Mini-Witch Answers An Ad

Mersina was bored. She had finished all her homework. She had read all the interesting books in the house. She was tired of playing with her dolls.

"What is there to do on a Saturday, when you're all alone?" Mersina moaned. Her mother was away at a witches' meeting. She had made Mersina promise not to get into trouble while she was gone.

"Just one little spell won't hurt anything," Mersina thought to her self. She opened the window. A gentle breeze was blowing. A leaf flated in and settled gently to the table. "Just what I wanted," exclaimed Mersina. "Now I can find out what's going on around town."

She touched the leaf with her finger. All at once the leaf turned into a newspaper.

She turned to the movie page. But she had already seen every movie in town. She sighed and turned the pages. Suddenly something caught her eye. It was an ad on the Want-Ad Page. It said:

WITCH WANTED
FOR PARTY

"I love parties," Mersina squealed. She circled the ad with a fat red crayon. Quickly she changed into her black witch dress. She looked in the mirror to straighten the black witch's hat perched on her long blond hair. She grabbed her broom and raced out the door.

The address in the ad was not far away. It took Mersina only a few minutes to get there. It was a large house. The broad front door had a heavy brass knocker. Mersina had to stand on her tip-toes to reach it.

A fat woman came to the door. "Aren't you a little early for Halloween, Dearie?" she chuckled.

"You had an ad for a witch in the paper," Mersina began. "And I'm a witch," she added proudly.

The woman laughed. "I'm sorry, I'm busy now," she said. And she closed the door firmly in Mersina's face.

"She doesn't believe I'm a witch," Mersina said to herself. "I'll have to show her."

She looked about on the ground. Near the path she saw a small twig. "This will be just right!" She picked up the twig and held it up to the door. As soon as it touched the lock, the twig turned into a key. It fitted perfectly.

Mersina opened the door and stepped inside. "Hello," she started to call. The fat woman shrieked.

"How did you get in?" she shouted.

Mersina held out the shining door key in the palm of her hand. "I turned a twig into a key," she explained. "I told you I was a real witch."

"Witch indeed, you naughty girl!" the woman scolded. "You just took the spare key from under the doormat." She snatched the key from Mersina's hand and pushed her out the door.

Mersina was getting angry. "She still won't believe I'm a witch!" She climbed on her broom, swooped over the house, and looked into every window. Finally she saw the fat woman through the kitchen window. She tapped on the window.

"Is that you again, you bothersome girl?" the woman exclaimed. "You must have climbed up the drainpipe." She pulled down the shade.

Mersina was angrier than ever. "This time I'll really show her." She said a magic word, and suddenly she began to shrink. Smaller and smaller Mersina became. Soon she was smaller than a cat. Then she was smaller than a mouse. And at last she was small enough to sit on a speck of dust. The breeze carried the speck of dust in through the screen of the kitchen window.

Mersina settled down lightly on the counter. With another magic word she started to grow. When she had reached the size of a mouse, she squeaked up at the fat woman. "Do you see me now? Only a real witch could do something like this."

The woman squinted at the counter. "It's a mouse!" she shrieked. She grabbed a broom and swatted Mersina.

Ouch! That hurt! Now Mersina really lost her temper. "I'll change you into a mouse," she squeaked. "See how you like that!"

Suddenly the fat woman turned into a tiny gray mouse, whimpering softly in the middle of the kitchen floor.

"Now do you believe I'm a real witch?" Mersina demanded.

The mouse twitched its whiskers.

"Will you let me come to your party?"

The mouse nodded.

"Okay, I'll change you back now." Mersina said a magic word. She thought of something big and fat. And in an instant the mouse turned into … a fat pink pig.

The pig grunted and squealed. It looked frightened.

"I'm sorry," said Mersina. "I guess I didn't get the spell quite right. I'll try again."

She tried a different magic word. The pig turned into a hippopotamus. It opened its huge mouth and bellowed. Quickly Mersina tried again. The hippopotamus turned into an elephant.

Suddenly the door flew open. "Mersina, I told you not to get into trouble!" exclaimed her mother.

With a wave of her hand and the right magic words, the elephant turned back into the fat woman. She screamed and ran out the back door.

"Come on, Mersina." Her mother pulled her out the front door. "The next time I go to a witches' meeting, I guess I'll have to take you along."

Mersina smiled.

©1972, 2013 The Silversteins