“We did get lost once,” Lily reminded her.
Jackson frowned. “Only by mistake. We’re not babies. Doesn’t she understand that?”
Melody pulled at her arm. “Sh, Jackson.”
“What?” Jackson looked at her friend in surprise.
“We’ve got to be good,” Melody warned her. “Don’t be so argumentative!”
Jackson flushed. “Oops! Sorry.”
“It’s OK,” Melody said. “I don’t think Fairy Fifibelle heard you. She’s singing too loudly.”
It was true. Fairy Fifibelle Lee was floating through the long dark corridor singing a strange wordless song as she went. It sounded like a spell; it made me feel happy, but in a calm and contented kind of way.
“Have you noticed the lights?” Ava said in my ear. “Watch as she goes past … they change colour!”
Ava was quite right. The lights glowed a soft raspberry pink as Fairy Fifibelle came near, but once she had floated by they went back to being yellow.
“I think she’s really clever at magic,” Ava went on. “She may get things wrong, but she knows some fabulous spells.”
I was about to agree, but Fairy Fifibelle opened the door to the Travelling Tower and the sudden burst of sunlight made me blink and forget what I was going to say.
“There, my darlings! Off you go, and have a wonderful time.” Fairy Fifibelle waved us inside. “And remember, the Forgetting Spell only works once.” She waved again – and disappeared. She didn’t fade or gradually turn invisible. One minute she was standing by the door, her drifty scarves floating around her, and the next minute she was gone.
I wasn’t terribly surprised; once you’re at Stargirl Academy, you get used to the weirdest things happening, but I did wonder why she hadn’t just floated away down the corridor.
“WOW!” Madison rushed forward to look out through the glass walls. “We’re flying over a river!”
I went to stand beside her, and the view was wonderful. The Travelling Tower has glass walls all the way round, so if there wasn’t a comfortingly solid floor under your feet, it would feel as if you were flying. It’s attached to Stargirl Academy most of the time, but it’s like a very amazing and magic kind of lift. It can go up and down, but it can also leave the Academy completely. Olivia hates it when that happens; she says she worries that we’ll never get back again, but I know we will. Fairy Mary McBee would never put us in danger. As I looked out, I could clearly see the river below us, and a battered old iron bridge, and a cluster of houses and shops on the other side … and then we went a little further, and I thought, “I know where we are! That’s my road down there.”
The TT slowed right down, and I was able to point out my house to the others and to show them Mr Appleby’s neat and tidy garden. It was interesting seeing it from above; I’d never realised how much bigger than our garden it was. And the garden next door – where the new people lived – was bigger still, but it was SO different! The grass was long, and the flower beds were totally overgrown, and there was rubbish and bits of broken furniture everywhere. The only clear space was a tiny square behind the back door where an old woman was sitting on a chair in the sunshine. She was holding a baby, and singing as it wriggled in her arms.
“That’s a pretty baby,” Lily said. “Do you know what her name is?”
I shook my head. “I’ve never been to the house.”
“Didn’t you go and say hello when they moved in?” Olivia sounded so surprised I felt terrible. Mum and Dad had mentioned there were new people on our side of the road, but when I heard they didn’t have any children my age I’d forgotten about them. I looked down at the baby, and Lily was right. She was really cute! And her grandmother looked nice too, although she looked anxious as well. The baby was crying, and it didn’t seem as if she could soothe it.
A woman of about my mum’s age came out and picked the baby up from the old woman’s lap. “Poor little Baby Faye,” she said. “Are your teeth still hurting?”
“Where are the boys, Poppy?” the old woman asked. “Shouldn’t they be outside on a lovely day like this?”
Poppy sighed. “How can they play in this mess?” she asked. “There’s so much rubbish all over the place, and some of it’s broken glass – they’d be sure to cut themselves. And the grass is so long, and we’ve nothing to cut it with. Oh, Mum … why did we move here? It’s a lovely house, but the garden’s much too big … it makes me depressed just looking at it.”
