THERE ARE WITCHES IN THE WOODS
Prologue:
Hello everybody! We lo-oved reading Maggie Smith's five-star picture book "There's a Witch Under the Stairs" with kids from a second grade class, so, well... here's a sequel! Enjoy!
Frances KNEW there was a witch under the stairs. Her family just didn't understand that if she had to go down to the basement, she might never come back. She tried to get rid of that witch by making brew, by bribing her with candy, with flowers, by offering her a new broom, and by disguising herself... nothing she tried would get rid of the witch. But the day Frances faced her fears to rescue Ellie her stuffed elephant, Zach thought he saw a witch leaving through the backyard fence with her bundle of belongings. He was sure he did. There WAS a witch under the stairs, and now Zach knew it, too! He watched until the witch disappeared into the neighborhood trees, then asked his mother if he could play with Josh next door.
CHAPTER ONE:
The wicked witch Millicent packed up and left Frances' house to meet her wicked sisters in the woods. She was indeed the same Millicent who once hexed Sleeping Beauty, and she did indeed have four wicked sisters. "Drat, I'll be hanged if I'll hang around where nobody's scared of me," croaked Millie to Alice, her sister who had just returned from the local high school. They tromped through the autumn leaves of the musty forest. Three other sisters followed, avoiding the trail, grumbling about the new generation of children.
"Children are too smart for their britches," puffed Bess, the last and most obese of the wicked sisters. "
"They just THINK they're smart," cackled Alice, dragging her broom along behind her. "Remember when kiddies would run for their lives if you so much as said "Boo? Well nowadays kids just yell "Boo!" right back in your face! No respect for their elders, that's for sure."
"No respect at all," mumbled one who followed, "no respect at all."
"Worse than that," rasped Millie. "I nearly jumped right out of my skin when that Frances girl came after her stuffed elephant after she dropped it on my head! Scared me silly!"
"It's television that's done it. Television I tell you! Children are ruining themselves by watching too much television!"
"Children aren't as good as they used to be." Millie pinched her nose and ducked under several low branches of an enormous tree. She waded through a growth of underbrush, crouched to enter a secluded thicket deep under a tangle of gnarled branches, and then sat on a large rock. The others joined her, propping their brooms against tree trunks and forming a circle in the remote sheltered glen. "We must develop a plan," she croaked.
"A VISION," added Alice in her high squeaky voice.
"A vision STATEMENT," cackled one of the others, "with BELIEFS and GOALS and..."
"What kind of talk is THAT? demanded Millie. She took off her tall pointed hat, punched out the dents, then tried to shake her matted hair out of her eyes.
"It's PROGRESS," squeaked Alice, who had just come from hanging about the halls of the local high school. "If you don't want to get left behind, then you've just got to get on with the program." Everyone sat in sullen silence. No one could think of anything to say about the formidable prospect of progress.
Finally Millie broke the silence. "Technology! We must get technology," she cackled, rubbing her chin triumphantly.
"Yep, technology, croaked the obese witch agreeably.
"Shussh!" warned Alice. "Listen!" The sisters became still but all they heard was the eerie wind blowing through the tall trees of the forest. They started to whisper again but Alice shushed them to silence. Children's voices could be heard through the forest, faraway voices talking. Alice rubbed her gnarly hands together and smiled, showing her iron teeth. It was Alice who especially enjoyed eating children for dinner. A very traditional practice, but quite unnecessary in Millie's vegetarian view.
Millie placed her hat slowly on her head and stood noiselessly, waiting like a cat ready to pounce on her prey. Her eyes narrowed at Alice as if she could read her thoughts. "No!" She thought back at her, "The children will NOT be for dinner." A plan was beginning to evolve in Millie's head. She hissed, "Children know all about technology. We need those children!"
The witch sisters thought they heard a twig snap and leaves rustle as the children came nearer on the trail. Just outside the thicket they heard a young boy saying, "Hey Zach, let's go back now." Then the talking stopped. There was an occasional cautious swish of leaves as if the boys had suddenly become wary. They were very close.
The witches watched Millie for her signal to move on the children.
Suddenly the boys took off running wildly in the opposite direction.
"Hex! Hex!" yelped Millicent, "After them!" and all the witches snatched up their brooms, mounted, hunched low and swished upward through the trees.
(To be continued...)