A Matter-of-Fact Magic Book Read online

  Laura nodded her head. “I had a hunch you’d like wet coffee grounds.”

  “Isn’t your witch good for anything?” Jane asked. “Of course, I guess it’s fun to have a witch hanging upside down like a bat in your closet. And it must be interesting to figure out what to feed her. What did she eat for breakfast?”

  “Burnt toast and eggshells,” Laura told her.

  The two girls were sitting on Laura’s front stoop. Mr. and Mrs. Allen had gone to work. Laura wanted to tell Jane all about Sally before she took her into the house to meet the witch.

  “Maybe she can cast spells that will do the housework,” Jane suggested.

  “She’s pretty absent-minded,” Laura said. “I think she’d make a mess of any spell she tried.”

  Jane thought about this. “Maybe you’re right. Instead of making themselves, the beds might disappear.”

  “That reminds me,” Laura said. “I haven’t made the beds yet.” She got up and opened the front door. “Come on in, Jane.”

  They found the witch in the bathroom. She had turned the shower-head to point straight up and was sitting on the ceiling taking a shower. Her clothes were folded in a corner of the ceiling. They didn’t seem to have anything holding them up.

  When Laura and Jane came into the room, Sally stood on tiptoe to turn off the water. “Would you hand me a towel, dear,” she said to Laura.

  Laura went to get a towel from the linen closet down the hall. She held it up to the witch. Sally reached out of the shower door to take the towel. She wrapped herself in it and stepped out of the shower stall.

  “This is my friend Jane,” Laura said.

  Jane looked up at the dripping witch. “How do you do?”

  “Fine, thank you,” the witch replied. “Could you just hand me that bath mat, please. And now, if you’ll excuse me a moment, I’d like to get dressed.”

  Laura picked up the pink bath mat from the floor and gave it to the witch. Then she and Jane went to make the beds. They peeped into the closet in Laura’s room. Sally had folded the quilt and put it on the shelf above the clothes pole.

  “I always thought witches were dirty,” Jane said.

  Laura fluffed her pillow and put the spread on her bed. “I’m not sure her taking showers upside down is good for the bathroom ceiling.”

  “Maybe you could persuade her to wash with a damp washcloth,” Jane said.

  “That’s a good idea,” they heard the witch say. “I’m sorry I didn’t think of it.” Sally was climbing over the wall above the doorway. She walked across the ceiling and looked out of the tall bay windows. “It’s a lovely day. I wish I could go out. If I could gather a few things in your garden I might be able to mix up a brew.”

  “What would you cook it on?” Jane asked. “You’d burn the house down if you made a fire on the ceiling.”

  Sally wrinkled her forehead. “I forgot about that,” she said. Then she smiled. “I know a recipe for cold brew. We could try that.”

  Jane thought for a minute. “Maybe Laura and I could get the things for you to use in the brew,” she said.

  Laura went to get her father’s field glasses. She handed them to the witch. “Look through these and see if you can find what you need in the garden.”

  Sally held the glasses to her eyes. She looked out of the window. “Aphids,” she said. “Not good enough. Rose thorns. Better.” She began to get excited. “There’s a slug! Now, if I had a teensy bit of poison ivy—”

  Laura interrupted her. “Sally, don’t you know any spells you can do by rubbing a lamp or waving a wand?”

  Witch Sally put the field glasses on top of the window frame. She took off her tall black hat and scratched her head. “I know one I can do with an umbrella,” she said. “But I’ve forgotten just what it does.”

  Laura ran downstairs. She found her father’s big black umbrella hanging on a hook in the hall closet. She carried it upstairs and handed it to the witch.

  Sally waved the umbrella three times around her head and said something like “crocodile tears.” Then she opened the umbrella.

  There was a flash of lightning and a loud crash of thunder. The whole house seemed to shake. Outside the sky grew dark. The rain began to pour down.

  “Oh,” Sally said, “that’s what it does.”

  “Turn it off,” Jane said.

  “I’ve forgotten how,” the witch told her.

