by Adele Abbott
“It’s a long story, trust me you’re better off not knowing.”
“Fair enough.” Maybelline turned to the other women. “You already know two of these ladies, Jill. And this is Dimples Lowe.”
Dimples stepped forward and shook my hand. “I’m so pleased to meet you, Jill.”
“Likewise. I’m really sorry to have taken your place in the troupe, Dimples. I honestly had no desire to.”
“Don’t give it another thought. I’m a long-time admirer of yours. If I had to lose my place to anyone, I’m glad it was you.”
“Thanks.” I turned back to Maybelline. “I can’t believe Grandma is late.”
“Late?” Grandma appeared from nowhere. “I’m never late!”
“Hi, Grandma. Is this practice session going to take long? It’s just that I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“Whose fault is that? You should tell that human of yours to leave you alone.”
“What? No, it wasn’t Jack. It was—err—never mind.”
“And why have you brought that ugly green monster with you?”
“You can see him?”
“Of course I can see him. I could hardly miss a giant green man, could I?”
“But no-one else can. Maybelline, can you see him?”
She shook her head.
“That explains it,” Grandma said.
“Explains what? Do you know who—err—what he is because if you do, I wish you’d tell me.”
“Walk with me, Jill.” She beckoned me to follow her. After a few yards, she turned around and said to Big, “Hey, big guy, you wait right there.”
“But I have to stay next to Jill.”
“I said, wait there!”
Remarkably, he did as he was told.
“Don’t you realise what you have here?” she said when we were out of earshot.
“I have no idea. All I know is he came out of a trinket box.”
“That makes sense. It’s usually a small box or a lamp. He’s a genie, obviously.”
“But I asked him if he was a genie, and he said no.”
“And you took him at his word?”
“Well, yeah. I also asked if he could grant me three wishes, but he said he didn’t know how.”
“That’s because genies are both liars and lazy. And besides, why do you need wishes? You’re a powerful witch, you can do anything you want.”
“I just thought it would be cool.”
“Give me strength. Well, he can’t stay here. Not while we’re practising. He’ll be too much of a distraction.”
“I don’t know how to get rid of him.”
“Did you check your spell book?”
“Err, no, but then I wouldn’t know what to look for.”
She grabbed her bag and took out her own copy of the spell book. “Let’s see what we can find, shall we?” She flicked through a few pages. “What do you know? Here’s a spell called ‘How to put a genie back into a box or lamp’.”
“You’ve just made that up.” I snatched the book from her, and to my amazement, she was telling the truth. There really was such a spell. “This is great.” I quickly memorised it and then handed back the book. “I can get rid of him now.”
“Hurry up. We have a lot of practising to do.”
“What should I do with the trinket box after he’s back inside it?”
“Give it to someone else, then it’s their problem.”
Grandma had gone to speak to the rest of the troupe, so I collared the big green guy.
“You lied to me, Big.”
“I don’t know what you mean, Jill.”
“Don’t come the innocent. I asked if you were a genie and you said you weren’t.”
“I’m not. Honestly.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t believe you, big guy.” I cast the spell, and Big turned into a puff of green smoke, which disappeared back into the trinket box. Once he was inside, I shut the lid. Because the lock was still broken, I had to use an elastic band to stop the lid from opening again.
“Jill, let me out.” The muffled voice came from inside the box. “I’m sorry. Please let me out.”
I felt terrible, but I knew I had to be strong. I couldn’t spend the rest of my life with a big green giant following me around; I’d never get a wink of sleep again. So, ignoring his cries for help, I put the trinket box back into my bag, and went to join the others.
Grandma handed each of us a sheet of paper on which she’d outlined the five different routines we were to practise today. Each routine was detailed in a series of lines and arrows. Two of them looked relatively straightforward, but the other three were quite complicated and would be extremely demanding. All five of us were to practise each of the routines, with one of us sitting out each time. I was pleased that Grandma had decided to include Dimples, so that she wouldn’t feel left out.
The session lasted for almost two and a half hours, and by the end of it, we were all completely exhausted. Overall, I thought we’d done a remarkable job, but of course Grandma was less than impressed.
“I’d better get going now,” I said.
“Hold your horses.” Grandma caught me by the arm. “Not so quick. We haven’t finished yet.”
“Why not? You said we all had to practise each of the routines, and we’ve done that. I need to get back to Washbridge.”
“Here she is.” Grandma pointed to a young witch who was headed our way. “Bang on time.”
“Who’s that?”
“This, Jill, is your choreographer, Millie Martin.”
“Choreographer? Why do we need a choreographer? We’re riding brooms.”
“This is not just broom flying, Jill. It’s synchronised broom flying, and it’s supposed to be artistic. That’s where the choreography comes in.”
“Are you kidding me? It’s already difficult enough to stay on the brooms while we’re doing these routines. Do you really expect us to do some kind of weird dancing at the same time?”
