you can throw me if you want

[truthwright]

It turns out that there was really not much point to making a schedule. Kas and Helen visit the witch clan whenever Helen feels like it, and stay as long as she wants, and go when she wants to be somewhere else, and it all adds up to plenty more time spent with the clan than away.

After the aquarium jaunt with Ranata, it's a little more than a month before they visit the clan again.

Comments

[carillons]

On one of the latter occasions, Helen gets bored with the park and goes back across the street to collect her spinach so he can find her more fun things to do.

He is not there.

She frowns at the empty tables.

[alicornucopia]

There is no spinach here, except in the salad, but there are some witches.

"Are you lost?" one of them asks Helen.

[carillons]

"Not exactly," says Helen. "I know where I am, I just don't know where my daddy is." (She has learned that the 'mommy' and 'spinach' parts are best left out when talking to strange grown-ups, because they get terribly confused and it's a bother to untangle them.)

[alicornucopia]

"Oh, goodness," says the witch.

"Hmm," says the other. "What about your mommy?"

[carillons]

"I don't have one," says Helen.

[alicornucopia]

"What a pity," says the second witch.

"We're just about done here," says the first witch. "Why don't you come with us and we'll look after you while we find your daddy?"

[carillons]

Helen peers at the witches.

"Maybe," she says. "Can you find him? He should be close by. Maybe I should look in the bathroom first."

[alicornucopia]

"But he'd be in the men's room," says the first witch. "We can find him for you, you needn't worry."

[carillons]

"I'm going to look in the ladies' room," says Helen.

She goes into the restaurant.

[alicornucopia]

The witches do not expect that she will find her daddy in the ladies' room. They wait.

[carillons]

And sure enough, Helen comes out again.

"He wasn't there," she reports. "And I asked somebody to look in the men's room for me and he wasn't there either. I guess he's lost. How are you going to find him? Will you use magic?"

[alicornucopia]

"We know plenty of magic," replies the first witch reassuringly.

[carillons]

"I know lots of magic too!" she says. "But I don't know any daddy-finding spells. Will you teach me one? Or are there runes and things in all the ones there are? I don't know runes yet."

[alicornucopia]

"Lots of runes," says the second witch. "If he's very hard to find it might even take a sparrow or a pigeon."

[carillons]

"Can I watch?" says Helen, fascinated.

[alicornucopia]

"I suppose," says the first witch.

[carillons]

"What are your names? I'm Helen," she says. "Helen Ianthe."

[alicornucopia]

"I'm Kana Setira and this is Loviisa Lerandi," says the first witch.

[carillons]

"It's nice to meet you!" she says. "Where are you going to do the spell to find my daddy?"

[alicornucopia]

"All our magic things are home," says Kana. "It's not a long flight. You can sit on my cloud-pine with me."

[carillons]

"Okay," Helen says agreeably.

[alicornucopia]

And so off they fly. The flight is a little long, but Kana happens to have a children's book on her for Helen to read.

[carillons]

She hasn't read it before, but it is cute and she likes it.

"I hope he's not worried," she says when she finishes it, most of the way through the flight.

[alicornucopia]

"Well, if he is, he will soon stop," says Kana. "All done with the book?" She tucks it away again. "Do you like magic? Are you studying old languages?"

[carillons]

"I love magic!" says Helen. "It's so much fun! I can count to fifty in Svaaric, but I don't know real words yet."