The witch who can't curse

The witch who can’t curse

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Nathan burst into the library and went running to the inside room where all the thick, dusty volumes are kept and quickly crouched under one of the reading tables.

Lucky it was lunch break and nobody saw him running to his go-to hiding place. Tim and gang won’t go to the trouble of coming inside the library to catch him, especially on the inside room. For some reason, most bullies are allergic to books. Thank god for small mercies, thought Nathan. Still he did not take the risk of getting up from under the table.

“Hello! Aren’t you going to get up?” A little voice coming from above shook Nathan. Thinking his worst fears are coming true, Nathan managed a peep from under the table and was taken aback immediately.

What he saw was a girl about his age looking at him curiously. Sheepishly, Nathan got up from under the table and kept staring at her. She had a pointed nose and short dark hair with fringes, and he had never seen her before at school.

“Don’t worry, I won’t bust you out”, she assured him.

He let out a tiny sigh of relief and smiled.

Also a bit perplexed, he asked, “I have never seen you before. Are you a new student?”

He added as an afterthought, “And how did you find me? There was no one in the room when I came.” 

“Oh, I was sitting right there” she pointed to her reading table at the other end of the room, which held some of the biggest books Nathan had ever seen. “You just didn’t notice me.”

As she skipped his other question, he pressed again.

“Well, I am Nathan. And you are?”

“I am in hiding too, sort of.” she confessed.

She hesitated and scrutinized him for a while. Finally, making up her mind, she said, “Have you heard of the wicked witch of the west?”

“What???”

“You know, the one who fought with Dorothy and the lot.

 I am her great granddaughter, Milda”

Stumped, Nathan stared at her blankly.

“Of course, the full version of her story is not written about.” she continued.

“You see, we are a family of great many scariest witches there ever lived. Only, I am not able to be one.” She looked so sad that Nathan almost felt sorry for her.

He opened his mouth and closed again.

She went on, “There is not one evil spell that I have not tried. Nothing has worked. And I have a freaking legacy to live upto! Have you ever felt so disappointed in yourself?”

Nathan made another attempt to speak. Still, no words.

He started to rub his eyes as if to come out of any dream he might be having.

That’s when she noticed the broken glass dial of Nathan’s watch. “What happened to your watch?” Milda enquired.

Frankly, a little relieved of the change in topic, he tried to point outside. “It’s those guys. Tim and friends.”

She nodded understandably. And she held her two index fingers together and pointed at the watch, reciting something quietly.

Voila! With a small crackling sound, the watch went back to its earlier unbroken state.

He couldn’t believe his eyes. “Whoa! So you really are a witch.”

She looked at him, a little offended.

“Yes! Just not an evil one. All I can do is this useless mending stuff which scares off nobody. So I set out on a quest to see if I can be an evil witch somehow. I often sneak into libraries and go through books on witchcraft to find any curse that works for me. No luck so far!”

Again lost for words, Nathan quickly remembered, “the lunch break will get over now.”

“Oh yes, you have to attend class! And I am off to continue with my quest.” declared Milda.

They walked out of the library in silence. Few steps into the corridor, Nathan bumped into someone so much taller than him.

“Oh look, the tiny boy’s here.” Tim called out to his friends.

In no time, Nathan found himself and Milda surrounded by the bully gang.

“Look at what we have found” said Tim, pulling out something from his trouser pocket.

To Nathan’s horror, Tim brandished a new color pencil box, which looked exactly like Nathan’s new set that he thought was safe in his locker.

“Wanna see your color pencils flying?” threatened Tim.

“Please don’t..” pleaded Nathan.

Before he could complete his sentence, Tim threw down the box with a lot of force, scattering broken color pencils all over the floor. The act was accompanied by roaring laughter from Tim’s friends.

Suddenly, there was a small crackling sound and all the broken color pencils got mended on its own and re-arranged themselves back into the box which then flew to Nathan’s hands.

There was total silence.

Tim and his bewildered friends looked at Nathan and now noticed the girl who had her index fingers pointed at the color pencil box.

Terrified, they took a step back.

Enjoying this, Milda, now pointed her index fingers at Tim and acted like reciting something.

A very very scared Tim ran away faster than a speeding bullet. His friends too followed suit.

Milda and Nathan burst out laughing. They continued laughing till their stomachs hurt.

“Did you see the look on his face?” asked a giggling Milda.

“Today’s the best day ever! Even better than my birthday.” replied Nathan. Milda was very happy to hear that and continued giggling.

“Hey, you just scared off someone! And that too the biggest bully, no less!” pointed out Nathan.

Milda stopped laughing. It just hit her.

“Ohh Yesssss! I finally scared off someone with my spells! Hurray!!” She hugged Nathan and then started to dance happily.

“Do you know what this means? I can go back home with my head held high.”

“Even all of my younger cousins are always cooking away potions and sharing recipes. Everyone thought my mending skills are useless. I just have to use it on the right people. I mean, bad people.”

They laughed again and went on laughing.