A Matter-of-Fact Magic Book

by Ruth Chew

  Jane wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Now, let’s see the list.”

  Laura pulled the paper out of her pocket and unfolded it. “Ground glass,” she said. “There are a lot of broken bottles here in the park.”

  “And that nutty witch can just chew them a bit to grind them up,” Jane said. She picked up several pieces of green glass from a pile near one of the benches. Jane packed them in the brown paper bag that had held the sandwiches. She put it in the bottom of her shopping bag.

  Laura looked at the list again. “Swamp water and tadpoles. I wonder if lake water would do. It smells pretty bad.”

  The girls walked over to the lake in the park. Jane filled one of her peanut butter jars with lake water. People were fishing in the lake. One boy had caught two sunfish. Jane asked him about tadpoles.

  “I’ve never seen them here,” the boy said. “It’s too late in the summer for them anyway.”

  “What about frogs?” Laura wanted to know.

  “I know where you can find them.” The boy put a piece of bread on his hook. He tossed the hook into the lake. “But you mustn’t let anybody see you catch them. And you may have to sneak in the gate. The guards don’t want kids in the place. If you can’t get in the gate, there are some wide spaces in the fence.”

  “What’s this place you’re talking about?” Jane asked.

  “Greenwood Cemetery,” the boy said. “Oh, that’s on the other side of McDonald Avenue.” Laura picked up the cat. “My father says it’s bigger than this park.”

  The boy dragged his line through the water. “Watch out for the dogs in the cemetery. They keep big ones there.”

  Laura decided to take the cat home.

  Jane and Laura left the lake and climbed a hill. At the top was a grassy place with woods all around. Here they spread out the bath mat and sat down on it. Charlie curled up in Laura’s lap. Jane held tight to the shopping bag.

  “Mat,” Laura said, “please take us home.”

  The pink bath mat stiffened itself. It quivered for a second. Then it rose until it was high over the trees. It made a half-turn and sailed away from the park and over the roofs of Brooklyn.

  The bath mat touched down on Laura’s front stoop.

  Jane stood up and stretched. “I wonder what time it is.”

  Laura stepped off the mat. “We’ll look at the kitchen clock.” She opened her front door. “Come in, Jane.”

  Charlie ran into the house. Laura picked up the bath mat and folded it. The two girls went into the kitchen. It was after four o’clock.

  “Too late to go to the cemetery,” Jane said. “My mother ought to be finished with her shopping by now.”

  “And Sally hasn’t had any lunch.” Laura felt guilty. “What shall I feed her?”

  “Try lake water and broken glass,” Jane suggested. She put her shopping bag on the kitchen table. “I’d better go home, Laura. See you tomorrow.”

  After Jane had gone, Laura took the shopping bag upstairs. Sally was in the closet. “Is that you, dear?” she called in a sleepy voice when Laura came into her room. “I just had a lovely nap.”

  “Sally,” Laura said, “suppose it was my mother and not me.”

  Sally thought about this. She noticed the bath mat. It was still tucked under Laura’s arm. “I see you got your mat off the ceiling.”

  “Yes,” Laura said. “You did a nice job of enchanting it, Sally.”

  The witch looked surprised. “What do you mean?”

  “It flies very well. Jane and I went to the Botanic Garden with it.” Laura gave the mat a little hug. “And it stopped Charlie from catching a baby rabbit.” She looked at the bath mat. “Oh, Sally! It has grass stains on it. Will it spoil the magic to wash it?”

  “I don’t know,” Sally said. “To tell the truth, I didn’t know I enchanted it. I must have done something to it, but I can’t think what.”

  Laura remembered the things in the shopping bag. She took out the paper bag with the green glass in it.

  Sally took one look at the glass and smacked her lips. “Yum!” she said. “Now that I think of it, I really am hungry.”

  She licked a corner of one of the bits of glass. It seemed to melt like a lollipop.

  Jane was right. Sally did like to eat broken glass. Laura fished the jar of lake water out of the shopping bag. She took off the lid.

  The witch sniffed the air. “What do you have in that jar, dear?”

