A Matter-of-Fact Magic Book Page 4

  She took the jar out into the yard and set it on the ground. Then she unscrewed the lid and took it off. The little frog hopped out of the jar. He looked around for the lake. When he didn’t see it, he turned and hopped back into the jar.

  “Meow.” Charlie had been sitting under the overhang of the bay windows to keep out of the rain. He came running to see what was in the jar.

  Laura picked up the jar and screwed the lid back on. She took it back into the house.

  Now Laura began to wonder what to feed the frog. There was a package of hamburger in the refrigerator. Her mother was going to use it for a meat loaf. Laura dropped a crumb of hamburger into the jar with the frog. The frog snapped it up and looked around for more.

  The doorbell rang. It was Jane. “Check your list, Laura. What else do we need for the brew?” she said. “I’m tired of that witch. Let’s turn her right side up and get rid of her.”

  Laura took the list out of the pocket of her jeans. It was torn and crumpled by now. And the pencil writing was blurred. “We still have to get a jellyfish,” she said. “But I don’t want to make the brew.” Laura told Jane how she tried to let the frog go. “I’m going to walk over to the cemetery tomorrow and turn him loose there,” she finished.

  “Why not use Pinky?” Jane asked.

  “He’s dripping wet,” Laura said. “I don’t think we should ride on him till he’s dry.”

  “That means we can’t go hunting jellyfish for a while either,” Jane said. “It would be fun to go to the beach. Let’s ask Pinky if he’d mind going in the clothes dryer. After all, your mother must have washed and dried him before.”

  The two girls went upstairs to the bathroom. “Pinky,” Jane said, “would it hurt you to go in the clothes dryer?”

  Pinky flipped one corner.

  “That settles it,” Laura said. “We’ll just have to wait.”

  “Wait for what, dear?” Sally poked her head over the wall above the bathroom door.

  “Jane wants to go to the beach to find a jellyfish,” Laura told the witch. “But Pinky is too wet to fly.”

  “I wish I could remember what I did with my broom,” Sally said. “It never minded being wet.”

  Laura wanted to hide the frog before her mother and father came home. She put the jar in her dresser drawer and left the drawer open a crack to give the frog air.

  After supper she made a mixture of potato peelings, onion skins, and prune pits. She took it upstairs to the witch. Sally was standing on tiptoe on the ceiling over the dresser. She was croaking.

  An answering croak came from the drawer. The frog was talking to the witch.

  When Laura came into the room, Sally said to her, “I’m trying to explain to Tom what he has to do when we mix the brew.”

  “You mean he has to do something? And nothing will be done to him?” Laura said.

  “This is a cold brew,” the witch reminded her. “They’re hard to do. This one calls for a live frog. It would help if he were a clever frog. I picked Tom because he looked smart.” She made a few more croaks and then looked to see what Laura had brought her for supper. “Lovely,” she said as she crunched a prune pit.

  Laura was happy. Nothing terrible was going to happen to the frog after all. “I want to take Tom back home after we make the brew,” she told Sally.

  Sally was nibbling an onion skin. “Be sure to put him back in the same lake,” she said. “There are five lakes in that graveyard. Laura, do you by any chance have any of those little brown things?”

  Laura went back to the kitchen to get some wet coffee grounds.

  The next day was Saturday. Mr. and Mrs. Allen cleaned the house. Laura had to help. Pinky was still not dry. Laura was afraid her mother would put him in the dryer with the rest of the laundry. She took the bath mat out of the shower and folded him over a hanger in her closet.

  Jane came to see Laura for a little while in the afternoon. “We’re going to visit Granny tomorrow,” she said. “I won’t see you until Monday.”

  Laura told her about Tom.

  Jane nodded. “I guess your witch isn’t bad after all,” she said.

  On Monday Jane brought her bathing suit over to Laura’s house. She went to put it on in the bathroom. “I told Mom we were going for another picnic,” she said. “We could go to Coney Island, if only we didn’t have to take Sally. People are sure to notice her flying around on the bottom of a bath mat.”

  “We could let her sit on the underside of the boardwalk,” Laura said.

