with a twitch of his eyebrows. Ellen started laughing in relief. Together they made their way to the balcony with a plate of sausage rolls and the approval of both sets of parents.
‘Why didn’t you tell me who you really were?’ asked Ellen.
‘It was all quite true,’ said Jake. ‘I did have to work the dragon and get the blasted thing smoking properly – and hard work it was too. Our local Drama Society puts on a production here each year and I had heaps of lines to learn as well. Then I saw you reading those books and I couldn’t resist teasing you. By the way, I used to read the ‘DragonRyder’ books a few years ago, and I thought they were pretty good too. Anyway, it all got to be such fun and I enjoyed it too much to spoil it by telling you who I really was. Are you mad at me now?’
‘Not at all,’ said Ellen with a giggle. ‘You really brought magic into my life and I hope we can still see each other.’
‘Definitely,’ said Jake firmly. ‘We have all year at school ahead of us and now that the play is finished I can see you every day. I’ll even take off these awful tights and you’ll see what a normal guy I am.’
‘I still would have liked to see a real dragon though,’ sighed Ellen.
‘Tell you what,’ suggested Jake, ‘there’s a kite making course at the Craft Centre on Saturday mornings starting in a few weeks time. If you come along to it I’ll help you make the best dragon kite you’ve ever seen.’
‘That will be awesome,’ grinned Ellen.
And it was.
Spelling Lesson
‘Ms Borage is so mean,’ sighed Holly, as she walked to the school gate. ‘I thought we would have two whole weeks holiday without even having to think about school, but then she goes and gives us this project.’
‘Mm,’ agreed Caitlin sympathetically. ‘It’s a really tough one, too. Animate an Inanimate Object. What a mouthful. She could have just said bring something to life.’
‘We have to write about it as well,’ Holly reminded her.
‘I know. Perhaps we could keep a diary, like, Day one; nothing happened, Day two; even less happened, Day three; we died of boredom.’
Holly giggled. ‘It’s all right for you, you’re good at magic. My last report said that my ‘Spelling needed improvement,’ and Mum’s been nagging me about my homework ever since. She keeps wanting to help me but then things end up in even more of a mess.’
Caitlin grinned at her. ‘I’ll help you if you like,’ she offered. ‘If we both look at it together then maybe we can come up with a spell that works.’
‘That would be great,’ beamed Holly in relief. ‘What shall we use for our inanimate objects?’
Caitlin thought for a moment. ‘Oh, my brain is completely worn out with school. Why don’t I come round to your place tomorrow and we’ll find something then? Quick, here’s the first broom.’
Miss Sedgely glided to a stop by the gate and the girls rushed to climb onto the broomstick.
‘Stop pushing, girls,’ said Miss Sedgely with a frown. ‘Only thirteen at a time and please sit up straight.’
‘Yes Miss Sedgely,’ chorused the fortunate girls who had been at the front of the queue. Caitlin and Holly hopped on and waved to their friends as the broom glided up into the air in the direction of the town.
The next morning Caitlin walked down the street to Holly’s house. This was the most colourful house in the street. The small front garden was cluttered with a variety of concrete animals and gnomes. A group of stone fairies clustered around a small wooden wishing well, and brightly coloured windchimes clanged and tinkled from every bush and tree. Carefully dodging a madly spinning star, and ducking under a large black cat weathervane on a post, Caitlin stepped onto the front porch. A row of dreamcatchers hung from the roof alongside several mobiles of stained glass unicorns.
‘I saw you coming,’ called Holly, as she opened the door.
Caitlin stared in fascination at a large angel painted on the wall beside the door.
‘That’s new,’ she said.
‘Yeah. Mum had a friend of hers do it last week. She’s mad on anything to do with magic. That’s why she sent me to The Rowans. I keep telling her that magic lessons are just like Home Ec. and all we do is follow recipes to make stuff, but she doesn’t believe me. She still thinks it’s mysterious and fantastic and that one day I’ll grow wings and fly around.’
Caitlin snorted with laughter at the thought of plump freckle-faced Holly flitting around the garden on large shimmering wings.
‘My parents simply want me to get a good job at the end of it all,’ she said. ‘Like a Weather Controller or a Fortuneteller. But I’d still rather be at The Rowan’s than at St Josephine's.’
‘Me too,’ agreed Holly fervently. ‘Now, what are we going to do about this project? We might as well get it over with so we can start enjoying our holiday.’