  “Lake water,” Laura said. “We thought it might take the place of swamp water in your recipe.”

  “Most lake water wouldn’t, but this seems rather special,” Sally told her.

  Laura held her nose. She handed the jar to the old woman. The glass Sally was licking was almost gone.

  “Oh, please save some of that for the ground glass in the recipe,” Laura said.

  “Oh, that’s right,” the witch said. “I forgot.”

  Laura reached into the shopping bag and brought out the plastic bag with the sprig of yellow flowers in it. “Here’s the wolfsbane.”

  The witch drew her shaggy eyebrows together. “Wolfsbane? Oh, yes. We need it for the cold brew. But those are the flowers. What we need is the root.”

  “I had a lot of trouble getting the flowers,” Laura said. “I’m sure nobody in the Botanic Garden would let me pull up a plant, root and all.”

  Sally was sipping the lake water. “If only I could go with you,” she said, “I’m sure I could find some more wolfsbane. Those flowers grow everywhere.”

  Jane and Laura were swinging. It had taken them a long time to untangle the swing chains. Charlie climbed up into the apple tree to watch. Jane looked at him. “I know,” she said, “you liked the swings better when they were one above the other. Well, it’s you or me, cat.” Jane pumped the swing higher.

  “I wish we could take Sally along when we go to get the other things for the brew,” Laura said.

  “I’ll bet that witch just loves graveyards.” Jane zoomed up into the air. “Laura, you never should have told her about the magic bath mat.”

  “I thought she knew it was enchanted.” Laura let her swing coast to a stop. “Who ever heard of an absent-minded witch?”

  “Nobody.” Jane swung higher. “Didn’t you ever think that she’s not absent-minded at all? She’s just fooling you.”

  “I don’t care,” Laura said. “I feel sorry for her cooped up in that closet. I’d like to take her for a ride on the bath mat.”

  “There’s only enough room for the two of us,” Jane said, “unless the witch rides upside down underneath the mat.”

  “That’s the only way she could ride,” Laura said. “Of course, we might have trouble getting on and off the mat.”

  Now Jane was interested. She enjoyed solving problems. “We could get on first,” she said. “And then you could tell Pinky to rise high enough for the witch to slide under him.”

  “Pinky?” Laura said. “It does seem nicer than calling him Mat. Do you think he’d like to be called Pinky?”

  “There’s one way to find out.” Jane let her swing die. She jumped off and ran into the house. Laura followed her.

  The two girls raced upstairs. Laura pulled the bath mat out of the back of the linen closet where she had hidden it. She unfolded the mat and put it on the floor of the upstairs hall. “Flip one corner for yes and two for no,” she told the bath mat. “Would you like to be called Pinky instead of Mat?”

  The bath mat waved one corner.

  “That settles it. We’ll call him Pinky.” Jane sat down on the floor beside the bath mat. “Pinky,” she said, “could you fly with Laura and me on top of you and Witch Sally underneath?”

  The mat was still for a minute, as if it were thinking. Then, slowly, it flipped a corner.

  “What a lovely idea!” Witch Sally stepped over the wall at the doorway of Laura’s room. She walked along the ceiling of the hall toward the two girls. “I couldn’t help hearing you, Jane. I think you would make a very clever witch. Ha
ve you ever thought of going into the trade?”

  “Laura, I hope you have something to pack for Sally’s lunch. If you don’t, she’ll eat the frogs.” Jane was making peanut butter sandwiches.

  Laura mixed bottled lemon juice with water and sugar. She took a tray of ice cubes out of the refrigerator. “I saved all the cobs from the corn we had for dinner last night and the rind from the grapefruit Daddy ate at breakfast. If I season the stuff with wet coffee grounds, Sally will eat it.” Laura poured her lemonade into a thermos bottle. Then she put the witch’s lunch into a plastic bag.

  Laura went upstairs to get the shopping bag from her bedroom. Sally was sitting on the ceiling looking out of the window. “It will be good to get outdoors for a change,” she said.

  The bath mat was folded up on Laura’s bed. Laura picked it up and handed it to the witch. “Do you think you could ride downstairs?”