  The witch looked through the doorway of the bathroom. “I didn’t mean to listen,” she said, “but I heard what you said, Jane. I know how you feel. Even right side up I have trouble in Coney Island. I don’t mind if you go without me.” Sally walked back down the ceiling of the hall to Laura’s room. A minute later the girls heard her croaking to the frog.

  It was easy to pack lunch when they didn’t have to worry about what to feed the witch. Laura didn’t want her to be hungry while they were away. She brought the kitchen garbage can upstairs and climbed on a chair to put it on the closet shelf where Sally could reach it. “Just in case you want a snack,” she said.

  Laura slipped out of her blue jeans and polo shirt. She put on her bathing suit. Then she took the bath mat out of the closet and into the backyard.

  The yellow cat wanted to go along. He jumped into the middle of the mat and wouldn’t get off. “Dogs aren’t supposed to be on the beach,” Jane told him. “But they always are.”

  “You know you don’t care for swimming, Charlie,” Laura reminded him.

  The cat wouldn’t listen. At last Laura lured him into the kitchen with a piece of chicken liver. While the cat was eating, she went back into the yard and shut the door behind her.

  Laura sat down beside Jane on the mat. “Please take us to Coney Island, Pinky,” she said.

  It was a beautiful day. Pinky flew high over the streets and houses of Brooklyn. The girls could see the ocean long before they came to Coney Island.

  As they flew nearer they looked down at the beach umbrellas and the tall thrones of the lifeguards. On Monday morning the beach was less crowded than usual. Pinky dropped onto a patch of sand in the shadow of the boardwalk. An old man was sitting on a bench at the edge of the boardwalk. He peered down at them and rubbed his eyes.

  Jane and Laura stood up and stepped off the mat. Laura picked it up. Jane carried the paper bag of lunch. The girls ran across the sand.

  They left the mat and the paper bag on the beach near where a fat lady was roasting herself in the sun. “I’ll keep an eye on your things, children,” the lady promised. She put a piece of Kleenex on her nose and rubbed suntan oil on the rest of herself.

  Laura and Jane waded into the surf. The wet sand squished between their toes. When the waves splashed them, the girls jumped into the water. Now they were wet all over. Their eyelashes and mouths were salty. It was a wonderful feeling.

  Although both Jane and Laura knew how to swim, the rough waves kept knocking them back onto the beach. After a while they walked along the edge of the water. There were shells of all shapes and sizes, trailing pieces of seaweed, bits of broken plastic toys, and twisted sticks of driftwood. But they didn’t see any jellyfish.

  “We can look after lunch,” Jane said.

  The fat lady had fallen asleep. The paper bag was on the sand where they had left it. Someone had opened it to look inside. The sandwiches were still there.

  But the bath mat was gone!

  Laura looked at Jane. “What do we do now?”

  “I don’t know,” Jane said. “We don’t have any money for subway fare. And we aren’t even wearing shoes. It won’t be much fun walking all the way home, even if we can do it.”

  “I’m worried about Pinky,” Laura said. “The person who took him doesn’t know he’s magic. He’ll get thrown into a washing machine and drown.” Laura felt like crying. She stooped over and picked up the bag of lunch.

  Jane shaded her eyes from the sun with he
r hand. She turned and looked all around. “Laura, look!” She pointed far down the beach.

  Two big boys were strolling along, eating hot dogs. One of them carried something pink. Jane and Laura ran after them.

  By the time they caught up with the boys, both girls were out of breath. The boys had finished their hot dogs. The tallest boy had the pink thing across his shoulders now to keep off the sun.

  “It looks an awful lot like Pinky,” Laura whispered.

  “There’s one way to be sure,” Jane told her. “Pinky,” she called, “is it you?”

  The mat waved one corner wildly.

  Laura stepped in front of the boy. “That’s my bath mat,” she said. “Give it back.”

  The boy stopped walking. He looked down at her. “What are you talking about?”

  “That bath mat you’ve got across your shoulders. It’s mine.” Laura held out her hand.

