Authors: Christine Heppermann
Sadie's Story (3 page)
“S
oup?” The witch held out a teacup from Sadie's old, blue toy tea set.
“No, thanks.” Sadie jiggled the smoothie. “This is pretty filling. Dad made it.”
They were back inside the playhouse, door shut, seated at the little plastic table. Wilson, showing no interest in smoothies or
soup, settled on the baby blanket and began the nap portion of the afternoon.
“Is your father in the potion business, too?”
Sadie laughed. “It's just fruit and yogurt.”
“Ah, that takes me back to Potions 101. We started with fruit and yogurt.”
The witch blew on the contents of her teacup to cool it and took a tentative sip. “I know what's missing!” From somewhere near her feet she produced a worn black bag. She dug around inside it until she pulled out a small glass jar labeled “Oregano.” But when she shook the jar over her cup, only a few dusty green flakes fell out. “Well, that's a pity,” she said, returning the jar to the bag. “I used to just pop over to Ethel's for more. We were always running back and forth to each
other's cottages to borrow things. A pinch of oregano here. A cup of llama drool there.”
“So your neighbor had llama drool?” Sadie asked as she wiped her purple mustache on her arm.
The witch nodded. “Neighbor and best friend. Ethel lived right next door to me.”
“In the forest,” Sadie added.
“In Milwaukee.”
“In a gingerbread cottage?”
“Hardly.” The witch shivered. “Milwaukee gets cold in the winter. Anyway, Ethel had a nice home and a job she loved.”
“Don't all witches love their jobs?” said Sadie. “I would.” She wouldn't mind, say, having the power to make the water in a certain moose-themed lake disappear.
“Being a witch isn't a job, it's a calling. Ethel was a pastry chef.”
“Was?”
“A sad verb, don't you agree?” A fat black ant crawled across the table onto the witch's hand and into the folds of her sleeve, reappearing at her collar. With her finger she made an elevator to gently lower the ant back onto the ground.
“I'm sorry,” Sadie murmured, staring down into her smoothie.
“Oh no, sweetheart, Ethel didn't die. Not as far as I know. But she did leave. Left her cottage. Left her job at Cake Charmer. Left me.”
“Where did she go?”
“Well, it was fall, so I expect she flew south with all the others.”
“And there wasn't enough room for you, so you weren't invited,” Sadie said, her face growing hot with indignation. “I know how that goes.”
“No, no.” The witch flapped her small arms. “She flew. She turned into a bird. A yellow warbler. And not by choice, I'm fairly certain.”
Sadie's heart did a little flip of excitement. Now they were getting somewhere. She leaned forward. “So Ethel was cursed?”
“Careless is more like it. I told her a thousand times, âWear your glasses when you
bake or hex!' But oh no, Ethel knew best. So it was adder's eyelid instead of almond extract. Cactus instead of cardamom. With a recipe, that means customers spitting out their scones. With a spell, it means she's five inches tall and
chip-chip-chip
-ing her head off. That's how I found her. And that's when I saw Onyx, my cat, stalking her.”
Horrified, Sadie looked over at Wilson and pictured tiny, feathered versions of Jess and Maya dangling from his jaws. “What did you do?”
“Well, there was no time for my Whoops-I-Didn't-Mean-to-Do-That Anti-Hex potion,
even if I'd had the gargoyle scales, which I seriously doubt. So I grabbed Onyx and tossed him out. But when I opened the front door, out flew Ethel, too. So there I was, without my two best friends. I haven't seen either of them since.”
“They'll come back,” Sadie said.
“One can only hope.” The witch sighed and leaned over the cauldron, out of which, curiously enough, soap bubbles now floated. “Shall I wash and you dry?”
As Sadie swirled a black dishtowel around inside the clean teacup, she said, “My two best friends left this morning.”
“And you miss them.”
Sadie hesitated. “Sort of. I guess. I mean, yes.”
The witch raised her eyes from the suds. “Which is it?”