‘Okay,’ sighed Caitlin, flopping onto a garden seat decorated with toadstools and pixies. ‘I’ve been thinking about it and I reckon the reason Ms Borage didn’t give us the spell was because all we have to do is combine a few of the ones we already know.’
‘I’d never have thought of that,’ said Holly in admiration. ‘I’d have used all the ingredients I could find and it would have been a total disaster.’
‘Remember what Ms Borage always says? Keep the spells simple. I think we should try combining the one we use for raising bread with the one we use for lighting fires.’
‘Sounds like a recipe for burnt toast,’ laughed Holly.
‘I know but it might just work. Making bread rise works by making the yeast grow, and making fire is bringing a flame to life.’
‘It’s worth a go but we’d better try it on something that won’t matter if it gets burnt.’ Holly looked around her. ‘Let’s use this, I’ve never liked it,’ she offered, pulling a small concrete gnome closer to Caitlin’s feet. The gnome was clothed in a bright red coat and blue trousers and held a wooden fishing rod over a small pond. A red pointed cap sat firmly on its bald head, and a flowing white beard stretched halfway down its fat little belly. Its wrinkled face had bright red cheeks and it smoked a stubby clay pipe at one corner of its mouth.
Caitlin smothered a giggle. ‘Your Mum will be pleased if it works. That way she can have a real live gnome in her garden. They are supposed to be lucky.’
‘What about you?’
‘Oh, anything will do. It probably won’t work anyway so I’ll try it on this stone here.’ Caitlin prodded a smooth round stone with her foot. ‘As long as we write down what we’ve tried it won’t matter if it doesn’t actually work.’
‘What do we need?’
‘A stick for stirring and a candle.’
‘Easy,’ said Holly confidently. ‘Give me a couple of minutes and I’ll get them.’
She dashed into the house, setting a wind chime of moon and stars jingling madly as she brushed against them. She returned with a fat pink candle, while behind her followed Mrs Beggs carrying a long glittery wand with a star at the end.
‘I thought I’d come and watch,’ she explained, with a sideways glance at her daughter who was sighing loudly in exasperation.
Caitlin raised an eyebrow as she took the wand.
‘I told Mum it was for a spell so she found the wand,’ Holly muttered with a blush. ‘I keep telling her proper magic doesn’t need stuff like that but she insisted.’
‘It’s okay,’ Caitlin reassured her. ‘Anything will do.’
She took a small bag of powder from her pocket.
‘What’s that?’ asked Mrs Beggs eagerly. ‘What does it do?’
‘This is Ms Borage’s Magic Mixture Number Three. It’s used to enhance spells and make them stronger. It’s really useful, especially if you get the words a bit wrong, as it will over-ride them. We’ll try a couple of pinches to begin with.’
Holly sprinkled the powder on the hat of the garden gnome.
‘Please let me help,’ begged her mother.
Holly scowled and handed the packet across.
‘Put a pinch on that stone there,’ she directed.
Mrs Beggs shook a generous pile of powder into her hand.
‘Not so much,’ cried Holly in anguish. ‘And be careful of the wind.’
She was too late. As her mother placed a pile of power on the top of the round stone, a sudden gust of wind whirled around. It blew the remaining powder out of her hand and whisked it across the garden.
‘Oh,’ cried Mrs Beggs in surprise.
‘Look out,’ yelled Caitlin, as the packet of remaining powder spilled over the path at her feet.
‘Sorry, dear,’ said Mrs Beggs nervously. ‘It won’t hurt the spell will it?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Caitlin replied, feeling a little dismayed at the sight of the empty packet.
‘Bother,’ said Holly. ‘You’ve really messed that up, Mum. Sorry, Caitlin. I’ll give you some of mine to make up for it.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Caitlin said quickly. ‘I’ve got a whole jar of it at home. I’d better chant the words quickly.’
‘Now do be quiet, Mum,’ Holly said crossly. ‘We don’t want anything else to go wrong.’
Mrs Beggs looked annoyed but before she could say anything, Caitlin held up her hand for silence. They watched as Caitlin stirred the wand in circles in the air and chanted aloud.
‘Stir and quicken by my hand
Staff of life rise up to stand
Glowing heart of warmth and light
Blossom into spirit bright.
Salamander Sol.’
As she said the last two words, Caitlin rapped the wand on the gnome and then the stone. Holly and her mother looked at them expectantly but they sat unmoving.
The Dragon Kepeer and Other Stories Page 4