  Sally spread the mat on the ceiling and sat down on it. The old woman was so excited that her voice trembled. “Pinky,” she said. “Please take me down to the kitchen.”

  The bath mat stiffened and began to skim along, an inch or two below the ceiling. Sally sat straight. Her black hat pointed at the floor. Her eyes shone under her shaggy eyebrows. The mat sailed down the hallway.

  Laura called after it. “Be careful not to bang her head on the stairs, Pinky.”

  The witch arrived safely in the kitchen. Jane looked up at her. “I think Laura and I could climb aboard from the swing chains.” She opened the back door. “Come on, Pinky. This is the hard part.”

  The bath mat flew out into the yard. It hovered between the two swings. Laura and Jane had tucked the lunch into the shopping bag along with the peanut butter jars and the plastic bags. Laura held the shopping bag while Jane climbed up a swing chain and crawled onto the bath mat. Laura stood on a swing and handed Jane the shopping bag. Then she climbed up to sit beside her on the mat.

  “Meow!” The cat was still in the apple tree.

  “I can’t take you, Charlie,” Laura said. “You wouldn’t like the dogs.” Laura grabbed hold of the edges of the bath mat. “Pinky,” she said, “please take us to Greenwood Cemetery.”

  The bath mat flew high over the tall iron fence. Laura and Jane looked down on a big old house. It was built of brownstone and had square towers and fancy chimneys. A guard stood beside the gate of the cemetery. He didn’t look up.

  There were hills covered with huge trees. There were statues and tombstones in the shade of the trees. The girls saw strange little stone houses and doorways going into the hills. Winding roads led through the cemetery.

  Pinky felt firm and solid under them. There was no sound from the witch. Jane and Laura could see the fluttering of her black skirt. It trailed behind the bath mat.

  Now they were flying over a little lake. “Stop, Pinky,” Jane said. “This looks like a good place to find frogs.”

  The bath mat stopped still in mid-air.

  Laura leaned over the edge to look at Sally. “You’d better stay under the mat. Jane and I can get off to look for frogs.”

  “Fine,” the witch agreed.

  “Pinky,” Jane said. “Let us off on that tree.” She pointed to it.

  The bath mat dropped down until it was close beside a weeping willow tree. Jane and Laura scrambled onto a thick branch. Laura climbed down to the ground first. “Hand me the shopping bag, Jane.” She reached up for it.

  Sally lay down under the mat. It was not long enough. Her legs stuck out over the end. “I think I’ll take a little snooze,” she said. “Wake me if you want any help.” She closed her eyes. The bath mat floated in the air near the weeping willow.

  Laura and Jane took a peanut butter jar out of the shopping bag. They left the shopping bag under the willow tree and walked across the soft green grass to the marshy bank of the little lake. The water was so still they could see clouds reflected in it. Pink and white water lilies floated near the shore.

  Jane grabbed Laura’s arm. She pointed to a lily pad. A big green frog sat on it and blinked at them.

  Laura took the lid off the peanut butter jar and inched toward the frog. She lifted the jar to bring it down over the frog.

  Plop! The frog dived into the water.

  Jane saw another frog. He was hiding in the water just at the edge of the lake. She cupped her hands and made a dive for him. “Got him,” Jane said.

  Laura held the jar for Jane to put the frog in. Just as she was ready to put on the lid, the frog gave a leap. He flipped out of the jar and did a back somersault onto the grass. With three hops he was back in the water.

  The sun was hot. Laura and Jane sat at the edge of the water for a long time. All the frogs seemed to be hiding. A shadow fell across the grass beside the girls. Laura looked up.

  The bath mat had floated over to them. Witch Sally was lying under it. She looked cool in the shade of the mat. Sally smiled. Her stiff gray hair stuck out in little points from under her hat. She wiggled her toes. “Croak,” the witch said.

  The girls heard an answering croak from the bank of the lake. A small frog was sitting there taking a sunbath. At once Pinky dipped down over the frog. The witch reached out and grabbed him by the hind leg. “Where’s your jar, Jane?”

