Caitlin bitterly.
The broom lurched and wallowed its way down yet another street where a small cluster of boys playing with a ball jeered at the embarrassed girls. It glided to a stop by Caitlin’s house at last and she leapt off quickly while it was still moving.
To her relief there was a jug of cool lemon drink in the fridge and she gulped down two glasses of it gratefully. At the sound of the fridge opening, a large ginger cat padded into the room and stood looking meaningfully at her.
‘Okay, Marmalade. I won’t forget you.’
Caitlin filled the cat bowl with milk, which Marmalade promptly ignored in favour of twining around her ankles.
‘Man, it’s hot!’ Caitlin’s brother Scott strolled into the kitchen and tossed his bag onto the floor. ‘I’m going down to the waterhole as soon as I get changed. I’ll do my homework later when it’s cooler. If I get it done tonight I’ll have the whole weekend free.’
‘Good idea,’ agreed Caitlin, ‘I’ll do mine then as well.’
She and Scott ran down to the river, where an overhanging log made a perfect diving platform into the deep waterhole. Most of the children in the neighbourhood gathered there in the summer to have swimming races and diving competitions or just to splash about in the shallow water by the bank. Some of the families owned canoes or small rowboats and others floated on air mattresses or rafts made from plastic bottles tied together. There was always someone down by the river to play with and Caitlin and Scott spent many happy hours there.
Cool at last, Caitlin walked back to the house where she dragged her books out of her bag and spread them on the table.
‘Maths again,’ she groaned. She found the problems were not as bad as she expected and completed them rapidly. She raced through her English homework – Write a short paragraph on the Principles of Witchcraft – and started on Science.
‘Name five herbs and their uses,’ she read. ‘Oh, that’s easy. You can make tea out of practically all of them and chuck them in food for flavouring. What else? Let me see; healing, soothing the skin – oh that will do! Now there is only Ms Borage’s one. I know she said to choose a spell from Chapter four but I’m not sure if we have to actually try it or just copy it out.’
Caitlin opened the red textbook and discovered with a shock that it wasn’t hers. She checked the name in the front.
Amelia Borage
was printed in neat lettering.
‘Bother,’ wailed Caitlin. ‘I’ve got the wrong book.’
She glanced through the pages and gasped in astonishment. At school she was currently studying basic witchcraft but this was a textbook for far-advanced pupils.
‘How to Summon a Thunderstorm,’ she read. ‘That would be handy when we have to do the cross-country. We could go inside instead. Turning Men to Stone. I don’t think I fancy that. Invisibility. Wow! That would be awesome. Hey, what do you know, it’s in Chapter Four. I wonder…’
Caitlin thought for a minute and a mischievous smile spread across her face.
‘I’ll do the invisibility spell. After all, Ms Borage told us to do a spell from Chapter Four and it’s not my fault I’ve got the wrong book.’ She pushed away the voice inside her that said that it certainly was her own fault and began to read the ingredients.
‘A leaf of a blooming rose, that’s easy. There’s one by the shed. Two drops of pure rainwater, a pinch of sunshine, hmm.’
Caitlin smiled and rummaged in the cupboard for a basin. Half an hour later she had all the ingredients mixed in the bowl and was beginning to wander around the kitchen as Scott came in.
‘What are you making?’
‘An invisibility spell. I’m looking for something to try it out on.’
‘Not me,’ said Scott hastily, backing away. ‘You do wicked stuff at your school, don’t you? It must be fun.’
‘Not really,’ shrugged Caitlin, as she looked in the kitchen cupboard. ‘It’s mostly the same boring stuff we did at my old school before we moved house. The witchcraft is fun but we don’t get to do the exciting stuff until we are Seniors. Then we get to turn guys into frogs. At least that’s what Holly said her sister did.’
‘Gross!’ Her brother shuddered. ‘I can’t think why Mum and Dad let you go there.’
‘I nagged a lot,’ said Caitlin proudly. ‘And it’s miles cheaper than St Josephine’s. I guess Mum and Dad figured it was safe enough. I’m not the evil sort and White Witches are really fashionable at the moment.’
‘It will be handy when you’re older and can do really useful stuff like conjuring up a slave to do all our homework for us,’ grinned Scott. ‘But I guess being a girl you’ll do dopey things like Love Potions instead.’
Caitlin scowled at him. ‘Go away. I’m trying to finish my homework. Oh, Marmalade. No!’
