“What I want you to do, Rupert,” she said, “is to take your flashlight, go out to the playground, and bring me a few toadstools.”
Now, I’d been out hunting toadstools in the past for Miss Switch. In the Pepperdine playground. At midnight. Alone. I have to admit I didn’t enjoy the experience.
“Did … did you have any special variety in mind, Miss Switch?” I asked nervously
“Why yes, I did, Rupert,” she replied briskly “It’s the toadstoolius enlargius instantium.”
“Gee whiz, Miss Switch, how am I supposed to know one when I see it?” I complained.
“It’s a common variety, Rupert. Just scoop up a bunch of toadstools, and I assure you there will be several among them. I’ll have everything else ready when you return. Don’t forget to take along a paper sack from the art cupboard.”
Anyway, there I was in the Pepperdine playground. At midnight. Alone. And I didn’t care any more for the experience than I had the first time. But the thing was that midnight seemed to be a very good time for toadstools. I harvested a bunch of them and when I got back, Miss Switch was busy adding the last of crumbled hairs of hog to the measuring cup. I handed her the paper sack. She emptied it at once onto her desk and began sorting through the toadstools with her long fingers.
“Ah,” she said, “just as I expected, several excellent specimens of toadstoolius enlargius instantium. But what have we here?” She picked up two toadstools and examined them closely. “Hmmm, these are rare finds, indeed. The Pepperdine playground never ceases to amaze me. Nothing I can use right now, but I am getting some strong vibrations indicating that I may be able to use these very toadstools soon.”
“What are they, Miss Switch?” I asked as she shoved them into a pocket.
“Not now, Rupert, not now. This spell requires concentration,” she said, crumbling one of the remaining toadstools into the measuring cup. Then she started mumbling to herself as she picked up the glass rod. “Pour into flask. Shake, don’t stir. Place over Bunsen burner. Don’t begin spell until five bubbles rise.”
As soon as this had all happened, she began swooping and swooshing around, waving her arms over the flask. Then she began to moan the words,
“Higglety pigglety, oh, what, slop
The shrinking game you have to stop.
Snakes and spiders, fleas and flies
Bring them back to their right size.
Ricketty, racketty, hullabalooly
Or face the wrath of yours truly.”
I have to be honest. This didn’t sound a lot better than the poetry Saturna was dispensing via computowitch.com. Still, a spell is a spell, and if it does what it’s supposed to, who am I to comment on it? All in all, Miss Switch put on quite a performance. I might even have been scared if I hadn’t seen her do something like it before.
When it all ended, the liquid in the flask had boiled down to practically nothing, just enough to fill the small bottle with the eyedropper.
“Is that enough?” I asked.
“It’s powerful stuff, Rupert,” Miss Switch replied. “A tiny drop is all that is needed for this particular unbewitchment. If only I knew exactly where I’m going to have to use it!”
Well, we had done all we could do. We cleaned up Room Twelve, and then Miss Switch flew me home.
The pets were waiting up for me. I really didn’t want to tell them the whole story of my trip to Pepperdine because I knew it would worry them. But I’ve always been honest with my pets, so I didn’t hold anything back. Besides, what if I returned as, say, a lizard, or a beetle, or didn’t return at all? They had to be prepared. At any rate, I have to say that nobody went to bed very happy that night.
15
The Shrinkage Solution
It was really nice out the next day, considering what might be about to happen on our field trip. The note from Mr. Dorking had instructed us to go directly to the bus that would be waiting for us at the Pepperdine front door. It was already there when I arrived, and Miss Blossom was standing at the front door, checking each of us off as we climbed aboard. I could tell that her sharp eyes were checking us out as well. And I knew just what she was looking for. Clues to Saturna’s medium. Or the medium itself.
“Nothing!” she hissed to me as I climbed past her onto the bus. “We’re flying blind again.”
I tried doing a little sleuthing myself, looking over the rest of the sixth grade as it filed by. I didn’t do any better than Miss Switch. No surprise.
When we arrived at the museum, Miss Blossom stood at the door again as we trooped out, handing us our tickets. There were actually two special exhibits going on at the time. One had to do with Egypt. One had to do with outer space. Our tickets would be punched at the Egypt exhibit, and then again when we entered outer space.
“And you had better guard them with your life, dears,” said Miss Blossom. “Otherwise you will be cooling your heels in the lobby.”
I don’t know if I thought I was going to be pick-pocketed or something, but I personally clutched my ticket all the way into the museum before I finally thrust it into a jacket pocket … the jacket pocket with the hole in it. It was not a brilliant move on my part, although it was a very small hole and probably wouldn’t have made any difference, anyway. As it turned out, it was a good thing I hadn’t given my pocket choice too