“It's just that Jess can be so . . . Jess-like.”
The witch peeled dishwashing gloves from her gnarled hands. She tossed them into the black bag and said, “At least your Jess knows which way she's going. Birds get blown off course. Take a wrong turn at the third cloud from the left. Who can predict where a bird will end up? Especially a stubborn yellow warbler who takes off half-blind without her spectacles. It's all so frustrating!”
Sparks shot from the witch's fingertips.
With a screech, Wilson leaped straight into the air.
The playhouse filled with thick gray smoke.
“W
ow,” said Sadie after her coughing subsided.
The witch flicked the baby blanket at the last of the smoke to shoo it out the window. “Cozy and better than mugwort for protection!” she croaked, beaming at the ducky-covered cloth.
Sadie looked over at Wilson, who was in the corner washing his front paw, trying to recover his dignity. “I guess Onyx left because his feelings were hurt,” she said. Wilson bobbed his head in what was either a nod of agreement or a vigorous attempt to lick the fur on his chest.
“There's really no excuse for how I behaved,” said the witch. “Shouting at him. Banning him from the cottage.” A small puff of gray smoke that must have been hiding near the ceiling floated down and hovered over the witch's head like a thundercloud. She waved her arms in the air to disperse it. Then she said, “I know he can take care of himself, but I wish he'd come back and let me apologize.”
“I bet he will,” Sadie said. “Jess and Maya and I fight sometimes, but then we make up. Friends don't stay mad forever.” As if to prove her point, Wilson padded over and butted his head against the witch's fingers, asking to be petted. A peace offering.
“I do sometimes worry in the middle of the night.” The witch gathered Wilson into her lap. “What if Onyx is cold or hurt? What if Ethel is somewhere with a lot of cats? Like the Catskills.”
“Aren't those just mountains?”
“Nevertheless.”
“Once Wilson was missing for two days. I thought he was gone forever, but he was just locked in a neighbor's garage. He was fine. Except for
knocking over the potting soil. He thought it was kitty litter.”
Stroking Wilson's back all the way down to the tip of his tail, the witch said, “You're right, dear, I should think positively.” But she sounded so droopy and sad that Sadie couldn't stand it for one single second longer. “You know what? We should find Ethel and Onyx.”
“Well, as I told you, I've tried.” Suddenly the witch's face brightened. “But I do have a new idea. Just being around someone like you gives me so much energy!”
Gently she scooted Wilson out of the way, reached into her black bag, and began taking out things. Little pouches of things. Little vials of things. Little boxes of things. Little pinches of things.
Sadie watched with growing delight. “Are all those magical?”
“What in the world isn't magical? Nobody understands electricity. Not really. And look at penicillin. It grows on bread! You think that isn't magical?” She shook one of the baggies. “These are herbs, mostly. Borage for courage. Wolfsbane for invisibility.”
“I've always wanted to be invisible,” said Sadie. Although, she had to admit, sometimes she felt invisible already. Like she could stomp her feet, hold her breath until
she turned magenta, and no one would notice. Okay, Maya might notice. Might say a few comforting big words. Still, that wouldn't stop her from linking arms with Jess and going away.
“Being invisible would help,” the witch mused. “We wouldn't frighten Ethel when she landed. She doesn't know you, and she's shy. The thing is, I can never find the wolfsbane.”
The witch reached deeper into the bag. “But it works. I think. I have an acquaintance named Zelda who's always saying how invisible she is, but it's inevitably after the fact. She's all, âOh, I was so invisible yesterday.' Or, âYou should have not seen me last week.' Here it is!”
“You found the wolfsbane?”
“No, but I found what I was looking for,” the witch said, her arm still buried.
“Oh, good! Is it a book of spells handed down from forever?”
“Not exactly.”
“Is it a wand made from an enchanted tree?”
“No.”
“But it will help us find Ethel and maybe Onyx?”
“Oh yes. Close your eyes and hold out your hands.”
Her palms prickling with anticipation, Sadie did as she was told.
