Digging

 

            Ashley admired her nails as she walked home. At Kristin’s house, they had spent the last hour giving each other manicures. They had gotten out all of Kristin’s 31 different colors of nail polish and made beautiful designs on their nails. The one that Ashley was particularly proud of was a pink and yellow flower on her index finger.

            Completely wrapped up in her nails, she didn’t notice the sound at first. She was near the playground when the sound finally penetrated into her hearing. It was almost like tinkling bells that were playing some kind of song. Looking around her, she was surprised to see that the playground was deserted. This was a popular park and there was nearly always someone playing there.

            The minute Ashley began to pay attention to the bells, they grew louder. Intrigued, she went to find where they were coming from. She started heading across the field, and the music drew her to the sandbox. Yes, the music was definitely coming from underneath the sand. Had someone buried something here?

            Not wanting to dirty her nails, Ashley gingerly poked her foot around the sand. The music was getting louder and seemed to be right underneath her feet. She started digging with her heels, but it wasn’t very effective. She admired her nails one more time before grabbing a small shovel that someone had thoughtfully left there.

            Slowly at first, she dug into the soft sand. As the music continued to taunt her, she moved more quickly, wondering what in the world someone had buried this deeply. What could possibly be making so much noise?

            After digging for at least twenty minutes, the small shovel finally hit something solid. With relief, Ashley dug around it and brought it out of the hole with her. She was surprised that she had dug so far down into the sand. She remembered when she and Kristin had tried to dig to China here. They hadn’t gotten very far before they ran into a bed of clay that was almost impossible to dig into.

            Now, Ashley had a hard time climbing out of a hole that was almost as tall as she was. Finally, she emerged and brought her prize over to a bench. It was a wooden box, about the same size as a box of cereal.

            Setting it on her lap, she carefully lifted the lid and saw—a book. The music had finally stopped, and she couldn’t tell where it had been coming from. The book looked very old, and once she took it out of the box, there was nothing else there. The thick covers were made of purple velvet, and it was quite heavy. There were no other markings.

            Making herself comfortable, Ashley opened the book on her lap. The first page read: “Congratulations to you, Ashley! You have been chosen to join this year’s ranks of junior witches and you are invited to attend Dragon Eye Academy. You have passed the first test: finding this book. To continue your magical journey, come join the Dragon Eye Open House to discuss what’s next for you and your family. We look forward to seeing all of you this evening at 7:30 PM. Your new witch mentor will escort you and your family to the meeting and will be waiting outside your front door.”

            Looking down at her watch, Ashley discovered that it was nearly 6 PM already. It would be time for dinner soon, and she couldn’t be late. Tucking the book under her arm, she raced home as fast as she could. The two blocks passed by in a blur as she completely forgot about her newly painted nails. She had much more important things to worry about now.

Minecraft

 

        Nolan woke up his computer and opened Minecraft. He had an idea to add a water park next to his castle. He’d been thinking about it all day at school since his friend, Jack, had added one to his world.

        Nolan loved Minecraft and had spent countless hours in creative mode, building his castle and surrounding village. After playing for an hour, his mom called down the stairs, telling him he had to come and set the table for dinner. “Ok, Mom!” he called back. “Just a minute!” He made sure to save his game, and then he exited to the home screen. He was about to close the game when he noticed something strange.

        There were his two save files—one for creative mode and one for survival mode. But underneath that, there was a third file. “What? Who made this one?” Just as he was about to click on it, his cat, Onyx, jumped up onto his keyboard. “Aw, man! Move out of the way, Onyx!”

        “Nolan, I need you upstairs, now!” Mom called. She was starting to use her mom voice.

        Sighing, Nolan closed Minecraft and went upstairs.

        Onyx sat next to the keyboard and watched Nolan run up the stairs. Suddenly, he was joined by Slate, his brother. “Whew! Good thinking, Onyx!” Slate said as he licked his paw. “Another minute, and he would have found our game.”

