So there he was, the ghost of Paddy Noonan, watching the quiet breathing of two little children on Christmas Eve. Paddy had never seen these children before this night, but he recognized them as soon as he appeared in their bedroom. On his way out of the bedroom, Paddy kissed the forehead of each child, and those kisses moved Paddy's charms from his spirit into their's, and he whispered, "Find the stone." Paddy's kisses and those words changed everything in the lives of these children, as you will see in the events soon to be recalled here.
Paddy had always been quite a wanderer, watch for that in this recollection, and he had always been an adventurer, watch for that, too, but this is Liam and Lara's story now. While their parents slept, they took a walk on a trail in the forest and became lost, but there, I'm getting ahead of myself in the telling of events.
The story starts the day after the ghost of Paddy Noonan visited the two children, Christmas Day. The Christmas dinner had been put away, and the parents had quieted down into an afternoon nap.
Poppa was asleep on the couch. Momma was asleep in a big soft chair. The other Poppa and Momma had put themselves to bed for a long, long sleep. Before she went to sleep, Momma had told Lara, "Take good care of your little cousin. Keep him entertained."
"I will, Momma. I'll keep him entertained."
Lara had been born on Christmas eve, and her parents had named her, "Merry." Liam had been born a few minutes later, and his parents had named him, "Christmas." Those names had worked-out pretty well at home, but they had not worked-out very well at school with the other children.
So, when they were six years old, they re-named themselves Lara and Liam. They decided that he was to be, "the little cousin," because he was already a good deal taller than she. There was no sense at all in being serious, they agreed.
Here they were on another Christmas Day, standing in the living room, being quiet so they would not disturb their sleeping parents. Liam had been given a baseball bat for Christmas, which he had been swinging at an imaginary ball and hitting it solidly every time. Lara had been given a magic wand, a plastic tube filled with gel and glitter. She had just noticed that on the side of the wand in very small print were the words: to activate the magic in this wand, phone 869-111-2468.
Lara made the telephone connection, and an old woman's voice asked, "Name and location, please."
She answered: "My name is Lara, and I'm standing in the living room."
"Very good," said the old woman. "Your magic command is, let me see..., it is here somewhere. Yes, "BY THE GHOST OF PADDY NOONAN," that is your magic command. You do not say the words out loud, you just think them; that's for security purposes. Use the magic wisely. Do not call upon magic to do the things that you can do for yourself. We put the magic in the wand, and we can take the magic out of the wand!"
At that moment, the wand had instantly become lighter, and then Lara ducked quickly as the imaginary ball that rocketed off Liam's bat whizzed above the back of her head.
Something had happened to her during the telephone call. She did not quite know what had happened, something had happened. She heard herself call to her younger cousin, "Liam! Get your coat. We're going out for an adventure!"
He did not say anything, he just looked out the window at the rain, which was coming down in sheets. After a while he said, "I don't want to get wet."
She swung the magic wand through the air, "Then I'll turn you into a frog. Frogs don't mind getting wet," she said helpfully, remembering that her mother had told her to take good care of her little cousin.
"Whoa, whoa," he said quickly, as he watched the wand swing in his direction. "I never said I wasn't going." He added, "I just want to know, where are we going?"
"We are going to find a rainbow and the pot of gold buried under the spot where the rainbow touches the ground."
"I'll get a shovel." Liam dropped his imaginary ball to the floor and put his bat next to it.
"You better get that bat, too. You never know when you are going to have to whomp someone or..., some thing."
"Right," he said, picking-up the bat. He took two mighty swings, one to the left and one to the right. He was not hitting imaginary balls anymore. Two imaginary house-dragons dropped to the floor on either side of him.
Lara stepped over one of the dragons and wrote a brief note to the both sets of parents, "Gone for an adventure. Will be back later today or tomorrow or sometime. Don't worry."
Off they went. They were walking on a curved path. It seemed like they were walking in a big circle or, maybe, a spiral. Soon there was no turning back, they noticed, because when they did look back, there was no path behind them. They did not know where they were, and they did not know the way home; they were lost. Then the worst happened.
Liam stopped in mid-stride and dropped to the ground. It was dead quiet all around them. The birds had stopped flying, the leaves on the trees had stopped moving, even the rain had stopped falling. He pointed towards a long shadow leaning against the side of a tree. "What is that?" His voice had taken on a hissing quality that made the hairs on Lara's neck stand straight. She knew what it was. There was no sense trying to run away. Nobody could not outrun that thing.