  “Well, anyway, now we can’t gather slugs in the garden.” Laura closed the window. “We’ll have to think of some rainy-day magic instead.”

  “I’d better shut the windows downstairs.” Laura ran out of the room.

  Jane picked up the umbrella and closed it. Instantly the rain stopped. A gust of wind blew the clouds away. The next moment the room was filled with sunshine. Jane stared at the umbrella. “That’s quite a trick,” she said. “Will it work with any umbrella?”

  “Not with the kind with springs in them or made of plastic,” the witch told her. Sally was once more looking out of the window with the field glasses. “Ah,” she said, “caterpillars!”

  Jane decided to take the umbrella downstairs. She met Laura in the front hall. “Your witch wants caterpillars now,” Jane said.

  “Ick!” Laura took the umbrella. “That was a short storm.”

  “It stopped as soon as I closed the umbrella,” Jane said.

  “I’d rather have a spell that stopped rain when you wanted to go to the beach or something.” Laura hung the umbrella back on the hook in the hall closet. “Come on back upstairs, Jane. I’d better straighten up the bathroom.”

  The ceiling over the shower stall was still wet. The bath mat was stuck to the ceiling. Laura went to ask the witch to take it off.

  Sally was looking through the field glasses. She put them down when Laura came into the room. “Do you have a pencil and paper, dear? I’ll make a list of what I need. If you can’t find a toad, a frog or even a tadpole might do.”

  “I’ll get you a pencil later, Sally,” Laura said. “Right now could you take the mat off the bathroom ceiling?”

  “You don’t understand, dear,” the witch said. “If I don’t write the list now I’ll forget part of it. Now, what was it I said I needed?”

  Laura found an old school notebook on top of her desk. She tore out a page and gave it to the witch with a pencil stub. Then she left the room.

  There was an aluminum stepladder in the basement. Laura went to get it. Her mother and father would be sure to ask why the bath mat was on the ceiling. Laura didn’t want to forget the bath mat any more than the witch wanted to forget her list.

  Laura put the ladder in the stall shower. Jane held it steady while Laura climbed up and dried the ceiling with a towel. Together the girls moved the stepladder under the bath mat. This time Laura held the ladder and Jane climbed up.

  Jane pulled at the bath mat. It fell halfway to the floor. Then it stopped and floated in the air. Jane poked it with her finger. She yanked at one corner. The pink bath mat wobbled a little, but it stayed where it was.

  “Laura,” Jane whispered, “your nutty witch has done something to it. I can’t get it down.”

  Laura was staring up at the mat. “From here it looks just like a flying carpet,” she said.

  “It does from here too,” Jane agreed. She kept hold of the stepladder with one hand and slid over so that she was sitting on the bath mat.

  Laura watched her. “Aren’t you afraid you’ll fall off, Jane?”

  “It feels steady,” Jane said. “Now, if we could just figure out how to work it—”

  “You mean you want to fly on it?” Laura asked.

  “Of course. Don’t you?” Jane let go of the ladder. She sat cross-legged on the bath mat. “If we sit close together there’s room for both of us.”

  “In the stories you just have to talk to flying carpets,” Laura said.

  “OK,” Jane said. “Here goes. Bath mat, please fly down to the floor.”

  The bath mat gave a little shake.
Jane held tight to the edges. Then the mat floated down to the bathroom floor. Jane stood up and stepped off. She closed the bathroom door. “Laura,” she whispered, “why do you think the witch did this?”

  “I don’t know,” Laura said, “but the way that mat was in mid-air she could sit on it upside down.”

  “She could fly out of the window at night and back without your knowing,” Jane said. “I don’t trust her. After all, she is a witch. Laura, you don’t have to tell her we know the bath mat is enchanted. After all, it isn’t her mat. It’s yours.”

  Laura folded the bath mat and went to hide it in the linen closet.

  Sally was still sitting on the ceiling by the window. She was sucking the end of the pencil stub. When Laura and Jane came into the room she held out the sheet of paper. “I made a list of things to use in a simple cold brew. Do you think you could get these?”