“It’s not like I’m asking you to tap dance. You’ll just be moving your upper body and arms around in a synchronised way.”
“But I have no sense of rhythm.”
“Rubbish.” Grandma turned to Millie. “This is Maybelline Maytime, the troupe leader. She’ll introduce you to everyone else. I have to nip off for a few minutes, but I’ll be back shortly to watch you perform.”
“I’m very pleased to meet you all,” Millie said, after Maybelline had made the introductions. “How many of you have danced before?”
Everyone put their hands up. Everyone, that is, apart from me.
“Not even when you were a child, Jill?”
“No. My sister, Kathy, was into that kind of thing, but not me.”
“It’s okay. You’ll pick it up very quickly. And the good news is that you won’t have to do anything in the air until you’ve mastered the routines here on the ground. Now, if you would all stand in a line and follow me.”
Millie had brought a CD player with her (who still used those things?). Everyone else seemed to find the routines easy to follow, but not me. I was all over the place. I had my right arm up when it should’ve been my left. I had both arms in the air when they should’ve been by my sides. I swayed to the left when I should’ve swayed to the right. All in all, I was completely useless. Midway through the second of the routines, Grandma came back. It didn’t help having her watching my every (wrong) move.
The whole thing took almost another hour. By the end of it, I was practically on my knees with exhaustion.
“That’s it for today,” Millie said. “Thank you, ladies.” She picked up the CD player and made her way out of the Range.
“What did you think?” Maybelline asked Grandma.
“I thought that four-fifths of you were very good.” She turned her gaze on me. “And then there was you.”
“I’m sorry, but I’ve never done any dancing before. I’m not very good.”
“You’ve got that right. Dimples, you’re bac
k in the first team.”
***
Washbridge city centre was as busy as I’d ever seen it. There were thousands of people gathered all along the route of the marathon, to cheer on the runners. My reason for being there, though, was slightly different.
I managed to work my way to the halfway point of the course, and I planned to wait there until I saw Britt and Kit run by. I didn’t have long to wait. By my calculations, if they kept up the same pace for the second half of the race, they’d both finish well inside three hours.
As they ran past, I gave them both a little wave.
“Hi, Jill,” Britt shouted.
“Good luck,” I shouted back. They were going to need it. Snigger.
***
When I arrived home, I expected to find Jack’s dad still there, but there was no sign of him.
“Where’s Roy?”
“He went home early.”
“Oh dear. I hope you didn’t upset him with talk of your mother.”
“Quite the contrary. He wasn’t very receptive to the idea at first, but in the end, I managed to persuade him to give it a go. And what do you know, it worked out brilliantly.”
“Did he actually speak to Yvonne?”
“He did; they talked for almost twenty minutes. I stayed with them for a while, but then I left them to it.”
“That’s fantastic.”
“When Mum finally broke the connection, Dad was like a different man. Just like he used to be before she died. I’m so glad you persuaded me to do this, Jill.”
“Do you think they’ll keep in touch?”
“There’s no doubt about that. Dad was talking about them having regular chinwags in the evenings.”
“That’s fantastic. I couldn’t be happier for him. And for you, of course.”
“What about your day? How did the broom flying go?”
“Grandma has kicked me out of the team.”
“Oh dear. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I was thrilled when she dropped me.”
“Why did she?”
“Because my dancing skills didn’t cut it.”
“Dancing? How can you dance on a broomstick?”
“We were expected to move our arms and upper body around while flying.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“You’re telling me. She brought in a choreographer to train us, but I was completely hopeless. When Grandma saw how bad I was, she kicked me off the team and replaced me with Dimples Lowe.”
“Are you sure you’re okay with that?”
“I couldn’t be happier.”
Jack glanced around the room. “Is your big green friend here?”
“Big? No, he’s gone.”
“Gone where?”
“I hate to admit it, but I have Grandma to thank for getting rid of him. It turned out he was a genie after all. He’d totally lied to me about it.”
“So where is he now?”
“Back in his trinket box. Grandma found a spell to put him back in there.”
“The poor guy.”
“Never mind poor guy. You wouldn’t be saying that if you had a big green man following you around all the time, keeping you awake all night with his snoring.”
“True. Where’s the trinket box now?”
“I left it with Grandma.”
I didn’t dare risk telling Jack that the trinket box was actually at the bottom of my bag, in case he felt sorry for Big and let him out.
“Did you watch the marathon?” Jack asked.
“Yeah, but not for long. I did see Britt and Kit run past.”
“How were they doing?”
“They were going well, setting quite a pace.”
“That’s not good news. It could end up costing us a small fortune.”
“Somehow, I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“I just have a feeling that they may find the second half of the marathon harder than the first.”
“Why do I get the feeling there’s something you’re not telling me?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Anyway, what’s for dinner? I’m starving.”
Chapter 14
It was Monday morning, and I felt much more with it. I’d spent most of Sunday in bed; it had been fantastic to be able to sleep without having to listen to someone snoring on the floor beside me.