  “It’s my towel, kid. Beat it!” The boy tossed the mat to his friend. Before the other boy could catch it, Jane yelled, “Pinky, come here!”

  The bath mat zoomed straight up in the air and then circled over to Jane. Laura dodged under the arm of the big boy and tore down the beach. “Come on, Pinky.”

  The girls raced along with the bath mat following them.

  “Down, Pinky,” Jane cried.

  The mat came to rest on the sand. Laura and Jane ran to sit on it.

  “Take us home, please,” Laura said.

  The bath mat rose in the air.

  Jane hung her legs over the edge. “Hand me a sandwich, Laura,” she said. “I’m hungry.”

  “The best time to find jellyfish is at night.” Sally sat on the ceiling of Laura’s closet. The bath mat rested on the shelf below her. The witch was watching Laura and Jane clean up the closet floor. The garbage can had fallen off the shelf.

  Laura dumped an apple core out of her bedroom slipper. “Maybe we can go looking for jellyfish when Mother and Daddy are asleep,” she said. “But I don’t think there are any at Coney Island.”

  Jane handed Laura a dustpan and brush. “Better sweep up those coffee grounds.”

  The witch clucked her tongue. “Such a waste!”

  “How will we catch the jellyfish?” Laura asked.

  “Just leave it to me, dear,” the witch said.

  Jane wiped the floor of the closet with a damp dustcloth. “I’d better go home now, Laura. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Don’t you want to go jellyfishing?” Sally asked.

  Jane shook her head. “My mom gets up at all hours of the night,” she said. “She’d be sure to look in my room and find I wasn’t there. I can’t sneak out tonight. But whatever you do, don’t work the spell without me.”

  When she went to bed that night, Laura tried hard to stay awake. She heard the clock in the downstairs hall strike eleven. After that she couldn’t remember anything until something brushed against her cheek. She pushed it away. Then she heard the witch’s voice. “Get up, dear. Time to leave.”

  Laura sat up in bed. There was moonlight coming through her open window. The bath mat hovered over her bed. It was Pinky who had wakened her.

  Laura got up and dressed. Pinky flew up to the ceiling so the witch could sit on his underside. Then he dropped down until he was about two feet above Laura’s bed. She climbed from the bed onto the bath mat.

  “Now, Pinky,” Laura said, “let’s see if you can find some jellyfish.”

  The bath mat sailed out of the window into the moonlight. He rose high in the air and flew off toward Coney Island. But before he came to the boardwalk, he turned aside. He flew over an inlet. Laura looked down. She saw boats bobbing on the water below her.

  “It’s Sheepshead Bay,” Laura said.

  There were lights on the boats, but Laura couldn’t see any people. The bath mat flew down until he was skimming just a foot or two above the water.

  “Up a little, Pinky,” the witch said. “I’m getting splashed.”

  The mat flew higher. Sally lay down so her head wouldn’t drag in the water. Laura stared down into the depths. She could see reflections of boat lights. But there were other lights in the water—soft glowing lights that moved. One of the lights rose to the surface. Laura saw that it was like a beautiful little blue parachute. Long shining streamers trailed behind it. Suddenly Laura knew what it was—a jellyfish.

  The witch saw it too. She took off her pointed hat. “Down, Pinky!” The bath mat inched closer to the water. Sally scooped up the jellyfish in her hat. At once the hat seemed full of a raging fire. “Just calm down,” the witch said to the jellyfish. “No one’s going to hurt you.”

  Sally held out her hat. “Take it, Laura. It will be easier for you to handle.”

  Laura reached over the edge of the bath mat. She grabbed the hat by the brim and wedged it between her knees. It still looked as if it held a ball of fire.

  Laura remembered that jellyfish sting. She was careful to keep her fingers out of the hat.

  “Back to Laura’s house, Pinky,” the witch ordered.

  The bath mat soared upward. Laura was afraid the water in the hat would spill. “Steady, Pinky, please,” she said.

  The sky was turning pink when the bath mat flew in Laura’s open window. Sally stepped off onto the ceiling. “Don’t spill the seawater, dear,” she said.