        Onyx rolled his eyes and sighed. “He’s going to figure it out sometime. I just put off the inevitable.” He started washing his face. “We’re going to have to save our game somewhere else.”

        “How?” Slate tilted his head to the side.

        “We’ll figure it out later tonight, when we play.”

        Arching his back, Slate said, “Let’s play for a few minutes right now. The humans will be eating dinner for at least an hour.” He went to move the mouse. “Come on, you be on the keys, and I’ll be on the mouse.”

        Onyx stepped in front of Slate. “Not now, you idiot! We have to wait until after midnight.” He sat right next to Slate, nearly pushing him over.

        “All right, all right. But did you see what the kid added in his game? All that water?”

        Onyx shuddered. “I’ll build whatever you want, except for anything to do with water.” He shuddered again.

        “Hey, you know what we should make?” Slate’s tail moved back and forth in excitement.

        “What?”

        “An enormous scratching post attached to a couch!”

        “Another one? But we’ve already made five of them.” Onyx’s eyebrows raised in surprise.

        “Aw, come on. You can never have enough scratching posts.”

        “Okay, but this time—” Onyx’s ears stood straight up. Someone was coming down the stairs.

        Nolan came and grabbed his backpack. He had forgotten to put it away earlier. When he walked by the computer desk, he saw Onyx and Slate watching him. “Hey guys, get off the desk!” He shooed them off before going back upstairs, carrying his backpack. He chuckled as he went to finish getting ready for dinner. He thought about how funny it would be if the cats accidentally turned on the computer or something. If there happened to be a Word document open, the cats would ruin it by sitting on the keyboard. He laughed again. Cats were so dumb.

Drawing

 

            Kurt stared at his backpack for several minutes before picking it up and walking over to his desk. With such a huge mountain of homework, he should probably get started. He’d do his art assignment first—that would be the easiest.

            The assignment was to draw a place that you would like to visit. Kurt immediately got to work creating a place where time didn’t exist. If he could visit that place, he could spend as much time as he wanted there doing only the things he loved to do. When he was ready to leave, he could return at exactly the same time he’d left.

            What he really wanted to do right now was to go outside for a hike, so he drew a beautiful mountain scene in the background, and a trailhead in the foreground. He was a fairly good artist, and the pencil strokes came naturally. When he was finished with the scenery, he added a signpost that said: Time Doesn’t Exist Here.

            Surveying his work, he was satisfied with the result. Now, if only he could actually go there. As he started to put it away, he noticed something odd. He had drawn everything in pencil, but the trees were filled in with color. As he stared at the picture, the rest of it was being colored in.

            Kurt leaned closer to the page as he tried to figure out what was going on. Suddenly, he felt himself being pulled forward, out of his chair. He landed with a thud on a dirt path. What had just happened?

            In a panic, Kurt looked wildly around. To his right stood the signpost he had just finished drawing. Did I fall asleep? It was the only thought that made sense. If this was a dream, he might as well take advantage of it. He set off up the trail.

            This is the best dream I’ve ever had. The mountain air helped to calm him as he felt his worries about homework slip away. When he reached a magnificent waterfall at the end of the trail, he tilted his head back and enjoyed the sunshine. Now he felt ready to do anything. He closed his eyes and breathed in the sweet, earthy scents of the forest.

            When he opened his eyes, he was sitting at his desk, staring at the black and white picture that he’d drawn of the trailhead. He felt rejuvenated and refreshed. “Best nap ever,” he whispered.

            Glancing at the clock, he was startled to discover that half an hour had passed since he’d gotten home. He felt like he’d been hiking for hours. I hope that happens to me again, Kurt thought as he started on the rest of his homework. That place was amazing.

Sleepwalking Misadventure

 

            Sleep clung to Brock as someone started shaking him awake. Without opening his eyes, he said, “Go away.” He turned over and reached down to pull the covers back over himself, but they weren’t there. Annoyed, he sat up and opened his eyes and found himself lying in a grassy meadow, the sunlight glinting off the morning dew. “What the…?”