  Laura took the paper and read aloud:

  1 live frog, toad, or 3 good-sized tadpoles

  ½ tablespoonful of ground glass

  1 cup of swamp water

  1 jellyfish

  1 sprig fresh poison ivy

  “Are you sure you need all this stuff, Sally?”

  “Let me see the list,” Jane said.

  Laura handed it to her.

  “One sprig fresh poison ivy,” Jane read. “Sally,” she said, “I can’t go near poison ivy!” She gave the list back to Laura. Laura folded it and stuffed it into the pocket of her jeans.

  The witch stroked her chin and thought hard. “We could use wolfsbane instead of poison ivy,” she said. “Now, what was it you wanted me to do for you before I wrote the list?”

  “Nothing,” Laura told her. “What are you going to use the brew for, Sally?”

  “I’m tired of being upside down,” the old woman said. “Maybe the brew will cure me.”

  “Couldn’t you do other magic with it too?” Jane asked.

  “Of course,” the witch said. “I used to be a whizz at granting wishes.”

  “Meow.” The yellow cat walked into the room. He tipped his head to look at the witch and let out a yowl.

  “I’m sorry I can’t take you swinging,” Sally told him.

  Laura had an idea. “Charlie, do you know where there’s any wolfsbane?”

  The cat purred.

  “He says it’s all over the place,” Sally told the girls. “Why don’t you take the cat along with you and let him point it out?”

  “Come on, Charlie,” Jane said. “I’ll take you swinging.” She picked up the cat and went downstairs and out into the yard.

  Laura was left alone with the witch. “Are you sure you won’t mind being by yourself while Jane and I go to collect the things for your brew?”

  “No, no, dear,” Sally said. “I’ll be all right as long as I have a good book.”

  Laura handed her a book of magic tricks. It seemed like something a witch would like. She had taken it out of the library two days before. “There’s a good one about putting an egg into a bottle,” she said.

  The old woman lay on her stomach near the window to read. Laura went to join Jane.

  Jane and Charlie were both swinging when Laura walked out into the backyard. Jane sat on the bottom swing. Charlie was on the one over her head.

  “Keep your tail out of my eyes, cat,” Jane said. “Laura, this cat isn’t too bright. I’m not sure I want him along when we go looking for tadpoles.”

  “How will we find the wolfsbane without him?” Laura wanted to know. “We’ll have to get started if we’re going to get all this stuff.”

  “I’d better tell Mom I won’t be home for a while,” Jane said. “Where shall I say we’re going?”

  “The Botanic Garden,” Laura told her. “That seems like the place to look for wolfsbane.”

  “They have a NO DOGS sign on the gate there. But it doesn’t say anything about cats.” Jane stopped swinging. Charlie stayed on his seat and yowled.

  “Stop fussing, Charlie,” Laura whispered to the cat. “If you like flying, you’re going to have fun.”

  While Jane ran home to talk to her mother, Laura went quietly upstairs to get the bath mat. She took it out of the linen closet and rolled it up. When Jane came back, Laura was waiting on the front steps with the mat under one arm and the cat under the other.

  Jane was carrying a big shopping bag.

  “What do you have in there?” Laura asked.

  “Plastic bags and peanut butter jars,” Jane said. “We have to have something to bring the stuff home in. Oh, and Mom gave me some sandwiches. She’s going shopping. She thought it would be a good idea if I ate lunch out.”

  “There’s a NO PICNICKING sign in the Botanic Garden,” Laura said.

  “Prospect Park is right across the street from there,” Jane reminded her. “We’ll get the wolfsbane first and then eat in the park.”

  Laura unrolled the pink bath mat on the stoop. She sat down cross-legged on it and held the cat in her lap. Jane sat down with her back against Laura’s. There was just enough room for the two of them.

  “Bath mat,” Laura said, “please take us to the Botanic Garden.”

  The bath mat began to feel stiff under her. Laura held her breath. She could feel her heart pounding. She kept a tight hold on Charlie with one hand and grabbed the side of the mat with the other.