She rushed to the table as the cat was putting a tentative paw into the basin. He leapt in fright as Caitlin reached out to grab him and she knocked over the basin. The mixture cascaded over the cat in the process and dripped onto the floor. Marmalade stood mewing piteously, dripping and miserable.
‘You stupid cat,’ said Caitlin in exasperation. ‘It’s taken me ages to make that. Oh heck!’
She took a sudden step backwards as Marmalade disappeared. It began with the tip of his tail which slowly went transparent then faded from sight. The effect rippled down his body and Caitlin and Scott watched in astonishment as the last whisker vanished.
‘It worked! Wow! That’s fantastic. It take it all back, you really are a great witch,’ beamed Scott.
Caitlin laughed. ‘I’m not supposed to be up to this yet. I wish Marmalade hadn’t used it all up. I wanted to try it on other things.’
‘How will you make him visible again?’
‘I’m not sure.’ Caitlin flipped through the pages then turned to Scott with an aghast look on her face. ‘I can’t. It says to look up Volume 2 for the antidote and I’ve only got Volume 1.’
‘You’ll have to ask your teacher for it at school on Monday,’ Scott suggested helpfully.
‘I don’t dare. She'd kill me. I’ll try and look it up in the library at lunchtime. In the meantime, Marmalade will simply have to stay invisible.’
Having an invisible cat was a very disconcerting experience, as the Ashby family discovered. Mr Ashby arrived home from work and was about to sink into his favourite chair when Caitlin gave a scream. Mr Ashby went pale.
‘What is it? What’s happened?’ he asked.
‘You nearly sat on Marmalade,’ Caitlin said reproachfully. At her father’s bewildered expression she added, ‘my cat, Marmalade. I made him invisible.’
‘For goodness sake!’ Mr Ashby cautiously patted the seat of one of the dining chairs before sitting gingerly down. ‘That cat is a nuisance at the best of times. If he’s invisible he’ll be ten times worse.’
‘He’s not a nuisance. He’s a lovely cat,’ protested Caitlin.
‘Lovely, my foot,’ snorted her father rudely. ‘He’s completely useless. He can’t catch mice and he positively encourages the birds to peck at my garden. All he does is eat and sleep. The day he ever does anything useful I’ll eat my hat.’
Mrs Ashby thought having an invisible cat was highly amusing, and was secretly very proud of Caitlin. Unfortunately, Marmalade rubbed against her legs, purring, while she was lifting a bowl of salad from the bench. Lettuce and tomatoes cascaded over the floor as she yelled in fright. There was a screech of pain as she trod firmly on Marmalade’s invisible tail. Caitlin looked anxiously at her mother who was clasping her chest and making a great effort to stay calm.
‘Where is Marmalade now?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know,’ muttered Caitlin. ‘I can’t see him either.’
They ate their dinner somewhat nervously, being careful where they put their feet and hands. There was no sign of the cat, not even a purring sound, so they finally relaxed. The resulting peace lasted until Scott walked to the fridge to fetch the bowl of strawberries for dessert.
‘Ah! he bel
lowed. ‘My foot!’
‘What is it,’ asked his mother frantically, as Scott hopped around the kitchen swearing.
‘I trod in the cat bowl,’ Scott said bitterly. ‘My foot is soaking and there’s bound to be milk all over the floor only that’s invisible as well.’
‘Some of the mixture dripped off the table. It must have gone into the cat bowl,’ muttered Caitlin guiltily.
‘I’ve a good mind to ring your school and complain about the things they are teaching you,’ Mr Ashby frowned.
‘Don’t do that,’ begged Caitlin. ‘They do horrible things to people who complain.’ She shivered as she thought about the collection of stone statues outside the school office. A number of them bore a strong resemblance to the outraged parents of former pupils.
‘Well it’s not safe, letting little girls turn things invisible,’ grumbled Mr Ashby.
‘It’s not for long, dear, only the weekend. We can put up with it for a few days,’ said his wife soothingly.
The few days stretched into the best part of a week as Caitlin unsuccessfully looked though all the reference books in the school library. Finally she was obliged to confess what she had done to Ms Borage.
‘Ah! You took my book and used it. Well!’ Ms Borage looked fiercely at Caitlin, her long hooked nose quivering slightly. Inwardly she was delighted that her pupil was showing such promise but she was determined not to show it.
‘I’m sorry,’ stammered Caitlin. ‘I thought it would be… I mean I thought you would…I mean I…’ she trailed off.
Ms Borage