            A scraggly horse was standing next to him. It lowered its head and nudged Brock again. Thoroughly bewildered, Brock looked around. The only thing he saw was grass. “Hello!” he shouted. Listening for an answer, none came. He started walking in a random direction, and the horse followed him. How had he gotten here? Where was his house? Feverishly, he tried to remember anything that would explain his current situation. He remembered going to bed, worrying about a science test the next day. The school year had just started, and ninth grade was turning out to be much more difficult than eighth grade.

            Despite finding himself in an unknown meadow, Brock smiled and said, “At least I won’t have to worry about the test now.”

            Behind him, the horse knickered. Brock stopped to study it more closely. It was black and looked like it hadn’t had a good meal for a while. There were no reins or saddle, but its eyes were deep and intelligent. Slowly, Brock reached out his hand to pet it. To his surprise, the horse walked right up to his hand and allowed him to rub his velvety nose.

            Brock felt a strange sensation travel up from his hand into his body. Suddenly, the horse no longer looked half-starved. It stood up taller, and Brock could feel the power in his strong legs. His fur was no longer dirty, but gleamed in the sunlight. Brock also felt a change in himself. Confidence filled him, and he now knew what he needed to do. He had never ridden a horse before, but he hoisted himself onto the horse’s back and said, “Take me where I need to go.”

            The horse immediately started running with Brock totally at ease. He began to see a destination in his mind and knew that the horse was taking him there. Sighing in relief, he realized that it wasn’t too far from his house, on the outskirts of town.

            As the miles vanished under them, he wondered how he would explain his disappearance to his parents. Would they be worried? He knew that he sometimes walked in his sleep, but he had never gone outside before. Surely this couldn’t have been a sleepwalking misadventure. Soon, trees appeared on the horizon – just a few at first, but then they grew thicker around them.

            In no time at all, they had pushed through to the edge of the forest and Brock looked at the familiar landscape ahead of him. Expertly dismounting, he gave the horse a grateful pat. “Thanks, boy. I don’t know what happened, but I’m glad you were there to save me.”

            The horse nodded his head and then spoke. “You’re welcome, Brock, but I’m the one who needs to thank you. You have released me from my lonely life of wandering. It was me who brought you out there in the first place.”

            Brock’s mouth dropped open in shock. “You know my name? How did I get out there? How come you can talk?”

            The horse gave a low whinny, almost like a laugh. “My name is Daniel, and I’ve been waiting for you for a long time. Only someone with your talents has the power to bind me to them.” He whinnied again when he saw Brock’s look of confusion. “You’ll learn all about yourself in due time. I have a lot to teach you. For now, just know that you and I are now connected. I will find you wherever you are, and you will be able to find me.” With that, Daniel turned and galloped away.

            Brock started walking home, trying to make sense of what had happened. The first thing he noticed was that he could indeed feel in which direction Daniel lay, and knew that he would be able to call him if he wanted.

            When he reached home, he walked inside, wondering what he was going to say to his parents. The house was quiet, so he headed up to his room, and was surprised to see that his clock read 4:08 AM. How did that happen?

            Rushing over to peek through the curtains, Brock saw that it was very dark. Hadn’t the sun just been shining? Had he just woken up from some crazy dream?

            No. Brock could still feel Daniel and knew that it hadn’t been a dream. Was it magic? Wearily, he crawled into his bed and got comfortable. The last thought he had before he fell asleep was, “I guess I’ll have to take that science test after all.”

French Bread

 

            Wind blew through Preston’s hair as he feverishly pedaled his bike to the corner grocery store. Why did he have to go, right now? He was so close to leveling up on his video game. Soon, he would get the legendary sword and be pretty much invincible. But, of course, Mom had to send him to go get a loaf of French bread for dinner.

