The next day was Saturday, and Dolly spent much of the day in Prunella's kitchen preparing the love potion she had promised Francine. In addition, she accompanied Rubella to some of the specialty stores she frequented, in search of whatever necessary ingredients Mrs. Prufrock didn't have on hand. She told no one what she was concocting.

"Double, double, toil and trouble," intoned Dolly as she stirred the boiling mixture in the saucepan with a wooden spoon. "Fire burn and cauldron bubble. Eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog..."

Lured by Dolly's strange incantation, Prunella wandered into the kitchen, clutching an opened history book. "Did you really put a dog's tongue in there?" she asked the witch girl. The fumes from the saucepan carried an indescribable aroma that seemed bitter one moment and sweet the next.

"No, silly," Dolly replied. "It's just a meaningless witch rhyme. I believe Shakespeare borrowed it once."

Having said that, she turned off the element, removed the wooden spoon, and rinsed it in the sink until all traces of the dark brown solution were gone. Then she moved the pan onto another element and placed a lid over it. "Now it needs to cool down for about two hours until it reaches maximum potency," she told Prunella.

"When are you going to tell me what it is?" asked Prunella as she curiously reached toward the covered saucepan, only to receive a mild slap on the wrist from Dolly.

"If you insist on knowing, I'll tell you," said Dolly, who had picked up a pen and a recipe card. "'Tis a potion to cure love." She wrote the words WARNING: DO NOT EAT on the index card, and fastened it to the saucepan lid with a bit of Scotch tape. "If you're in love with a lad, one taste of this will cause you to forget him."

"Who is it for?" Prunella inquired.

Dolly glanced around and made a sad face. "It's for me."

Prunella gasped. "Why?"

"I'm so dreadfully in love with Alan," said Dolly, her voice filled with insincere emotion. "I think of him night and day. But he is of the present time, and I am from the past. Alas, we two can never be."

"That's not true!" exclaimed Prunella with sudden indignation. "What difference does it make if you're from different time periods? Have you told Alan how you feel about him?"

Dolly shook her head gloomily.

"I think you should at least talk to him before you do something you'll regret," Prunella insisted. "Maybe he likes you too. You don't know."

"I dare not," said Dolly, turning away. "'Tis the only way, Prunella."

Crestfallen and speechless, Dolly made her way to the front door of the house, opened it, and stepped through. Once she closed the door after her, she looked back and grinned deviously.

In the kitchen, Prunella wondered why Dolly had chosen to leave so abruptly. Then another thought struck her...

For nearly two years she had pined for the handsome, muscular Binky Barnes, but never once had he returned her affections. The boy was simply too dumb to acknowledge her existence. Not a day had gone by when she hadn't thought of him or longed for him; on more than one occasion she had cried herself to sleep over her unrequited crush. There on the stove, in a saucepan with a crudely written warning label, was a cure for her suffering...

She couldn't lose this chance. Grabbing a spoon and a plastic zipper bag, she pulled the lid from the saucepan, used the spoon to skim a little of the chocolate-like substance from the top, dumped the amount she had culled into the plastic bag, carefully smoothed over the indentation she had left, replaced the saucepan lid, closed the plastic bag, and completely rinsed the spoon. Dolly would be none the wiser.

When she got to her room, she set the bag down on her desk and seated herself on the bed. For roughly ten minutes she held her chin in her hands and stared at her ill-gotten morsel of magic potion. Was she ready to take the risk? What if Binky wised up the next day and realized who truly loved him? What if the potion would cause her to never love again?

As she pondered her options, the telephone rang. "Prunie, it's for you," called Rubella from the first floor.

She hurried to the phone on the outside chance that it might be Binky, calling her back from the edge of the abyss. "Hello?"

"Hi, Prunella, it's Fern." Another disappointment.

"What's up, Fern?" said Prunella, trying to sound cheerful.

"Some of us are getting together at Binky's tonight for a party," Fern informed her.

