Three Witch Tales Page 2

  This was all interesting, but it didn’t answer any of Sandy’s questions. She still wanted to know about the Witch.

  Silas stood up and yawned. “I’ve had a tiring day,” he said. “Do you have somewhere for me to sleep? And please,” he added, “don’t put me among buttons.”

  Suddenly Sandy felt sorry for him. She picked up the little man and carried him down the hall to her bedroom. She put him in the top of the box of Kleenex on her dresser. “How’s that?”

  Silas snuggled down between two sheets of Kleenex. “Don’t wake me early,” he said. “I have a lot of sleep to catch up on.”

  Sandy heard Lisa start to scream. She ran downstairs to warm the milk for the baby.

  In the morning when Mrs. James came to wake Sandy, she saw Silas in the Kleenex box. “What’s this?” She picked him up. “It’s a button. Sandy, wouldn’t this be just right for the snowsuit I knitted for Lisa?”

  Sandy sat up in bed. “Janet Kramer gave it to me yesterday, Mother. It’s an antique and worth a lot. I think I ought to give it back to her.”

  Mrs. James put Silas down on the dresser top. “Janet called for you already this morning. I told her you weren’t awake yet. I wanted you to sleep late after staying up baby-sitting last night.” Mrs. James left the room. She had to feed Lisa her breakfast.

  Sandy jumped out of bed and began to dress as fast as she could. Before she went downstairs she put Silas into the pocket of her jeans. “Good morning,” she whispered.

  “Maybe for you it is,” came a voice from her pocket. “I could have used a bit more sleep.”

  “Take a nap in my pocket,” Sandy suggested.

  After swallowing her orange juice and gobbling a bowl of cereal, Sandy put on an old jacket.

  “Where are you going, Sandy?” her mother asked. She was trying to spoon strained peaches into Lisa’s mouth. Most of the food seemed to land on the baby’s bib or on her chin.

  “I’m going to Janet’s house, Mother,” Sandy said. “I’ll be home for lunch.”

  “All right, Sandy. Have fun.” Mrs. James tried again to get the spoon into the baby’s mouth. Lisa grabbed the spoon with both hands. The peaches splashed onto her mother’s apron.

  Sandy closed the front door behind her. She looked up and down the tree-lined street. There was no sign of the Witch.

  Sandy walked the two blocks to the red brick apartment building where Janet lived. Janet was outside, putting on her roller skates. “I’ll put these away,” she said, “unless you want to go skating, Sandy. I’m sorry I can’t ask you to come into the house. Saturday is Mom’s house-cleaning day. She likes me to stay out of her way.” Janet went into the building and came out a minute later without the skates.

  “Where’s the Witch?” Sandy asked.

  “The Witch?” Janet didn’t understand.

  “The woman who wants the button,” Sandy explained. “I have to tell you what happened last night, Janet. Come on. We’ll go for a walk.”

  “You were using the button to amuse your baby sister,” Janet said. “I wish I had a baby sister. My mother won’t even let me have a kitten. She says she doesn’t have time to take care of one.”

  “Meow!” A little black kitten ran from under a parked car to rub against Janet’s legs. She stooped down and picked it up.

  “Oh, Sandy, did you ever see such a pretty kitten?” Janet held the kitten up for Sandy to see.

  Sandy looked into a pair of wide-set greeny-blue eyes. She had a funny feeling that she had seen those eyes before.

  “Tell me about last night, Sandy.” Janet put the kitten on the sidewalk. The two girls started to walk down the street. Sandy looked back. The kitten was following them.

  Sandy told Janet all about Silas. Janet listened without saying anything.

  “You don’t believe me, do you, Janet?” Sandy said. She took Silas out of her pocket and gave him to Janet.

  Janet looked hard at the button. She turned it over and looked at the loop on the back. “I don’t understand how it can move. There are no joints. It’s just a solid piece of bone.” She rubbed the little man’s stomach.

  “Stop that!” Silas said sharply. Janet was so startled that she dropped him.

  There was a flash of black fur. The kitten pounced upon the button. She grabbed him in her mouth and raced down the street. The two girls chased after.