            It only took Preston a few minutes to ride to the bike stand outside the store. He threw the lock on haphazardly, his mind still on what he needed to do next in his game. He ran up to the sliding door and was startled to see someone standing off to the side. His mouth dropped open when he realized it was Talus, his avatar from the game. He looked just like he had come out of Preston’s TV. He even had the blue shield strapped to his back and the double sword blades Preston preferred.

            A woman bumped into Preston from behind with a hurried, “Whoops, sorry!” Preston glanced at her as she stepped through the door. When he looked back to where Talus had been standing, there was no longer anyone there. He spun around, but couldn’t see Talus anywhere.

            Shaking his head, Preston decided he had been seeing things. He stepped up to the sliding doors, and they opened with a whoosh! He stepped over the threshold before realizing that he must be in the wrong place. Instead of looking at shelves stocked with food, he was standing at the edge of a jungle. He blinked, trying to make sense of what was happening.

            Before he could do anything, Talus was standing next to him. “Ready for a real adventure?” The smile on Talus’s face was full of malice.

            “I-I-I’m supposed to pick up some French bread for my mom,” Preston stuttered.

            Placing a hand on Preston’s shoulder, Talus said, “Don’t worry about your mom. Aren’t you tired of facing danger from the safety of your couch? Find out what it’s really like to be fighting monsters, face-to-face.”

            Preston felt all the blood leave his face. “Um, no thank you. I’ve got to get back.” He turned and ran back through the sliding doors, which were miraculously still there. He didn’t stop running until he had grabbed his bike and was pedaling hard. He rode three blocks to another small grocery store, focusing only on the French bread.

            He finally made it back home, where he tiredly set the bread on the kitchen counter.

            “Thank you, son,” Mom said with a smile. “I know it was hard to take a break from your game, but now you can go play it again.”

            Preston left the kitchen without a word, but he didn’t return to his game. He decided he’d had enough of it for a while.

Kidnapped!

 

            Mary was just climbing into the hammock in her backyard when her phone started buzzing. She sighed when she saw that it was Chief Johnson. Taking a deep breath, she answered, “What can I do for you today, Chief?”

            “I need your help with a case, Mary.” His voice sounded stressed.

            Resigning herself to giving up her nap, Mary replied, “What is it?”

            “A small boy has been kidnapped at an event where his father was giving a speech. There were more than a hundred people there, and no one knows what happened to him.”

            Mary was already grabbing her keys. “I’m on my way.” Hanging up, she whistled for Rover. “Come on. We’ve got a job to do.” The black crow flew down from a tree and landed on her shoulder. Together, they got in the car and drove over to the station.

            Mary often got called in to the police station for her special skills. No one protested anymore about having a bird there with her. Officer Hall greeted Mary and said, “The Chief’s waiting for you.” He led her through the station to where Chief Johnson was on the phone.

            As soon as he saw her, he finished up his phone call and got right down to business. He held up a photograph of a blonde-haired boy with a big grin on his face. “This is who we’re looking for. His name is Randy, and he was last seen wearing a green shirt and jean shorts.”

            Mary took the photo and looked at it carefully, with Rover leaning down to study it as well. “Where was he taken from?”

            “The small convention center downtown. We’ve been all over there, but we haven’t found anything.”

            “When did this happen?”

            “A few hours ago. I don’t need to tell you how important it is that we find him. The first twenty-four hours are the most critical in a kidnapping case.”

            “All right. I’ll let you know what I find out.” Without another word, Mary turned around and walked back out to her car. As soon as she climbed inside and shut the door, she said, “What do you think?”

            In a crackly voice, Rover answered, “Yeah, I’ll find him. Just tell me where to start looking.”

            Studying Randy’s photo again, Mary said, “Let’s go to the convention center. We’ll see what we can learn there.”

