What the Witch Left (7 page)

“Sure,” said Tad. “Now, eat away.” He sat down on Nora’s bed to watch her.

Nora stood in front of the desk. She shut her eyes tight and thought hard. Then she started to eat the hard old fudge. Nora thought she was going to choke, but she kept right on eating and thinking. First she ate one piece, then two, then three. Nora’s nose twitched and suddenly she felt very hungry. It wasn’t hard to eat the last piece of fudge.

Nora opened her eyes.

What was wrong? Where was she? What were those two strange things? She heard a harsh grating noise. Nora looked up. Now she understood.

The two things in front of her were Tad’s feet. The noise was the sound of
chewing—a giant chewing. Tad was eating the fudge.

When he finished the second piece, Tad said, “The fudge is still magic all right. You look good as a mouse.”

“I’d better not waste time,” said Nora. “Tie the bag of powdered fudge around my neck.”

Tad tied the little package around Nora’s neck with button thread. She ran into the closet and slipped through the crack under the baseboard.

It was dark between the walls, but here and there a crack let in a little daylight. Nora trotted along the mouse trail. It turned and twisted between the rooms, went up and down wooden slats, and traveled into the house next door.

At last Nora saw a hole that would be easy to run through. She came out into the light, blinking her eyes.

Her nose warned her. Something terrible was near!

Nora looked up into two cold blue eyes. Henry! She had gone into Maggie’s apartment by mistake!

Without knowing how she did it, Nora turned around and dived back into the mouse hole. Her heart was beating fast. She had to stay very still until it slowed down.

Then Nora went on following the mouse trail. She had to hurry before Mrs. Hastings made that phone call.

Nora poked her head out of a crack and looked all around. She saw the stairs that led down to Mrs. Hastings’ part of the house. She slipped out onto the stairs and jumped down, step by step. She wished her feet didn’t make such a scratchy sound.

When she reached the hall at the foot of the stairs, Nora squeezed under the door into Mrs. Hastings’ living room.

Mrs. Hastings was talking on the telephone. “Department of Health? I want to report a dangerous condition. My tenant, Mrs. Brown, has a great number of animals in her apartment—cats, dogs, birds, snakes, even rats. It smells dreadful. You’ll send someone tomorrow? Thank you.” Mrs. Hastings gave her address and hung up the telephone.

Nora crouched under the sofa. She was too late! Even if she managed to get the fudge into Mrs. Hastings’ coffee, the effect would wear off before tomorrow. Sadly Nora crept out of the room.

She sneaked through Mrs. Hastings’ dining room and kitchen and out into the yard. From there it was easy to get into her own yard and creep under the back door into the kitchen.

Tad was sitting at the kitchen table. Nora tugged at his shoelace. Tad looked down. When he saw Nora, he picked her
up and put her in his shirt pocket. “I don’t want Mother to see you,” he said. “What happened?”

“Take me to my room,” Nora said. “We can talk there.”

Tad left the kitchen and went upstairs with Nora in his pocket. “Why didn’t you use the fudge?” he asked, untying the packet from Nora’s neck.

“Mrs. Hastings was just telephoning the Health Department. I was too late.” Nora sat on the pillow and scratched herself. She ran her fingers down her long tail. “Hold me up to the mirror, Tad. I want to see what I look like.”

Tad held her in front of the mirror. Nora stroked her whiskers and admired her soft pink ears.

“When are they going to inspect Maggie’s apartment?” Tad asked.

“Tomorrow,” said Nora.

“That’s Saturday. Maggie will be busy feeding people’s cats.” Tad put Nora back on the pillow. “If we could go over and clean the place, that might help. And maybe we could hide the kittens and the sparrow cage.”

“You could turn yourself into a cat and go in the window again. I know a mouse trail to get into Maggie’s apartment,” Nora said.