  The kitten crossed Church Avenue. Luckily the traffic light was green. Sandy and Janet ran across the street.

  By the time they had gone three blocks, Sandy had a stitch in her side. She kept on running. Two blocks farther on she noticed an old house. It was different from the other houses on the street. This one was long and low with a chimney on each side. All the windows were boarded up. It didn’t look as if anyone lived there.

  The kitten ran around to the back of the old house. Sandy and Janet followed. They saw her scramble under a loose board on one of the windows and disappear inside.

  Janet grabbed hold of the board the kitten had gone under. The wood was rotten, and the board came off in Janet’s hand. The board above it was rotten too. Janet pried that one off as well. Now the space was big enough for the two girls to squeeze through.

  “I’ll go in first,” Sandy whispered. She put her finger to her lips. “Try not to make any noise, Janet.”

  “Why?” Janet asked. “All we have to do is catch the kitten. It should be easier to do in a house than outdoors.”

  “I’m not sure I want to catch it,” Sandy said in a low voice. She remembered now where she had seen those greeny-blue eyes.

  “What do you mean?” Janet wanted to know.

  “The kitten is the Witch,” Sandy explained.

  “Oh!” Janet stared at Sandy. “Of course! That’s why she grabbed the button. Maybe we shouldn’t go into the house, Sandy.”

  “We have to rescue Silas.” Sandy bent down and crawled through the window.

  Janet took a deep breath and followed her.

  The girls found themselves in a huge old-fashioned kitchen. One whole wall was a stone fireplace. An enormous iron pot hung by a hook over the fire. Something was bubbling and steaming in the pot. The steam rising from it was soft and pink. As the girls watched, it turned to violet, then blue. Suddenly the pot gave a loud hiss. Bright green steam rose in clouds.

  Sandy and Janet jumped back. They heard footsteps. Sandy got down on her hands and knees and crawled into a low cupboard. Janet came after her.

  The cupboard smelled good. There was a basket of apples back in one corner. Janet left the cupboard door open a crack so that she and Sandy could peek out.

  Someone was singing in a sweet voice. The little gray-haired woman they had met in the button shop came dancing into the room. She was dressed all in black now. Sandy noticed that her little feet were in shoes with big buckles on them. They were a lot like the shoes that Silas wore. The Witch seemed excited. She twirled all around the big kitchen.

  “Stop it, Betsy!” It was Silas’ voice. “You’re up to something. I can tell by the way you’re acting.”

  Now Janet and Sandy saw that the Witch was holding the little button-man in her hand. He was kicking and struggling.

  The Witch walked over to the steaming pot. She looked into it. “Yes, yes, it’s nearly at the right stage.” She hummed for a minute. Then she said, “Now, now, Silas, this will all be over in a moment.”

  The girls watched in horror as the Witch dropped Silas into the pot. There was a bang like a firecracker. The room filled with clouds of black smoke. Sandy and Janet put their hands over their mouths. They could hear the Witch coughing.

  “Oh, dear,” she said. “I wish I could find a better method. How is it going, Silas?”

  “How should I know?” they heard Silas say. “You and your sloppy spells!” His voice seemed very loud.

  The smoke was clearing. Sandy blinked her eyes. She grabbed Janet’s hand and whispered, “Look!”

  Something big and wet was rising out of the huge pot. Now the
girls saw that it was a man. He wore a wide-brimmed hat and knee breeches. It was Silas!

  The Witch clapped her hands. When Silas had climbed out of the pot she danced around and around him. “It worked! It worked!” she sang. “I wasn’t sure it would.”

  “What would you have done if it hadn’t?” Silas snarled.

  “Now, now, Silas. It took me ages to put together that brew. I had to melt some of my nicest buttons into it.”

  “Good of you, dear sister,” Silas said. “But if you hadn’t turned me into a button in the first place, you wouldn’t have had to go to so much trouble to change me back.”

  The Witch put her hand on her brother’s arm. “Let’s have no hard feelings, Silas,” she said. “I did it for your own good. I thought it would teach you a lesson. You were always meddling with my button collection. I meant to change you back to yourself after a week. How was I to know that horrid little boy would find you and put you into his pocket? I followed him around for years trying to get you away from him. And you didn’t help.”