            Ten minutes later, Mary walked past the police tape at the convention center and studied the scene. She brushed her hand along the walls and over the seats and tables that were set up inside. Abruptly, she stopped and whispered, “This is where Randy was sitting.” She put both hands on the chair and closed her eyes. “A man in a pinstriped suit took him by the hand and led him out the door.” She walked through the door, pausing with her hand on the handle. “Yes, they came this way.” Walking quicker now, she stopped every few seconds to lean down and touch the pavement. When they reached a certain parking spot, she whispered, “They drove in a red convertible, heading north.”

            “On it,” Rover croaked, flapping his great wings and taking off in the direction she had indicated.

            Mary followed him in her car, using their bond as a guide. She could always tell where Rover was—that was one benefit to being a witch. She knew that he would get information through other crows and be able to find the boy. This city was full of the black birds and made a perfect spy network. She and Rover had solved many cases this way.

            Twenty minutes later, she pulled up to the train station, where Rover was waiting for her. “They’re inside here,” he said quickly. “I think they must be waiting for a train.”

            Taking out her cell phone, Mary dialed the number for Chief Johnson. Holding the phone up to her ear, she said, “He’s inside the train station. Get your men over here immediately.”

            Chief Johnson arrived with several other officers after a few minutes. They quickly found the boy and arrested his kidnapper. Not waiting to be thanked, Mary and Rover left for home. Once again, Mary climbed into her hammock, a smile on her face. “Good work, Rover. I think we’ve earned the right to take a nap now.”

            Rover only let out a single soft caw in reply. Both of them were asleep within minutes.

Laundry

 

            As soon as Dawn felt the alarm on her wrist, she rolled out of bed. What was today? Ugh – Monday. The start of the week was always hard, and today was also laundry day. Dawn may have been just a stay-at-home mom, but she had a lot of work to do.

            Mornings were always a little hectic on the weekdays. Making sure four kids were ready for school was no small task. Oatmeal, scrambled eggs, or cereal was the choice for breakfast. With six people in the house, usually every option was chosen. The smell of maple and brown sugar filled the air and the frying pan was cooling down on the stove as everyone sat down to eat.

            Half an hour later, there was a frantic hunt for jackets and shoes when it was time to head out. “Where’s my water bottle?” one of the kids asks.

            “I can’t find my library books!” another child cries.

            Then it’s time for school drop-off. When Dawn returns home, she took a few deep breaths before cleaning up the kitchen. With all the sticky surfaces wiped clean, she’s now ready to start tackling the laundry.

            A mountain of clothes greets her as she walks into the room where the three overflowing hampers sit. Sorting the clothes takes twenty minutes. She nearly missed a red sock going in with the white clothes. Whew! That was a close one. She finally gets the washer started with the first batch of laundry.

            Now, Dawn can run a few errands. The grocery store was priority number one, but sometimes she also had a few other places to visit. Today, it was the dry cleaner’s. Throughout the day, she mostly remembered to switch the clothes from the washer to the dryer and to start another load. Finally, with the fourth load in the washer, it was nearly time for school pickup. She hadn’t had time to fold all of the clean clothes, but she grabbed her keys and headed for the car.

            After school, there was another flurry of activity, and Dawn did her best to help everyone with their homework, while also trying to get dinner in the oven. She finished folding the clean laundry with minutes to spare before the oven timer beeped. Allowing herself to sit down for a moment, she reveled in the fact that the laundry hampers were empty and all the clean clothes were put away.

            Then she watched her oldest come in with her dirty gym clothes. The girl smiled sweetly at her mom and asked, “Can you wash my gym clothes, please? I need them for tomorrow.”

            “Sure, honey. No problem.” Dawn suppressed a sigh. She should have known that the laundry was never done.

Greek Mythology

 

            “Okay, class! Today we’re going to review our Greek mythology unit by playing Jeopardy!” Mrs. Dewey was so excited, her grin nearly split her face.

            Addy groaned. She hadn’t been studying at all and knew that the only answer she could give was, “It’s all Greek to me.” She smiled to herself as Mrs. Dewey split the class into two teams.