“How could we do any cleaning up then?” Tad said. “And if the Health Department people came while we were there, they’d just see two
more
animals. I’m going next door to warn Maggie. She can work some magic herself.”

Tad ran out of the room and down the stairs. Nora heard the front door bang as he went out.

Mrs. Cooper was coming upstairs with an armful of clean laundry. She walked into Nora’s room. Nora dived under the pillow, but she wasn’t fast enough. Her mother had seen her.

Mrs. Cooper put down the laundry very quietly and lifted the pillow. Nora crouched on the bed, afraid to move. She
looked at her mother with frightened eyes. Mrs. Cooper stood quite still, holding the pillow.

Nora looked up at her mother. She knew her mother hated mice. Although she was almost certain her mother would never touch a mouse, Nora decided not to take any chances. She ran to the edge of the bed, shut her eyes, and jumped.

She landed on the hard floor and scuttled under the closet door and through the crack under the baseboard.

“Tad, Tad!” her mother was calling.

“What is it?” yelled Tad from downstairs.

“There’s a mouse up here. See if you can catch it.”

Tad raced up the stairs. “Where did it go?”

“Into the closet. I’ll get the broom. Maybe we can chase it out.” Mrs. Cooper went out.

Tad opened the closet door. “Nora,” he whispered.

Nora stuck her head out of the crack. “Yes.”

“Maggie’s not home. I couldn’t warn her. Can you get into her apartment? She keeps an extra door key on the glass tray on her dresser top. If we had her key, we could get in and at least clean the apartment.”

“Henry’s in there,” said Nora. “He nearly got me before.”

Mrs. Cooper came back into the room with a broom. “Take those shoes out of the closet, Tad,” she said. She took a look at a high-heeled shoe with a sparkly buckle. “Where did that come from?”

“It was Maggie’s,” said Tad.

“Mrs. Brown, Tad.” Mrs. Cooper forgot about the mouse and started to examine the contents of the closet. “Are you
sure
Mrs. Brown gave Nora these
things? They look too good to give away.”

Nora knew that her mother didn’t like her to take things from people. She had always told her to say, “No, thank you,” when anyone offered her anything.

“Where is Nora, Tad?” Mrs. Cooper was saying.

Nora ran off down the mouse trail away from the closet.

Nora wandered along in the half darkness. When she came to a crack or a hole in the wall, she put her head to the opening and looked out. One hole gave a fine view of a mousetrap set under the radiator in the bathroom of Nora’s house. Another one opened into the hall in Maggie’s apartment. Nora could see Lew the lizard
sleeping in a doorway. She wondered if mice talked the same language as lizards. She put her mouth to the crack. “Lew,” she said as loudly as she could. “Lew, wake up!”

The lizard opened his brown eyes and stuck out his forked tongue. “Nora,” he said, “where are you?”

“Behind the crack in the wall,” said Nora. “Lew, I want you to help me.”

The big lizard walked over to the crack. “How did you get in there, Nora? It’s not big enough for you.”

“I turned into a mouse,” said Nora. “Lew, can you get the door key off Maggie’s dresser?”

“I don’t think so,” said the lizard. “That’s more of a job for Henry.”

“See if you can get him to do it, Lew. It’s terribly important. Tell him it’s to help Maggie.”

“All right,” said Lew. He went down
the hall to the bedroom. In a very short time he came back with the key. “No trouble at all,” he said. “That cat is such a show-off.”

“Push it through the crack, Lew,” said Nora. “And thank you, thank you.”

Nora grabbed the door key in her teeth and started back the way she had come. The key was very heavy. Soon she had to put it down and rest.

It was darker now in the space behind the walls, but the cracks glowed brighter. It must be evening, and the lights are turned on, thought Nora.

Once a big mouse bumped against her as he went down the trail. Nora almost dropped the key.

Nora was afraid of getting lost. Then she had an awful thought. What if the magic wore off and she became her old self here between the walls? There wasn’t nearly enough room. She’d be squashed.