The old woman stretched out her hand to her daughter, and I suddenly realised she couldn’t see. “Is it so very bad?”
“Terrible.” Poppy buried her nose in the back of the baby’s neck. “And the man next door hates us, and I don’t blame him – Faye’s cried every night since we got here.”
“She’ll be fine once her teeth come through,” the old woman said, and she pulled herself to her feet. “You sit here a moment, and enjoy the sunshine. I’ll make us a cup of tea.”
“It’s OK. I’ll come in with you,” Poppy said, and she took the old woman’s arm and helped her inside.
“They really do need help,” Sophie said. “Come on, Emma! What shall we do?”
I was thinking as hard as I could. It was obvious that we had to do something about the garden … but what? And how? I knew nothing about gardening … but then again, I did know someone who knew a LOT!
Chapter Eight
It was all very well knowing that Mr Appleby would be the perfect person to help us tidy up the garden, but how could we get him to see that? He didn’t even like his neighbours.
“We can still help,” Lily suggested, when I explained what the problem was. “We could tidy up the rubbish. You don’t need to know anything about gardens to do that.”
“Pick up rubbish?” Jackson looked horrified. “We’ll get filthy!”
“We can use Floating Spells,” Olivia pointed out.
Jackson shrugged. “I suppose so.”
Madison, who always thinks of the practical side of things, wanted to know where we were going to put the rubbish. “We can’t dump it anywhere the boys might find it,” she said. “Especially if there’s broken glass.”
“There’s space behind that old shed in the corner,” Sophie said. “It looks as if people have been burning stuff there already.”
“Sorted.” Madison looked approving.
The TT had dropped down to the level of the bedroom windows, and now we were closer I could see that the garden must once have been very pretty. There were loads of flowers fighting the weeds, and a beautiful rose was doing its best to survive in the middle of a heap of bits of smashed-up cupboard.
“Right,” I said, and I folded my arms to make myself look as if I was in charge, although I didn’t feel as if I was. “Shall we try some Floating Spells?”
We took it in turns to point our star fingers, and it was amazing how quickly we got rid of the broken furniture. Eight Stargirls can do a lot when they’re all working together – although there were a couple of times when I did have a tiny suspicion that Fairy Fifibelle Lee might not have disappeared as completely as we thought. I don’t think any of us could have collected up the bits of broken glass, tipped them into a cardboard box, then floated the box away over the wall and into a skip that was standing outside a house on the other side of the road. I asked Olivia what she thought, and she smiled.
“Fairy Fifibelle’s very kind,” she said. “I wouldn’t be surprised.”
Melody heard us talking. “How do you know it wasn’t me or Jackson?” she demanded. “We’re much the best at the Floating Spell!”
I knew that was true, so I didn’t say anything else about Fairy Fifibelle … but I was almost sure I could hear murmuring, and it wasn’t any of us Stargirls.
I whispered, “Thank you!”
There was no answer, but for a moment I felt something very soft and floaty brush against my cheek.
There was a huge heap of rubbish in the corner of the garden by the time we’d finished, b
ut Madison said it would be OK. “They can have a fabulous bonfire,” she said. “It’s not too near anything that’s going to catch light.”
“That sounds fun,” I said. “I love bonfires!”
“Maybe they’ll ask you round,” Sophie suggested, and I thought that I’d like that.
“It’s looking ever so much better,” I said. “If only we could get the grass cut, that would be brilliant.” And then, as if he’d heard me, Mr Appleby stumped out into the garden next door, and pulled his motor mower out of his shed.
“WOW!” Ava’s eyes lit up. “That’s some mower! Would it work on long grass?”
I didn’t know. It was one of those mowers you sit on, and it looked like it could take on a jungle; Mr Appleby absolutely loved it. I think he was disappointed that his grass didn’t grow six inches every night.
Madison was watching him climb onto the seat. “I don’t suppose…” she said, then stopped.
“…that we could float Mr Appleby and his mower over the fence?” Ava finished her sentence for her.
