowly down the road obviously looking for a particular house. Not only that, the two birch brooms she’d last seen being put into their new neighbour’s garage, were tied one on either side of next door’s gate. She stood there trying to look as unconcerned as possible, while the vans approached.

Then, while they were still some way away, someone must have spotted the brooms, as both vehicles accelerated before turning in to next door’s driveway.

Eve had been quite right when she’d told Mary that her party wouldn’t make much noise. None of the Bell family heard a sound from next door. They wouldn’t have known that there was anything unusual going on until the next morning, when Jennifer Jane glanced out of her bedroom window while she was dressing.

High hedges separated all the houses and the only way to see into someone else’s garden was by going upstairs and looking out of the appropriate window. Although she was used to all sorts of witches and knew quite a lot about the way they worked, she’d never seen anything quite like the events next door.

At first sight the people she was watching looked just like the witches she was used to seeing in the Witches’ Home. Everyone was dressed in a ‘Sunday best’ cloak and pointed hat. Their cloaks were covered with an impressive array of glittering badges and medals, the whole effect being very similar to those occasions when Abigail and her friends dressed up to impress a crowd.

Rather unusually, all the people were holding hands in a circle and walking slowly round a table which had been placed in the middle of the ring. A large tabby cat was sitting up very straight on the table, with his tail curled neatly round his feet.

Quite correctly, the procession was circling widdershins, chanting something that she couldn’t make out as they walked round. She rushed downstairs, where her parents were just beginning their breakfast and asked them to come upstairs quickly.

“Well blow me down!” said Dave, “they really are witches, I wonder if they know about the lot at the Witches’ Home?”

“I don’t think we should say anything to them about it,” said Mary, “I’m sure they’ll tell us if they want us to know. It may be supposed to be a secret. Anyway come down now and eat your breakfasts and then I’d like my kitchen knives sharpened please.”