The Magic Book series, book 1 (3 page)

That night,
whilst lying in bed, both girls mulled over the events of the day,
and especially those concerning the strange book.

“Felicity…”
hissed Sophie quietly, “are you awake?”

“Yes. Are you
thinking about that book?”

“Yes,”
whispered Sophie. “I still think it’s a bit odd to have such a well
made book with just two strange poems in it and a weird pen that
only seems to write in that particular book, don’t you?”

“Yeah, very
weird. Oh well, I expect Mrs Vincent has found its owner by now,”
Felicity sighed.

“I expect so,”
agreed Sophie sadly, although not quite understanding why she would
feel that way towards a plain old book. Unbeknown to Sophie,
Felicity felt exactly the same way.

“Girls, get to
sleep now please – no more talking,” their mother called
upstairs.

“Sorry,” they
said in unison.

“Love you,”
their mother called up.

“Love you
most!” they chorused back.

Sophie was the
first to wake the next morning. Although she knew it must be a
school day, she still glanced hopefully towards the bottom of her
bed. If it
was
a school day, her uniform would be hanging
there ready and, much to her annoyance, it was.

After much
complaining and a few cuddles later they were up, dressed, fed and
on their way to school for another day. Felicity could hardly
believe that it was only Tuesday.

As the girls
said their goodbyes, their mother tried to cheer them up a bit.
“I’ve packed you a little treat – strawberries and custard in your
lunch boxes today – just a little something to look forward
to.”

The girls
smiled bravely through tear-filled eyes as they registered their
mother’s strained expression. It was hard for all of them really,
in different ways. For the girls it was having to learn to be more
independent of her. For their mother it was witnessing this
struggle, after having spent so much of their young lives in her
care.

The first part
of the morning’s routine, after hanging up their coats, was to put
their drink bottles up with everyone else’s, and place their lunch
bags on the racks for later. They then exchanged their reading
books for new ones, putting them into their book bags for taking
home later. These were then stowed away into their individual
drawers; only this morning Sophie’s bag wouldn’t fit in. She looked
to the back of the drawer to find out why. There, in the dim light,
Sophie could just make out the shape of a book. As she withdrew it
she was amazed to see it was the very one she had put under Mrs
Vincent’s chair the day before!

“Mrs Vincent,"
called Sophie, “I left this book under your chair yesterday. Did
you put it back in my drawer? Only it’s not mine.”

“No Sophie, I
haven’t seen it before. Put it back in your drawer for now and
we’ll try and locate its owner later. Right class, can I see all of
your eyes please?” she asked, turning her attention back to the
formalities of the morning, leaving a perplexed Sophie to return
the book to her drawer as requested.

As they sat on
the carpet for register Sophie whispered to Felicity, “That book we
found yesterday is back in my locker. Did you put it there?”

“No I did not!”
exclaimed Felicity loud enough to cause a few heads to turn to look
questioningly in her direction.

“Er, Felicity
and Sophie… can I have some quiet please?” Mrs Vincent gently
chastised. They nodded and looked into their laps. Felicity, taking
a peak sideways to scowl at her sister for getting her into
trouble, said nothing.

All morning
Sophie just couldn’t stop thinking about the book. She decided to
sneak her puppy into the lunch hall, which would then give her an
excuse to go back to the classroom after, to supposedly put the toy
away before it got lost again. This would give her time to have
another read of those poems. She couldn’t help feeling they meant
something; a message specifically for them perhaps!

“Oh, Okay
Sophie,” sighed the dinner lady, “but perhaps Puppy should stay at
home in future.”

Just as Sophie
was leaving the hall she heard …

“Not you as
well Felicity – go on then!” from the same dinner lady.

“You had the
same idea?” queried Sophie, as they made haste to their
classroom.

“Looks like
it,” giggled Felicity, and they hugged with excitement as they
entered the classroom. Immediately they became aware of a knocking
sound - and it was coming from Sophie’s drawer! They held hands as
they cautiously opened the drawer – it was the book!

“I don’t like
it!!!!” squeaked Felicity, her eyes as large as saucers.

Sophie gulped
down her fear as she lifted the book out with the end of a ruler
and flipped it out onto a desk. The book pages fell open to
Sophie’s doodle of her favourite fairy, the one she had done the
day before whilst waiting for Felicity to use the toilet.

To their
amazement, they watched as the sketch slowly peeled itself off the
page, stood upright, shuddered and … PING! In a flurry of tiny
white stars – popped into life! The girls stood half terrified and
half curious as the tiny fairy fluttered into the air stretching
and yawning as if she had just woken.

“Oh thank
goodness!” she exclaimed. “I thought I was going to stay trapped in
there forever!”

The tiny fairy,
only about three inches tall, looked at the girls directly for the
first time, and on seeing their expressions said; “What is it? Oh I
realise I’m a little crumpled, but that happened whilst I was
trying to find my way out.” She stroked her dress down in an effort
to smooth out the creases.

“It’s… it’s….
not that….,“ faltered Felicity, blinking and rubbing her eyes,
still finding it all too impossible to be true and not knowing
quite what to say.

“Oh my!”
remarked the fairy, “having known what to do to set me free, you
surely must have seen a real fairy before? You haven’t have you?”
she asked, pausing from the job of re-arranging her hair to stare
at them in shocked disbelief.

“N…..no,”
stammered Sophie. “You look exactly like the fairy I drew, but that
would be impossible… wouldn’t it?” Sophie peered over into the
book. The page was now blank where her picture had been. Still not
believing it she picked up the book and searched through the
pages.

“You drew a
picture in the book?” accused Felicity. “When?”

“It was while I
waited for you to use the toilet…..” Sophie confessed, her voice
trailing off in embarrassment.

“Oh never mind
that now,” Felicity retorted, still flustered. “But how did
you……happen?” she continued to query the fairy, who had regained
some composure by this time.

“The book of
course,” replied the fairy matter-of-factly.

“But it’s just
a book,” said Sophie, frowning with disbelief, still leafing
through it only to find that page after page were blank.

“Ohhh! The
poems, of course! It’s starting to make sense now,” Sophie suddenly
exclaimed excitedly.

“Wow! You mean,
the wicked fairy’s curse – we broke it? It’s a magic book?” gushed
Felicity in wonderment.

“Yes, yes,”
retorted the fairy, seeming a little impatient now, “and I’ve been
shut up in there for weeks – and with so much to be done. Oh, I
dread to think of the havoc he has been wreaking whilst I’ve been
imprisoned!” She started to flit erratically in the air, wringing
her tiny hands together as memories came back to her. A frown on
her face marred her dainty features.

“But I drew you
– I made you up. How could you have existed before?” puzzled
Sophie.

“Just as I
thought you understood!” the fairy snapped, throwing her hands in
the air in a gesture of despair. “I simply don’t have time to sit
around teaching the obvious. Thank you for your help, but I really
must be going. There’s so much to be done if things are to be put
right; if they can be put right, that is!” She started to fly off
towards an open window.