Halloween in Spring!

"Ban the boring!" Jacinta told herself. She was fourteen years old. Here she was in Witchyproof. Her parents had traveled to this blazing hot region, with Jacinta's big sister, Sarah Jane. It was their annual Back to Witchyproof long weekend approaching.

Jacinta's father had been raised in this sheep farming district. Once a year he leased a cabin on the verge of the Witchyproof National Park. The whole land was in the grip of a severe drought. Even showers in their holiday cabin had a timer, with a three minute limit for each person. There was no swimming pool, nowhere to meet other teens, no place else to be.

Jacinta's parents had set off bright and early, to catch up with her father's cousins. Jacinta and Sarah Jane chose to stay back at the cabin. Sarah Jane was eighteen years old, she had finished her secondary schooling. At home, a bright teenage boy had knocked on her door, with a beautiful bunch of flowers. Soon, the young couple were dating. Jacinta thought is was all so romantic, if slightly nauseating.

Sarah Jane was lying on her bunk bed, sighing, as she texted her beau. Despite being Spring, the hot sun as burning down from a cloudless blue sky. Peeping through the window, all Jacinta could see was a very brown and arid landscape. The National Park surrounding their cabin had only stringy miserable trees, leaves all dry and curling.

All was quiet until Sarah Jane said, "This is so boring. It is the most boring place on Earth. Wish we were back home. Josh would be kissing me right now. How do I get a ring for Spring?" she moaned dramatically.

"Ah, you're in love." Jacinta agreed. Unknown to her family, Jacinta was really an undercover witch, if more than slightly bored. "Never mind," she told Sarah Jane, "I have brought my mini cauldron. I shall cook you a love potion. You shall have your ring for Spring. This is the new Halloween, right in time for Spring."

Jacinta was always the happy go lucky one. She had come prepared, and could make her own fun. As her parents were at the cousins' farm, she could take over the little cabin kitchen. First, she place in her mini cauldron one dead spider. There were plenty around.

Jacinta poured in a can of lemonade, room temperature only. Hell, she could cook, like any decent witch. Then she added some petals of pot pourri, definitely no fresh flowers in this Park of drought. Stirring with the spoon she had found, Jacinta boiled a nice love potion. Very creative. If Sarah Jane wanted a ring for Spring, well, that is what she should have. As an older sister, she rated, in Jacinta's opinion.

Jacinta turned off the stove, and let her love potion cool down. Then she fished up the dead spider, removing it before Sarah Jane noticed. She poured some love potion into a cup, and took to her sister.

"Here," she told Sarah Jane. "Cool and sip, O ruby lips. Bewitch that man, O shapely hips." As Sarah Jane sipped her love potion, Jacinta rubbed her witching moonstone bracelet, and blessed the very notion of a ring for Spring. "You should drink some too," Sarah Jane. "It is never too late to fall in love."

So Jacinta tried not to make a rude face. She, too, drank some of her magic charm. Sarah Jane smiled, and resumed texting her lover boy, back in the far away suburbs. Jacinta decided to head off exploring for the day, to take her broomstick she had smuggled in, for a joyride. She packed two bottles of water and some nutrition bars. If she followed the main track, what could go wrong?

Sarah Jane did not even notice. Jacinta was still undercover. It was early in the week. The usual assortment of old folk who stayed in the cabins there had not yet arrived, for "Back to Witchyproof." Jacinta often wondered about the nature of the name of this old hick little slow town.

'Ban the boring," she told herself. She hopped aboard her broom, rubbed her witching bracelet, said her flying spell. "Uppity, uppity, fly my broomstick uppity." Her broom dutifully ascended several feet in the air, good cruising level. Jacinta kicked her heels together, she was off exploring. Yes, witches make their own fun.

Jacinta flew along, following the old bush track. Everything was hot already, no birds sang. She thought this was odd. The forest of National Park was dead and dying, there were no little bush creatures, scurrying in the undergrowth.

It was all a mystery. Jacinta did not know for sure. Where had all the birdies gone? She traveled on, suddenly coming upon a clearing. There stood an old caravan. Around it, there were some polystyrene boxes, all with lids firmly sealed. Who lived here?

Jacinta flew around the clearing, looking for clues. There was no one in the caravan. So, she landed her broomstick. She peered in the caravan's misty, smeared windows. Empty. What was in the boxes?

Jacinta opened the nearest container, easing off the lid." "Oh, no!" she breathed, trying to keep quiet. Inside the box, struggling to breathe, were some colorful forest birds, with their feet wired together. Astounded, Jacinta opened box after box. In the next container, were some cute little desert lizards, Some one was up to no good.

Jacinta heard a motor cycle approaching. Was this the wildlife smuggler? In a hurry, she grabbed a big stick, and hopped aboard her broom. This was a case for super junior witchcraft. She flew around behind the decaying forest trees, half hidden.

A young, filthy looking punk clambered off his wheels, and leaned over his boxes of wildlife. Jacinata shrieked, and flew into the clearing. She was going to sort this smuggler, selling innocent creatures on the black market. Her broom roared into overdrive, as she whopped him on the shoulders with her stick.

The punk took off along the track, so Jacinta channeled her inner witching, and whopped him all down the dirt road, until he arrived at the local police station. "Help!" he yelled, as the rustic constabulary were standing there. Jacinta quickly stashed her broom, and ran over to the police woman.

"Arrest him!" He's smuggling wildlife, he's got boxes of them. I'll show you the evidence!" The pair of police persons quickly grabbed the punk. The police woman popped him into their car, and calmly grabbed Jacinta's broomstick. Into the boot it went.

Back at the clearing, the policeman took photos of the birds and little lizards, then Jacinta released them all. The punk was detained in custody, off to the penitentiary in the city. Jacinta gave all the wildlife some of her water. The little creatures recovered quite well. Soon, the brilliant colors of the birds were fluttering in the trees, as the lizards scuttled off home. Birdsong was back in the forest.

"You'll get a medal for this, from the Wildlife Foundation," the police woman told Jacinta. "Can you get back to your cabin okay?" Jacinta nodded. She wondered what her parents would say. "Okay, back to Witchyproof," she said, as the police woman gave her the broomstick

Jacinta was thanking her, when she noticed an identical moonstone bracelet on her policing wrist. "Are you....?" she asked, a bit hesitant. After all, witches could be anywhere. "Yes," grinned the police woman, getting behind the steering wheel of her cop car. "All our cars are brooms. We are portals to a universe of magic."

Jacinta had definitely not had a boring day. Meanwhile, back at the rustic hot cabin, there was a surprise in store for Halloween in Spring. Josh had turned up, with another beautiful big bouquet, and an impressive diamond ring. Sarah Jane was engaged. Jacinta celebrated with her family. She was the nicest witch in town!