  Jane picked up the jar from where Laura had dropped it on the grass. She popped it over the frog Sally was holding. Laura screwed on the lid. She had made four nail holes in it before they left home. The little frog was caught. Laura felt sorry for him.

  Jane saw Sally look at the frog and lick her lips. Jane grabbed the peanut butter jar and raced up the grassy bank to the willow tree. She took the sandwiches and the witch’s lunch out of the shopping bag. “Time to eat!” she yelled.

  Sally crawled off the bath mat onto a branch of the willow tree to eat her lunch. Laura climbed into the tree to get to the mat. She rolled him up and tucked him under her arm. She was afraid Pinky would wander off. And she wasn’t sure he would come if she whistled.

  Laura looked down. A huge dog was racing toward the tree. “Watch out, Jane!”

  Jane was sitting under the tree. She turned and saw the dog. Jumping to her feet, Jane grabbed hold of a vine that hung down from a branch. She swung herself up into the tree. The dog grabbed the end of her pants leg and wouldn’t let go.

  “Quick,” the witch said, “unroll the bath mat.”

  Laura gave the mat a shake. It unrolled in mid-air and stayed still while the witch crawled under it.

  “Pinky,” Sally said, “let’s play tag.”

  The bath mat dropped down so that Sally could pull the dog’s tail. The dog let go of Jane’s pants leg. Jane climbed higher in the tree. Now the mat dodged back and forth. The witch tweaked the dog’s ears and patted his back. All the time she led him farther from the tree. At last the mat and the witch led the dog over the top of a hill and out of sight.

  “That was close,” Laura said. “Did he hurt you, Jane?”

  Jane was looking at the leg of her pants. “I’m all right. But there are some holes from his teeth in my jeans.”

  Laura handed Jane a sandwich. “Let’s eat before anything else happens.”

  Jane took a bite. “The weather’s changing. It’s going to rain. Where do you suppose that witch is?”

  “Do you think the dog caught her?” Laura asked.

  “No. I think she’s decided to take off with your bath mat,” Jane said.

  Laura poured herself a drink of lemonade. “She wants to make that brew to turn herself right side up. And we’ve got almost everything she needs for it.”

  Laura pointed to a pink spot in the sky. It was getting bigger. The bath mat was coming back.

  Pinky sailed up to the tree. The witch was still sitting under him. She waved a handful of leaves and flowers and roots. “Wolfsbane!”

  Jane took a good look at the plant. “You mean buttercups.”

  “Same family,” Sally said. “They’ll work just as well.” She crawled off the mat into the tree and looked to see wh
at sort of lunch Laura had packed for her.

  Dark clouds were gathering. Jane began to cram things into the shopping bag. “I wish you knew a spell to stop rain instead of just one to start it.”

  The witch took a bite of corncob. “A little rain never hurt anyone.”

  A drop splashed on Laura’s nose. “Do you think you could eat your lunch on the way home, Sally?”

  Sally crunched and swallowed. “It might even taste better that way.”

  Laura was already on the mat. She moved over for Jane to sit down. Sally made herself comfortable underneath the mat. Jane checked to make sure they had the thermos bottle, the buttercups, and the frog. “OK, Pinky, take us home.”

  The rain began to come down hard. Jane and Laura were both soaking wet when they got home. Sally was dry. She had been under the bath mat.

  Jane went home to change her clothes.

  Pinky was so wet he could hardly flip his corners. He had mud stains as well as grass stains on him now. He seemed like a friend to Laura. She didn’t like to think of him being banged around in the washing machine or the dryer. Instead she gave him a warm bath in the tub and hung him in the stall shower to drip-dry. Then she went to talk to the witch.

  Sally was all worn out from the trip to the cemetery. She was curled up on the quilt in the corner of Laura’s closet. And she was snoring.

  Laura closed the closet door and went downstairs. She had left the shopping bag in the kitchen. She wanted to wash out the thermos bottle before her parents came home.

  Laura took the peanut butter jar out of the shopping bag. The little frog was sitting in the bottom of it. Laura wondered what the witch would do to him. Suddenly she didn’t care if they ever made the witch’s brew. She was going to let the frog go.