"That's a wicked witch," and after a long pause, she said. "Run right at her, and swing your bat like you were going to knock her head off. Go! Go!"
He found his legs running underneath him, carrying him closer and closer to the shadow. He was swinging his bat harder than he had ever swung it before, his voice let out a scream that split the air and shook the ground. The witch stepped away from the tree and onto the path. She was a terrible sight with her black pointed hat, her wire rimmed glasses perched on her crooked nose, her black dress covering her from the top of her neck to the top of her black pointy shoes. He stopped running and stood still. He wanted to swing his bat, but the bat would not move.
The witch reach out and grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him to her. Then, the witch's other arm stretched out a very long way and grabbed Lara by her hair and pulled Lara to her.
"Well, my little imps, out for an adventure, are you? Having a good time, are we?" Her voice cracked through the air around them like it was ice. "Well, I think I'm holding my dinner." Then, she pulled out a magic rope that began to tie Liam's feet together, and then his knees.
He could see where this was going, and he did not like it. He took a mighty swing with his bat and knocked the glasses from her crooked nose. Without her glasses, the witch could not see the children. She reached out and grabbed hold of a tree and muttered a curse or two and shook the tree so hard that it came out of the ground before she realized that she did not have hold of the boy with the bat. She bent over and started feeling the ground, hoping to catch a child by the foot, but Liam got in back of her and hit her so hard on her behind that she flew through the air and landed in a mud puddle, and she couldn't get up because the mud held her fast to the ground.
Liam held his bat high above his head, ready to deliver another blow. It was then that he saw his older cousin, sitting on a rock eating an apple as if she did not have a care in the world. She looked at him and asked in a crackling voice that imitated the voice of the wicked witch, "Having a good time, are we?"
"No..., well, yes...." Then he brightened, "I just had a wonderful adventure."
"Very entertaining I'd say. Remember that, in case my mother asks."
He saw the basket of apples by the side of the tree, and realized that he was hungry. He picked-up the largest, shiny one. Just as he was about to take a bite, he heard his cousin's warning, "Don't bite that apple!"
"Why? ...Is it a poison apple?"
She just smiled.
He said to himself, "Of course it is a poison apple." He looked at the apple, and on the red surface he could see the image of the witch earlier in the day painting the apple with a brew of poison and placing the apple in the basket. He picked another apple from the basket, one that was not so big and not so shiny. He looked at it, and then he took his first bite." His cousin nodded her head and smiled, "Now you are getting smart."
He finished his apple and said, "I think it is time to move-on, let's go!", and he picked-up his shovel and his bat and started walking.
"Not so fast," said the wee faerie, who had spent the day riding on Lara's ear, hidden by Lara's curly hair. "You might not want to leave the wicked witch stuck in the mud. You'd want to set her free, I'd say."
Wise children know that good faeries are not to be ignored when they speak into your ear. Lara called to her cousin, "Wait! We have to free the witch."
Liam could not believe what he had just heard. "Did you just say, free the witch?"
"Yes, free the witch."
"Have you ever done this before, freed a wicked witch?"
"No." Lara gave him a smile and said, "I have a plan." She held her hand up to keep him from speaking and added, "Stand-back. I got this plan from my good faerie."
But Liam did not stand-back; he went dangerously close to the witch, and gave her shoe a little kick, and then he asked, "Are you dead?"
She crackled, "Of course I'm not dead you dreadful little boy."
Lara stepped forward, "I'm going to get you out of the mud puddle, you wicked witch, and it won't cost you much."
"How are you going to get me out of this mud, you dreadful little girl?"
"Magic!"
"You have magic? Magic? Well, why didn't you say so before I grabbed the boy? I wouldn't have grab you if I knew you had magic." Then she wailed, "Get me out of this mud, I have to pee."
The little faerie riding on her ear whispered, "Get her wishing stone."
"First, the cost: Hand-over your wishing stone..., give it to my favorite cousin, the wonderful cousin you called a dreadful little boy."
"Get me out of here, then I'll give you the wishing stone."
"First the wishing stone, then I'll get you out of the mud."
The wicked witch seemed to think about this for a moment, and then a smile could be seen on her lips, if you can call the sneer on a wicked witch's face a smile. "Okay, I'll hand-over the wishing stone, what is he going to wish for, candy? I'll just give him some candy. Then he won't have to carry the stone around. It is very heavy. I think that I will be able to climb our of the mud by myself when I don't have this heavy wishing stone holding me down."
