THE WIZARD

“Run, Leanne!” said Jordan, “He’s catching up to us!”

“Dad, Dad!  The…wizard’s…after…us!” panted Leanne.

“Woah there, kids” said their father as the children reached him. “What’s this about a wizard?”

     Leanne turned her head to look at the road to see if the wizard had followed them home.  Reassured he wasn’t there, she cleared her throat and dried her clammy hands on her jeans.

     “First, let’s go inside the barn.  I don’t feel safe out here in the open,” she said.

     They walked inside the barn, Father grabbed himself a stool, and Jordan and Leanne made themselves comfortable on a hay stack.

     “Jordan woke me up early this morning and told me to hurry and look out my window,” started Leanne.  “He said a noise woke him up just in time to see the lights in the sky.  He said they were coming from farmer Richard’s farm across the road.  We ran to the see them, but by the time we got there, the lights were gone.”

     “Leanne, please get to the point,” her father interrupted.

     “Fine!” Leanne said with a sigh.  “We spied on a wizard in farmer Richard’s fields.  He was putting vegetables from farmer Richard’s garden in a big black cauldron.  Every time he would add a vegetable, a coloured cloud would rise out of the cauldron.  It also sounded like he was mumbling some kind of incantation.  He dressed funny, too.  He had a long grey beard and a long black robe.  When he spotted us, he started yelling and we ran all the way back home.”

     “Jordan, is that what really happened?” asked Father.

     “Yeesss,” he said slowly, “aaannd no…”  He changed position on the hay stack.

     “No?  Jordan, what do you mean?” Father asked.

     “Well, yesterday Leanne and I were watching television when Jeannine called.  I wanted to talk to her but Leanne kept making noise.  I told her to stop but she wouldn’t.  She teased me all night saying, “Jordan and Jeannine up in a tree…”, so I…might have…wanted to…get her back.”