            Settling herself at the back of her group, Addy lay her head down on the desk. She heard Mrs. Dewey say, “Remember to say your answers in the form of a question…”

            Addy didn’t listen anymore and closed her eyes. If only they were studying “The Lord of the Rings.” She knew a lot about that. She had reread it so many times she would be able to answer every question. The movies were good, but they weren’t the same. Glorfindel, for example, was a character in the books that never appeared in the movies. If there were only a clue that went something like: The elf searching for Frodo outside of Bree. That would be easy to answer. All she would need to say would be…

            Her classmate elbowed her, and Addy jerked awake, saying, “Who is Glorfindel?”

            Snickers erupted around her and Mrs. Dewey said, “Um, no, that is incorrect. Now the other team gets a chance to answer.”

            Addy felt her face go red with shame and she put her head back on her desk. Oh, well – it had been fun to dream about. She slowly sat back up and pulled out her notes. Maybe she should actually study this time.

Fairy Tale Wedding

 

            The wedding ceremony was taking forever. Andrew tilted his head back and closed his eyes as the music played. His brother Tony was already officially married to his new wife, Tanya. The preacher had already said, “You may now kiss the bride.” But the guy was still talking. Something about “Thank you all for sharing this special day with Tony and Tanya.”

            All Andrew wanted to do was get out and explore the place. He would have left already if he hadn’t had to sit in the front row. He couldn’t sneak away without Mom or Dad noticing. Tony and Tanya had chosen to get married at “The Forest Glade.” It was a wooded area designed specifically for weddings and owned by some millionaire who wanted to provide a fairy tale experience. As Andrew looked around, he appreciated the set-up. It looked like they were literally in the middle of the forest.

            As soon as the last Amen was said and people started to stand up, Andrew got away as quickly as he could. Finally, he could go check out the creek that he’d heard bubbling close by. He loved being outside and was glad that his brother decided not to get married inside a stuffy old church.

            Andrew walked through dense brush, away from the beaten path. Branches snagged at his tuxedo jacket, and the forest seemed to close in around him. The sound of the creek was getting louder, but it was also getting harder to move forward. The forest didn’t seem to want to let Andrew through, but he continued to push on until at last, he reached the bank of the creek. “Whoa!” he exclaimed.

            The creek was purple and was boiling and bubbling with heat. Dumbstruck, Andrew just stared at it for a few minutes before he went in for a closer look. Not only was the water purple, but it also seemed to be thick, like slime. Andrew really wanted to touch it, but realized that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea. He grabbed a stick and poked the purple goo with it.

            “Hey, watch it!”

            Andrew stumbled backward in shock as the purple creek rose up and changed shape and colors until a small boy stood on the grassy bank, staring accusingly at him. “S-s-sorry!” Andrew stuttered. “I didn’t know!”

            The boy rolled his eyes. “You must be one of the humans from Tanya’s wedding. I told her she should have gotten married somewhere else, but she really loves her human.”

            Andrew had so many questions, he didn’t know which to ask first. Finally, he asked, “Tanya’s not human? Does Tony know?”

            The boy waved his questions away. “Of course, of course. No one else was supposed to find out. We were all supposed to pretend to be part of the normal forest. I was doing all right until you poked me with a stick!” He glared back at Andrew.

            “But…you were purple. I’ve never seen a purple creek before.”

            The boy’s expression changed from anger to pleasure. “I know water shouldn’t be purple, but it looked really good, right?” His eyes twinkled.

            As Andrew nodded, he heard his name being called back where the wedding had taken place. “I, uh, gotta go.”

            The boy smiled good-naturedly and said, “All right. Nice to meet you…”

            “Andrew.”

            “Andrew.” The boy shook Andrew’s hand and continued. “My name’s Jansen. Next time, don’t poke me with a stick, okay?”

            “Sure. Sorry about that.” Andrew waved and headed back up to the wedding.