  Jane held the handles of the shopping bag in her teeth. She clung to the sides of the bath mat with both hands.

  The mat slid off the front stoop of Laura’s house. It began to rise straight up in the air like an elevator. Higher and higher it went until it could skim over the roof of the tallest apartment building. Two old men on the corner of the street didn’t notice a thing. They went right on talking to each other.

  At first Jane and Laura were too scared to look down. But the bath mat was so steady that Laura finally stretched her neck and peeped over the edge. “We’re flying right over our school.”

  Jane took the shopping bag handles out of her mouth. “Too bad school is closed for the summer. It would be great to have Mrs. Sanders look up and see us flying overhead.”

  “If school were open, we’d be in it,” Laura said.

  Charlie sat quite still in Laura’s lap. His eyes got bigger and bigger.

  The bath mat didn’t seem to be going fast, but in almost no time they were over the park. Then they sailed above Flatbush Avenue. Now they were going straight down. The mat landed on a grassy slope in the Botanic Garden. People were walking along a winding path. They were busy looking at the flowers and never saw the two girls and the yellow cat drop out of the sky.

  Laura and Jane stood up and stepped onto the grass. Laura put Charlie on the ground and rolled up the bath mat.

  “Oh, look,” Jane said. “There’s a rabbit. I didn’t know there were any here.”

  Charlie saw the rabbit too. He streaked across the grass after it. The next minute he was playing hide-and-seek in a bed of pansies. The little rabbit stood still and tried to pretend he was a lump of dirt. The cat knew better. He was about to pounce.

  “Oh, the poor little rabbit,” Jane said.

  Suddenly Laura had an idea. She unrolled the bath mat. “Mat,” she said, “bring me my cat.”

  This time the bath mat didn’t make itself stiff. It flew across the grass and flopped down over the yellow cat. Then it folded itself around the cat and sailed back to Laura. She held out her arms. The bath mat snuggled into them.

  Laura unfolded one corner of the mat and looked into Charlie’s surprised face. “If you don’t get busy and find us some wolfsbane, I’ll take you home.”

  Charlie yawned.

  This time someone had noticed the bath mat. A man who was raking a flower bed walked over to the two girls. Laura covered Charlie’s face with the bath mat.

  “Don’t you know better than to throw things into the pansies?” the man said to Laura. “Two of the plants are crushed. I’ll have to ask you to leave the garden.” He made the girls go with him to the near
est gate. And he watched while they walked through the turnstile.

  Laura kept the cat hidden in the bath mat. Charlie stayed quiet. They were walking along Flatbush Avenue.

  “If I didn’t know Charlie I’d think he was sorry for what he did,” Laura said. “What do we do now?”

  “Go back into the garden by a different gate,” Jane said.

  The girls walked around the corner. There was another entrance to the garden near the parking lot of the Brooklyn Museum. They went in that one.

  The garden was full of squirrels. Laura was sure Charlie would chase them. He couldn’t help it. And now they had to make sure that the man who made them leave the garden didn’t see them.

  It was some time before Laura unwrapped the cat and put him on the ground again. Charlie trotted along the walks, sniffing the plants. He started to chew one.

  “Catnip!” Laura said. “Get him away from that. He’ll go crazy.” She snatched the cat up in her arms and carried him until he’d forgotten the catnip. Then she put him down again.

  “I’m getting hungry,” Jane said. “And I don’t think that cat is ever going to find any wolfsbane.”

  “Meow!” Charlie ran over to a tall plant with yellow flowers.

  “Wolfsbane, Charlie?” Laura asked.

  “Meow.” Charlie curled his tail around the stem of the plant.

  Jane looked to be sure no one was watching. Then she broke off a little sprig of the flowers. She carefully put it into one of the plastic bags she had in her shopping bag. “Now, let’s go eat lunch.”

  Laura bit into a sandwich. “Tuna fish!” She gave Charlie some of hers. He tried to catch a squirrel while the girls finished their lunch. Mrs. Gilbert had packed two peaches in with the sandwiches. Jane and Laura each took a long drink of water from the drinking fountain in the park.