The minutes crawled by that evening, but at last midnight came. It was a sensational night for a broomstick flight. A gazillion stars twinkled. The moon dangled from the sky like a big silver Christmas ball. It was too bad we weren’t just going sailing on a broomstick cruise instead of on a trip to Witch’s Mountain, with who knew what at the other end. But I tried not to think about that.
The hands on my desk clock hit twelve exactly when Miss Switch arrived at my window with Bathsheba. I knew she had a lot on her mind, but she still managed to smile and wave to my pets through the window before I climbed onto the broomstick. Then we zoomed off into the night.
Spook’s house was dark when we got there, except for one upstairs window where we saw the beam from a flashlight. Miss Switch circled the house, anyway, just to be sure there was no one else up. When we stopped at her window, Spook was right there waiting for us. She waved her earmuffs at us as we glided up to the window.
It was quite a reunion. I don’t know whether Spook was happier to see Miss Switch, or Miss Switch to see her. Of course, with Miss Switch you have to know what to look for when it comes to showing feelings like that. Also, I might have been mistaken, but I actually thought I heard Bathsheba purring. As for Spook and yours truly, I guess you’d have to say we were pretty pleased to see each other, too.
Spook really was excited. “I want to hear everything!” she said.
“Climb on then, Amelia,” said Miss Switch. “Rupert can tell you ‘everything’ on the way.”
I moved back on the broomstick, closer to Bathsheba, so Spook could get on ahead of me. I didn’t want to have a busted neck trying to talk to her over my shoulder. There was a lot to tell, and even though I was racing through it, I had just barely finished when suddenly I realized the cruise weather had ended.
The air rushing past us was now icy cold, and we had to put on our earmuffs. The night had grown darker, too; there wasn’t a twinkling star in sight. Mist began to swirl around us. We could still see the moon, but it had become a cold, menacing ball of ice. Spook began to shiver, and so did I. We were both tense, barely breathing, as the dark, silent, deadly Witch’s Mountain rose ahead of us.
I thought for a moment Miss Switch was going to zoom into it. But she knew right where she was headed. It was toward a kind of add-on tunnel jutting out about halfway up the mountain. As we drew close to it, I could see that there were three broomsticks parked in front of the entrance. But Miss Switch flew right past them and landed our broomstick behind a rock a little farther up the mountain. We all climbed off, and she motioned to us to follow her.
Moments later we had reached an opening at the top of the tunnel. I guessed it was the skylight Miss Switch had told me about. She put a finger to her lips, then kneeled down and peered cautiously through the opening, motioning us to do the same. Saturna and Grodork were down there in their long black witch and warlock outfits, of course. But Miss Tuna was there as well. Miss Switch had figured that one right!
Then Saturna started to speak. Her needle-sharp voice carried up the skylight to us. “So now, here we are. I can’t believe what has happened. I thought, Neptuna, when I sent you and your great brain to that blasted school with Grodork as your cover, you’d be able to accomplish something. But you’re no more than a lovesick idiot whose brains have turned to porridge. Allowing him to talk you into his brilliant twisted tongue bewitchment! I wanted the sixth grade and that boy gone, but all you did was give them a good time. And my great shrinking bewitchment’s gone down the drain. Now what, I ask you, now what?”
“But … but,” stammered Neptuna, “I did get the bewitchments right. Even if one didn’t please you, they did go just the way they were designed to go. I don’t know why they ended up going backward.”
“Well, all I can think is that you must have done something wrong,” snapped Saturna. “Added some ingredient that wasn’t intended. You did use a clean pot for the shrinking bewitchment, didn’t you?”
“Oh, yes!” cried Neptuna.
“It almost sounds as if someone was around to perform an unbewitchment,” Saturna snarled. “You’re absolutely certain that hag Sabbatina Switch wasn’t around anywhere? She couldn’t be masquerading as that ridiculous Miss Blossom you told me about, could she?”
Grodork finally came to life. “Nobody would look like that if they didn’t have to.”
“But don’t think it’s all over yet,” Saturna said. “I have another bewitchment worked out. It’s almost foolproof. I called you here because the instructions are complicated and I have to give you the necessary ingredients. Now come over here to my supply cupboard, Neptuna, while I explain it to you. I don’t know what good it will do, but you can listen in if you wish, Grodork.”
The three of them walked over to an enormous black cupboard farther back in the tunnel, aka Saturna’s lair. Her voice could no longer be heard clearly through the skylight. A bewitchment that we couldn’t hear, and would never get over computowitch.com. This was bad news.
We couldn’t hear anything by eavesdropping at the skylight, at least nothing that gave any clues as to what Saturna was planning for the sixth grade, and of course, me. After they had finished their business, Saturna, Grodork, and Neptuna returned to within earshot. Then