I still felt a little guilty, knowing that Big was trapped in the trinket box in my bag, but not guilty enough to consider letting him out. I consoled myself with the fact that he’d previously been in there for hundreds of years, and he’d seemed perfectly happy. Another few days until I found him a new home didn’t seem unreasonable to me. The problem was where would that new home be? Who could I give the trinket box to? The thing was seriously ugly, so I’d need to find someone who had no taste whatsoever.
“Good morning, darling.” Jack gave me a kiss on the cheek when I came downstairs. “You look a lot better today.”
“I feel much better, thanks. I just wish it wasn’t Monday. I feel as though I’ve only had a one-day weekend.”
“If you think you feel bad, just spare a thought for poor old Big. I can’t help but feel sorry for the big guy.”
“Don’t do that, Jack. I don’t need you to guilt trip me. What else could I do?”
“I know you’re right, but it just seems kind of weird thinking of him inside that small box. It must be so claustrophobic.”
“That’s enough, Jack.”
“Sorry. I had a phone call from Dad a couple of minutes ago.”
“At this time in the morning? Is he okay?”
“He’s great. Apparently, he and mum had a long chat yesterday, and he’s absolutely buzzing.”
“That’s fantastic. I’m really pleased for you.”
We’d no sooner finished breakfast than there was a knock at the door. Why do people insist on coming to the house at this time of the morning? Have they got nothing better to do? We both went through to the hallway, and Jack answered the door to find Britt standing there.
“Morning, you two. I hope you don’t mind me calling around so early, but I’m hoping to collect all the sponsorship money as soon as possible. Only if it’s convenient, of course.”
“Yeah, come in, Britt,” I said. “How did it go yesterday?”
“Not too well, Jill. The first half was fine; we were setting a great pace.”
“You seemed to be going well when I saw you both. I assumed you’d go on to set a personal best time.”
“So did we, but then everything went wrong in the second half.”
“Why? What happened?”
“That’s just it, I don’t know. I slowed down to a walking pace. It was as though I had lead weights in my shoes. I could barely lift my legs.”
“Did you have cramp?” Jack said.
“No, it definitely wasn’t cramp. I’ve had cramp lots of times, and it’s never felt like that. My feet just felt so heavy.”
“What about Kit?” I asked. “Did he go on without you?”
“No, he felt exactly the same. It took us over four hours to finish. We’ve never run so slowly.”
“That is weird,” Jack said, clearly struggling to keep a straight face.
“So, how much do we owe you, Britt?” I asked.
“As we didn’t both finish in under three hours, it’s just the basic amount you sponsored us for.”
After Britt had left, Jack said, “What did you do?”
“Me? Nothing.”
“Come on, Jill. Tell me.”
“Okay. I may have cast a spell that made their running shoes feel like deep sea diver boots.”
“I should be mad at you.” He laughed. “But that’s just too funny.”
***
When I arrived at the toll bridge, Mr Ivers was looking even sadder than he had on Saturday, and I wouldn’t have believed that was possible.
“Good morning, Mr Ivers. How are you today?”
“Oh, you k
now, Jill. Pretty much the same.”
And that’s when I had a brilliant idea.
“I expect you’re still feeling a little down because of Ivy.”
“You’re right. I am.”
“I was in town the other day, and I saw this and thought you might like it.” I took the trinket box out of my bag, quickly slipped off the elastic band, and handed the box to him. “It’s only a little thing, but it’s very nice to look at, don’t you think?”
“It’s beautiful, Jill.” His face lit up. “That’s so very kind of you. No one ever buys me presents. What is it, exactly?”
“It’s a trinket box.”
“What’s inside?”
“No! Whatever you do, you mustn’t open it.”
“Why not?”
“The lady in the shop told me that it’s bad luck to look inside. But it’s a really nice thing just to put on a shelf and admire, don’t you think?”
“It is. Thanks again. That’s really kind of you. Look, why don’t you just pay for the car this time. There’s no need to pay for the trailer.”
“Thank you.”
What were the chances that Mr Ivers wouldn’t open the trinket box? Zero, I’d estimate, but that was okay because he was short on friends, and he’d appreciate Big’s company. And the big guy would just be happy to be free again. Overall, I figured I deserved a pat on the back for having done my good deed for the day.
***
En-route into town, I called into Washbridge Trailer Rental, to return and pay for the CarryAll 673. The sales assistant asked if I’d managed to transport the tall telephone box, and I assured him that all had gone well.
In the office building, the two clowns were still staring down the stairs at me. Hopefully, Jimmy and I would be able to come to a friendly compromise before the day was out.
Mrs V was humming away to herself and looked as happy as a lark.
“Good morning, Mrs V, you’re looking exceptionally pleased with life this morning.”
“I feel completely rested today.” She looked around as though she thought someone might be eavesdropping. “Between you and me, Armi seems to have settled down a little in that department.”