            “There you are!” Tony said, exasperated. “Mom wants everyone for pictures. Where have you been?”

            Andrew stared at Tony seriously before saying, “You never told me Tanya was some kind of magical being.” Before Tony could protest, he continued. “I just met someone named Jansen who was pretending to be purple water in a creek.”

            Tony’s eyes sparkled with laughter. “Didn’t I tell you that Tanya was unique?”

            “That’s not what I was thinking about when you said unique.” Andrew started walking over to his parents, but Tony stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

            “Hey, Andrew, wait.” Tony’s face turned anxious as he said, “You can’t tell anyone about this, okay?”

            Tony could always get Andrew to do anything. Andrew nodded and said, “Of course. Who would believe me, anyway? If I told anyone else, they’d think I was crazy.”

            Andrew couldn’t believe how the day had changed. He’d gone from being super bored at a wedding to being asked to keep a massive secret. He suddenly had lots of questions for Tanya. Now that they were all family, he knew he would have plenty of time to ask them all. Yes, today had turned into a spectacular day.

Witch's Cat 2: Elusive Flowers

 

            The night was chilly as Angela drew her cloak around her more tightly. Another fruitless day, she thought glumly.

            Think of it this way, came Chesterfield’s thought. Now we know exactly where to not find the Chartreuse Hawthorn. The black cat sat proudly next to Angela.

            Usually, flowers bloom in the spring. Are we sure that it’s a real plant? She scooted closer to the fire.

            Of course. Cassandra wouldn’t send us on a useless quest. Chesterfield settled himself into Angela’s lap where he immediately began purring.

            Angela petted him absentmindedly while she thought about their problem. They needed the flower to make an invisibility potion. Her teacher, Cassandra, said that it was a magical flower found only in this area during winter. Angela and Chesterfield had flown all over this hilly landscape on her broom, looking for the brightly colored flowers. Two days had already passed. They had only one more day to find it and fly back to Cassandra’s School for Witches.

            Angela already felt like she was behind everyone else. She had come to the school at thirteen years old, when most of her classmates were only ten. She did not want to fail in this task.

            Chesterfield interrupted Angela’s musings. Why not try to look for it at night? Maybe it will be easier to see then.

            Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?

            Because you needed me to think of it for you. I’m the source of your magical power, remember?

            No, you only help me control my power.

            Whatever, you still need me. Chesterfield purred even louder.

            Angela felt a wave of affection for her cat. In the years since she had known him, they had become exceptionally close, just as a witch and her cat should be. All right, let’s do this, she thought resolutely. She stood as Chesterfield bounded off her lap.

            It only took a minute for Angela to pack up her small campsite—being a witch with magical powers had a great many uses. In no time, she and Chesterfield sat astride her broomstick, flying low over the hillside, looking for the elusive yellow-green flower. They searched for hours, and Angela started to think that this was a waste of time. Her hands were nearly frozen, and her back ached.

            She was just about to suggest that they give up and get some rest when Chesterfield shouted, Look! Over there! He held his paw off to the right of the broomstick, and Angela turned to investigate.

            Once she saw the flowers, she couldn’t believe that she had missed them before. They were glowing. The hawthorn bush was covered with the vibrant flowers and made it look like a beacon.

            Well, that was easy. Chesterfield sprang to the ground as Angela went to collect the flowers. He stretched luxuriously and lay down on the rocky hillside.

            Easy for you to say. Angela put the flowers in her special collecting sack that would keep them fresh. I’m ready for a nice, warm bed. Are you ready? She hopped back on her broom and Chesterfield settled himself behind her.

            As they flew back to school, Angela was relieved and happy that they had accomplished their task. When they reached their destination, Chesterfield climbed onto her shoulders and wrapped himself around her neck. Here’s a nice, warm bed, he said as he started purring.

            Smiling, Angela replied, Glad I could be of service to you. This was the best part of being a witch—always having your best friend with you.