The little faerie sitting on Lara's ear whispered, "Get her to give Liam her wishing stone. It is not heavy at all."
Lara told the witch, "Pass-over your wishing stone if you want me to release you from the mud puddle."
The witch started screaming at the top of her voice, "Who told you about the wishing stone?" The witch started kicking her feet and slapping her hands and mud was flying everywhere. She was huffing and puffing and kicking and slapping, on and on, but she could not get herself out of the mud. When she finally stopped, unable to let out even a single scream or kick a single kick because she was so tired, the witch heard a sweet little voice say, "Pass me the wishing stone right now, or my cousin and I are leaving, and you can stay stuck in the mud until the end of time if that suits you better than passing over your wishing stone." The children began to walk away.
"I'll do it, I'll do it!", then it appeared, a round white stone that looked like the full moon shining in the night sky. It rolled out of the witch's hand and rolled across the ground to Liam's feet. He reached to pick it up, and then it was in his hand, smooth to his touch and a little warmer than his hand, lighter than a feather. He knew to put the stone in his pocket, and when he did, something happened to him. He did not quite know what had happened, but he knew something had happened, and now he was different.
Then a question occurred in Liam's head. Why didn't the witch use the wishing stone to wish herself out of the mud? Something was not right here. Just about the time Liam thought of his question, his good faerie woke up from a long nap. The faerie remembered Liam's question because it had been part of the faerie's dream. The good faerie got close to Liam's ear and whispered, "The wicked witch did not know the Magic Command to get the wish out of the stone."
Liam's head jerked back, and he said out loud, "I don't know the Magic Command."
The witch started crackling and giggling, "You fooled yourselves, but a promise is a promise. You said you would release me from this mud. Now, do it!"
"Hold on," said Lara to Liam, "Did you read the fine print on the stone?"
Both Liam and the witch asked at the same time, "There's fine print?"
"Of course there is fine print; there is always fine print."
Liam brought the stone out into the light, and read these words from print that was so small that only a child could read it, "BY THE GHOST OF PADDY NOONAN."
Lara was quick to add, "Don't say the words out loud, only think them. That is for the purpose of security."
Liam was a quick learner, and, so, he thought, BY THE GHOST OF PADDY NOONAN, and then he said, "Release the witch from the mud."
And..., it happened. The witch was standing before them, and she was gathering up all her meanness to cast a spell on the children and to regain the wishing stone, but then Lara brought forth her plan. Lara pointed her magic wand in the direction of the witch and thought the words, BY THE GHOST OF PADDY NOONAN, and then said, "Turn this wicked witch into a good witch!" Just as Lara said the words, "Good witch," the black pointed hat started to turn into a jewelled crown, and the long black dress started to turn into a long gown made from white silk, and the pointy black shoes started to turn into golden slippers.
The witch screamed, "No! No! I hate being good. Don't do this to me, I'll be ruined. No..., no..., no." With each word, her voice became softer and softer and softer, until finally she turned into a beautiful, good witch, in truth, she turned into a fairy godmother. "Oh, dear. What happened to me? I feel so good." The good witch twirled to the left and then twirled to the right. She looked at the children as if she were seeing them for the first time. "Oh! Are you Darlings lost in the woods? What can I do to help you two lovely children?"
"We are doing pretty well on our own, and best of all, we have each other."
"You can be a fairy godmother to someone else. Don't let us keep you."
"Oh, goodness, someone does need my help." POOF, the fairy godmother disappeared.
"She's gone!"
"Good! She would just be in our way, you can carry goodness too far. Sometimes you have to be a bit... final with people and things. Have you ever been to The Downs?"
"Where is that?" Liam was quiet for a moment. He was thinking of his mother and father, soon to awaken from their afternoon nap. They had enough to worry about without worrying about him. His parents were going back to prison after the Christmas holiday. Of course they were not guilty, but that did not change anything. He said, "I think we better get back."
Lara read the expression on his face, and said, "Yes, we better, but first we will stop in The Downs. We have something to do there. It won't take us but a few minutes. Look at your white stone, I think it will show us the way."
Liam reached into his pocket. There was a hazy image on the surface of the stone. As soon as he rubbed his finger across the image, the children found themselves standing on a dirt path facing the door of a small, decrepit cottage. He said, "I think we should see who is inside."
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