“He’d think he’d gone mad!” Olivia stared at Ava.
Lily had an idea. “But we could use the Forgetting Spell! Once he’d mowed the lawn, we could float him back, and then make him forget all about it!”
“But won’t he get off the mower as soon as he finds himself in the wrong garden?” Sophie asked.
Jackson began to laugh. “Not if we put a Solidifying Spell on his clothes so he can’t get off!”
“Isn’t that a bit unkind?” Olivia looked at me, and I hesitated. I couldn’t think of any other way of getting the grass cut, unless we did it ourselves, and we didn’t have a mower. We didn’t even have a pair of scissors! But on the other hand, it didn’t feel right to make Mr Appleby do something like that.
“I don’t know,” I said slowly. “Perhaps we can think of some way of persuading him, so he thinks it’s his idea…”
Melody snorted. “You lot! Honestly! I don’t see what you’re making such a fuss about. If you won’t do it, Jackson and I will. Here goes!”
And before I could say a word, she and Jackson were pointing their star fingers, and Mr Appleby and his mower were floating in a shower of shimmering stars…
…up…
…up…
…and over the fence.
Chapter Nine
I wasn’t just horrified, I was completely and utterly terrified. What if the mower crashed? What if Mr Appleby fell off? For one wild moment, I thought of putting a Solidifying Spell on him, but I didn’t. It would have made things even worse for sure.
All I could do was cross my fingers and hold my breath as the mower and its rider landed smoothly in the middle of the knee-high grass. The engine was still running, and the mower took off in the direction of the house, leaving a wonderfully close-mown path behind it.
I could hardly bear to look. I was certain Mr Appleby would either be purple with rage or green with terror … but when I finally forced myself to look, I had to blink hard, then look again.
His eyes were shut! It’s true! There were still a few stars circling around him, so maybe it was something to do with the Floating Spell. His face was blank, as if he was asleep, but he couldn’t have been because the mower turned at the edge of the lawn and went back the other way. To and fro it went, until there was only one little area of rough grass left…
And that was when the old lady came out of the back door of the house. She stood listening, and then the most wonderful smile spread over her face as she clapped her hands. “Thank you!” she called out. “Thank you a million times, whoever you are!”
Mr Appleby didn’t answer. His eyes were still tight shut. The mower swirled round the last patch of grass, then stopped.
“Quick!” I said. “Quick! We’ve got to float him back!”
We all pointed our star fingers and thought of the lightest things we could – clouds and balloons and seagulls…
Nothing happened.
Well, something did, but it wasn’t what we’d hoped for. Mr Appleby’s eyes flicked open and he stared and he stared and he stared.
Sophie clutched my arm. “What on earth are we going to do now?”
Mr Appleby’s face was scarlet, and his eyes were popping out of his head. He slowly got off his mower and scowled at it as if it was the mower’s fault for being in someone else’s garden. Then he turned to the old lady, and he was almost spitting with rage. “How … how … how…” he began, but he couldn’t even finish the sentence. He was so angry that he looked as if he was about to explode.
“Who is it?” The old lady was still standing by the back door of the house. “Who’s there?”
“Oops,” Sophie murmured.
My stomach was tied up in horribly painful knots. What had we done?
“NOW!” I thought. “It has to be NOW…” And I pointed my star finger. “Memory hold not, memory care not…” A shower of tiny glittery stars swirled around Mr Appleby’s head.
As I said the words of the charm, my friends from Team Starlight joined in with me. “Memory slip slide slither away…”
The change in Mr Appleby was extraordinary. One minute he was shaking with fury, and the next he didn’t know what to do or what to say. He cleared his throat. “Ahem.”
The old lady put out her hand to feel for her chair and took a couple of wobbly steps forward. “I heard the mower. Are you our neighbour?”