"Is it his birthday?" asked Prunella, suddenly embarrassed that she was in love with the boy but didn't remember his birthday.

"No, it's not a birthday party," Fern answered. "It's more of a Make Binky Feel Better So He Won't Quit Playing Mini Moo party. It's at six."

"Sure, I'll come." The love-curing potion should be cool enough by that time, Prunella thought.

----

Almost two hours later, Dolly returned to the Prufrock house to check on the condition of her potion. She was surprised to see Angus Winslow seated on a living room chair, conversing with Mrs. Prufrock, who wore a floral dress and her usual bead bracelets.

"Maria has taken quite a liking to me," Winslow related. "And she's a very attractive woman, despite the fact that her taste in cinema leaves much to be desired. It's unfortunate that I'll probably never see her again, unless my business brings me back to this neighborhood."

"I'm terribly sorry about what happened to the locket," said Mrs. Prufrock.

"Yes, it's a terrible loss to history," Winslow lamented. When his sensitive rabbit ears picked up the sound of Dolly puttering in the kitchen, he excused himself.

The girl was running her finger over the solidified mixture at the bottom of the saucepan when Winslow approached her from behind. "Well, hello, Dolly," he said in a friendly voice.

Dolly whirled. "Oh, Mr. Winslow! You startled me."

The next sight she beheld was Winslow's jade ring, waving back and forth in front of her face. She felt an odd but peaceful sensation, as if all desire to lie or do mischief had been purged from her soul like a sickness.

"I want to ask you a few questions," said Winslow firmly, "and I expect you to answer truthfully."

"Yes, sir," replied Dolly with an eager smile.

"What's your name?" was Winslow's first question.

"Dolores Maria Proctor, sir," came Dolly's reply.

"What was your mother's name?"

"Hannah Proctor, sir."

"What year were you born?"

"The year of our Lord sixteen hundred and fifty-nine."

"Tell me, how are you able to perform such impressive magic tricks?"

"I've a special sense, sir," Dolly answered innocently. "All of us witches have it. It allows us to see the magical qualities of things."

"Do only women have this sense?"

"I've never known a man to have it, sir."

Winslow glanced over at the saucepan on the stove. "You've been preparing some kind of potion. What is it for?"

"'Tis a love potion," Dolly replied, still grinning as if unaware that she was betraying a confidence. "A friend asked me to make it. One taste of it, and you'll fall madly in love with the first woman you see."

"Indeed." Winslow narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "Dolly, you've been a very good girl. I have no more questions."

"Thank you, sir." Cheerful as ever, Dolly placed the lid on the saucepan and scampered from the kitchen. Winslow watched with interest as the girl hurried through the front door, as if going to play.

"A love potion," he muttered under his breath.

Then he opened the silverware drawer, and pulled out a spoon...

----

Maria Harris was potting a new fern, and Nadine was eating wafer cookies while watching TV, when the doorbell rang. Maria answered it, and to her delight, found Mr. Winslow standing on the threshold. "Hello, Maria," he said formally.

"Angus!" exclaimed the excited Maria. "Please come in!"

Once he had stepped inside and Maria had closed the door behind him, Winslow announced, "I'd like a moment alone with you."

It sounded serious. Maria immediately walked over to the TV set and hit the power button, turning it off. "Awww," Nadine groaned, climbing down from the couch and shuffling to her bedroom.

When Nadine had closed her door, Maria turned breathlessly to Winslow, anxious to hear what he had to share. To her surprise, the rabbit man pulled a wadded plastic bag from his suit pocket, plucked out a small chocolate-colored object, and tossed it into his mouth. He chewed for a second or two. Maria gazed at him impatiently, unsure what to make of this gesture.

Winslow couldn't believe what was happening. In an instant, Maria Harris had metamorphosed into the most ravishingly beautiful creature on the planet. His heart overflowed with irresistible desire. Dolly's other tricks might have been clever illusions, but this...this was real...

Overpowered by romantic urges, Winslow swept Maria into his arms and began to kiss her passionately.

TBC