  Silas shook her hand off. He glared at his sister. “I couldn’t be sure what you would do if you got your hands on me. At least the boy kept me safe.” He looked around the kitchen. “A fine state you’ve let the house get into, Betsy. All you ever think of are your precious buttons.”

  The Witch caught sight of the window from which Janet had pulled the two boards. “I must have knocked those boards off when I came in,” she said. “I was rather in a hurry. You’ll find the hammer and the nails where we always kept them, Silas. Make yourself useful.”

  He glared. “After three hundred years as a button, I’m supposed to be useful! I never did like this old house. It can fall apart for all I care.”

  “You know I didn’t have to change you back,” the Witch said. Then she laughed. “Oh, if only you could have seen your face when I held you over the pot! What did you think I was going to do to you?”

  “Nothing I wouldn’t do to you, dear sister,” Silas muttered. He stamped out of the kitchen.

  Witch Betsy hummed to herself for a minute. Then she said, “Oh, dear, I hope he doesn’t find my buttons.” She chased after her brother.

  “Quick!” Sandy whispered. “We’ve got to get out of here before they nail those boards back.”

  Janet crawled first out of the cupboard, and Sandy scrambled after her. The two girls stood up and ran to the window. A moment later they were outside. They tore around the house to the street and ran toward home.

  After they crossed Beverly Road they slowed down. And while they were waiting for the Church Avenue traffic light to change, Sandy pulled two red apples out of the front of her jacket. She grinned. “I swiped these. After all, Witch Betsy swiped our button.”

  Janet looked at Sandy with admiration. “Wow!” she said. “You sure have a lot of nerve.” She took one of the apples and bit into it. “Delicious,” she said.

  Sandy crunched her way through the other apple. It was hard and sweet and tasted better than anything she could remember. When she finished it she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

  The traffic light had changed now. Sandy crossed the street and looked around for Janet. She didn’t see her anywhere.

  Sandy waited for a minute. Then she walked back across Church Avenue to look for her friend. Funny. Where could Janet have gone?

  Sandy had begun to like Janet. This was such a stupid trick. Maybe Janet thought it was funny, but Sandy didn’t. Once again she crossed the busy street and walked slowly home.

  Sandy walked up the front steps of her house and rang the doorbell. Mrs. James opened the door and looked out. Then she frowned and shut the door.

  Sandy didn’t know what to think. Either her mother had gone crazy or she had gone blind. Both these thoughts were scary, but Mrs. James didn’t seem to have even noticed Sandy.

  She decided to ring the bell again. This time she meant to walk into the house before her mother could close the door. If there was something wrong with her mother somebody had to take care of the baby.

  Sandy tried to feel brave. She looked at the push button for the bell and then put her finger on it. But Sandy didn’t press the button. She just stared at it. Now she knew what was wrong. She couldn’t see her finger!

  Sandy looked down at where she knew her jacket was. She couldn’t see it, or her jeans, or her feet. If she couldn’t see herself, her mother couldn’t either. Sandy was invisible!

  What could have happened? Sandy sat down on her front steps and thought for a long time. She tried to remember everything that had taken place that morning. Did the Witch know somehow that Sandy was hiding in her kitchen? In some way she had enchanted her. Was Janet enchanted too?

  Of course Janet was invisible too! She hadn’t hidden from Sandy. Most likely she thought Sandy had hidden from her. Janet must have gone home alone too. But Janet had a key to her front door.

  Sandy stood up and started to walk to the apartment building where Janet lived. It felt strange to pass people she knew and not have them say hello. She saw Jerry Meyer who sat beside her in school. He was always hiding her eraser or turning the pages in her reader so she’d lose her place.

  Sandy grabbed Jerry’s cap and ran down the street. Jerry chased after the cap. Sandy dodged back and forth with it. She put it on the sidewalk and waited.

  When Jerry reached for the cap, Sandy snatched it up. Jerry’s mouth was open. His eyes were popping out. Sandy thought he looked just like a frog. She ran around the corner and hid the cap on a windowsill. Jerry looked everywhere for it. Finally Sandy picked up the cap and set it on Jerry’s head. She pulled it down over his eyes and walked away.