Mr Appleby opened his mouth, then closed it again. He took another look at his motor mower, then at the neatly mown lawn. He patted his chest as if to make sure that he was really there, and finally he gave his face a rub, as if he was trying to wake himself up. “Ahem,” he said again. “Yes. Yes, I’m George Appleby. From next door. Excuse me … I find myself a little confused today. Did you … that is, did you ask me to cut your grass?”
“Ask you? Goodness me, no!” The old lady gave Mr Appleby a huge smile. “I get a little confused myself sometimes. It’s all part of getting old. You came round with the mower yourself.”
Melody kicked my ankle, but I took no notice. I wanted to hear what the old lady was saying.
“You must have the kindest heart in all the world,” she went on, “and we are the luckiest people to live next door to you.”
Mr Appleby rubbed his face again, as if he still couldn’t believe what was happening, but he was beginning to look happy. So happy, in fact, that I wondered how long it was since anybody had been pleased to see him … and I felt an uncomfortable pang of guilt. Whenever I met him, I ran away.
“Did I?” he said. “Did I come round with the mower? Well, I suppose I must have done. Goodness me! I’ll be forgetting my own name next!” And, positively glowing, Mr Appleby walked over and shook the old lady’s hand. “I’m pleased to meet you!”
“I’ve just made a pot of tea,” she said. “Do say you’ll come in and have a cup. My daughter will want to thank you. It’s the most wonderful thing that you’ve done; the children will be able to play in the garden now.” She put her hand on Mr Appleby’s arm. “You must think we’re dreadful neighbours. The baby crying all the time, and the boys playing football indoors. I’m sure they’ve been driving you mad. I’m so sorry.”
We held our breath.
“No, no!” Mr Appleby sounded surprised. “Not at all!” The old lady was trying to lead him inside, but he stopped to glance at the overgrown flower beds. “I could help you with your weeding too. My garden’s well under control, and I’ve plenty of spare time…”
Chapter Ten
As Mr Appleby closed the door behind him, we let out the loudest cheer ever. If he’d been in the garden, he’d have heard us for sure – and somebody did! Two little faces peeped out from an upstairs window, saw the garden and disappeared. A moment later, the two boys – I’m guessing they were about six and seven – came hurtling out of the house, clutching a football.
“Fantastic!” shouted one.
“Super duper!” yelled the other.
They we
re followed by their mother, Poppy. She was looking puzzled, but when she saw the tidied garden and the mown lawn she stood very still.
“Isn’t it great, Mum?” asked the boys.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes. It’s … it’s a miracle.” And she burst into tears, and rushed back into the house. A moment later, we could see her through the kitchen window, and she was HUGGING Mr Appleby! And he was looking THRILLED!
“That’s the best result ever,” Madison said. “I do so love happy endings!”
“Me too,” said Lily, and Sophie nodded.
Ava was looking at Olivia. “What are you thinking?” she asked. “You’re very quiet.”
“I’m not sure,” Olivia said. “I think maybe we’re lucky that Mr Appleby is so nice.”
“What do you mean?” Melody asked.
“Well…” Olivia rubbed her nose. “What if Mr Appleby had been horrible? We made him forget how he got into the garden, but we didn’t make him into a kind man. Fairy Mary told us when we first got to the Academy. Spells can’t do that. You can’t change a bad person into a good one.”
I was beginning to see what Olivia meant. A horrible Mr Appleby would have stomped away … but he hadn’t. In fact, he’d offered to go on helping with the garden. He was a nice man, and I’d never noticed. A nice man, but a man who talked a lot.
“Such a great deal of thinking, Miss Emma,” said a voice, and I spun round. Professor Moth was leaning against the glass wall of the Travelling Tower, smiling at me. Fairy Fifibelle Lee was there too, and so was Fairy Mary.
“Oh!” I said, and I remembered the murmuring voices. “Have you been here all the time?”
Fairy Fifibelle nodded. The professor said, “Most interesting it has been.”
Jackson nudged Melody, and Melody wrinkled her nose as if she wasn’t thrilled.
Emma's Glittering Spell Page 3