  Laura couldn’t put the hat down. It was pointed and would fall over. She looked around her room. There was a new plastic wastebasket in the corner by her desk. Laura poured the jellyfish and the water into the wastebasket. The jellyfish blazed in anger. Laura looked to see if the wastebasket leaked. It didn’t.

  Sally walked into the closet and curled up on the quilt in the corner of the ceiling. “Good night, dear.”

  Laura folded the bath mat and put him on the shelf under the witch. She closed the closet door and dived into bed.

  “Laura! What’s this in your wastebasket?” Mrs. Allen had come into Laura’s room to wake her.

  Laura sat up in bed. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. “Wastebasket?” she said. Then she remembered. “It’s a jellyfish, Mother. That’s seawater in with him. Is he all right?”

  “I suppose so.” Her mother leaned over to look into the wastebasket. “He’s glaring at me with all those little eyes he has. Laura, I never did like jellyfish. I want you to take him back where you got him.”

  Laura hopped out of bed. She pushed her dresser drawer shut. She wasn’t sure how her mother felt about frogs. “I’ll take the jellyfish back where he belongs, Mother,” she said. “I’m just taking care of him for a friend.”

  “Hurry and get dressed,” Mrs. Allen said. “Breakfast is almost ready.” She went back to the kitchen.

  Jane didn’t come over till the dishes were all in the dishwasher and the beds were made. Laura was beginning to worry whether she was coming at all. When the doorbell rang, she ran to answer it. Jane was on the doorstep. Her face and arms seemed to be coated with pink chalk.

  “What’s that stuff?” Laura asked.

  “Calamine lotion. I’ve got poison ivy,” Jane said.

  “But we didn’t go near poison ivy,” Laura said. “We’re using wolfsbane in the brew instead.”

  “There must have been some poison ivy in the park or the cemetery. I itch something awful.” Jane came into the house. “Anyway, let’s get on with the spell. Did you get the jellyfish?”

  Laura took Jane upstairs to look at the jellyfish. Sally was pacing around the ceiling of Laura’s room. She was even more anxious than Jane to get started with the magic.

  Laura shut the door of her room to keep the cat out. She got all the things for the spell ready. The buttercups and the lake water were in the closet. Sally had crunched up a piece of glass. Laura took the peanut butter jar with the frog in it out of her dresser drawer. The jellyfish was swimming angrily around in the wastebasket.

  “Now,” the witch said, “just how did that spell go?”

  “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten,” Jane said.
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  “I had it in mind only yesterday,” Sally told her.

  Tom was hopping up and down in the peanut butter jar. Laura took the lid off. He jumped out and grabbed the buttercups. The buttercup flowers were withered by now. Laura broke the root off. The frog grabbed the root and threw it into the jar of lake water.

  “Are you sure that’s a cupful?” Laura asked.

  “Of course,” Jane said. “Peanut butter jars have measurements marked on them. But you’d better be sure you have the right amount of ground glass.”

  Laura ran downstairs to the kitchen for her mother’s set of measuring spoons. She looked at them. “There’s no half-tablespoon here.”

  “Silly!” Jane said. “One tablespoon is three teaspoons.”

  Laura measured one and a half teaspoons of ground glass. She was about to dump it in the lake water when the witch cried out, “No, no! Make a circle on the floor with it.”

  “I can’t,” Laura said. “I’ll cut my feet. Let me put down a newspaper.” She went to get yesterday’s paper from her parents’ room. When she came back, she spread the newspaper on the floor. Then she sprinkled the ground glass in a circle on the paper.

  “Now shut out all the light,” the witch said.

  Laura and Jane pulled the cords to close the venetian blinds. The room became dusky. The girls hung blankets over the windows. Now it was really dark. The jellyfish thrashed around in the wastebasket. He gave off fiery flashes, and the green glass glittered.

  The frog hopped into the center of the ring of glass. He croaked three times. Then he leaped into the jar of lake water and fished out the buttercup root.

  Tom began to jump high in the air, shaking water off the root onto the witch. She was standing on tiptoe on the ceiling.