  Sandy went into Janet’s apartment building and rang Janet’s bell. Janet’s mother opened the door. Sandy ducked under Mrs. Kramer’s arm and rushed into the hall of the apartment. She spread her arms wide and walked around all the rooms as if she were an airplane. This way, she told herself, even if she couldn’t see Janet, she’d be sure to bump into her.

  Mrs. Kramer shut the front door and muttered, “They’re rushing Halloween.”

  Sandy found one door that was shut. She opened it quietly and went in, closing the door behind her. She was in a frilly pink and white bedroom with a four-poster bed in the middle. It was just the sort of room Sandy had always longed for.

  She noticed a hollow in the middle of the bed.

  “Janet!” Sandy whispered.

  The bedsprings creaked.

  “Oh, Sandy, is it you? What’s happened?” Janet’s voice said.

  Sandy sat down on the bed. “We’re invisible, Janet. The Witch must have enchanted us.”

  “But how, Sandy? We were all right when we left her house. It wasn’t till we got to Church Avenue that anything happened. I looked around for you, and you were gone.”

  Sandy was quiet for a minute. Then she said, “Janet, do you suppose it could have been those apples I swiped?”

  “Maybe,” Janet said. “The important thing is: What are we going to do about it?”

  Sandy looked around the pretty room. There was a pink telephone on the white and gold table near the bed. “Janet, may I use your phone?” Sandy asked.

  “Of course. Are you going to call Witch Betsy and ask her to take off the enchantment?”

  “No,” Sandy said, “but it’s not a bad idea.” She took the receiver off the hook and dialed her home number.

  Her mother answered the phone.

  “Hello, Mother,” Sandy said. “I’m at Janet’s house. Please may I stay here for lunch?”

  “All right, Sandy,” her mother said, “but don’t be late for supper.”

  Sandy hung up the telephone. She told Janet what had happened when she tried to go home. “At least this way my mother won’t worry when I don’t come home for lunch,” she said. “What about your mother, Janet? Won’t she wonder where you are?”

  Sandy heard the bedsprings creak again. The hollow in the bed became flat. A chair moved back from the desk in the co
rner of the room. The pen on top of the desk flew up into the air and then settled, point down, on the desk top. It started to write on a sheet of paper.

  “I’m writing a note for Mom,” Janet said. “I’ll leave it on the kitchen table. Come on. We’ll get something to eat before we go.”

  “Where are we going?” Sandy asked.

  “To see Witch Betsy, of course,” Janet said. “I’m sure she’ll help us. She doesn’t seem like a bad witch at all. If you want to know, I like her a lot better than that nasty brother of hers.”

  Sandy wanted to be loyal to Silas, but deep inside her she felt that Janet was right.

  The girls tiptoed out of the bedroom and went to the kitchen. Mrs. Kramer was in the living room, vacuuming the rug. She didn’t notice the door of Janet’s room open and then close again.

  Janet put the note she had written on the kitchen table. She took a container of milk out of the refrigerator and filled two glasses. Then she opened a fresh loaf of bread and pulled out four slices. “Hope you like baloney.” She made two sandwiches. Janet handed one sandwich to Sandy and took a bite out of the other.

  The girls sat down at the kitchen table and ate as fast as they could. Suddenly the sound of the vacuum cleaner stopped. They could hear footsteps.

  “Drink up your milk and hide your sandwich,” Janet whispered.

  Sandy stuffed her sandwich into her pocket. As soon as it was inside her clothes it became invisible too. Janet’s mother came into the kitchen just as Sandy was putting her empty glass on the table.

  Mrs. Kramer stared. She walked over to the table and saw Janet’s note.

  Dear Mom,

  I am invisible, but otherwise healthy.

  Don’t worry about me.

  You’ll see me just as soon as I get to be visible again.

  Love,

  Janet

  Mrs. Kramer looked at the two empty milk glasses on the table. “I was sure I saw one of them move,” she said to herself. She read Janet’s note again. She put her hand to her forehead. “I’m tired, and my head hurts. I’d better take a nap.” Mrs. Kramer went to her room to lie down.