She’d
swore, if she heard kids cursing or talking down to each other, one more time, she’d
turn the vulgar misfits into frogs. Not
long after making that declaration, a five-year-old shouted to another on the
playground, “What chu lookin’ at retard!” The old witch grabbed her wand and nearly cast a spell, in front of the other child, but she decided not to send
the so-called “retard” running home with tales of witches and crap in his
pants. And she considered that turning
the foul-mouth kid into an amphibian would not improve the boy’s respect or manors.
So,
later that day, she changed both the ill-mannered child and his father into toads. She
picked them up and zipped them in her pocket until she got home. Into a single jar
she put them, and she watched as they tirelessly jumped about. She scolded them until they finally stopped
jumping.
The
father promised, with several croaks, to teach all of his kids, indirectly or
otherwise, respect for all people.
She
believed him, as he’d drowned himself with warts. She erased the boy’s memory,
knowing what early frog memories could do to a growing mind, and promised to
reverse the spell if the father spoke a word to anyone about her. With a twist
of her wrist and a point of her wand, they metamorphosed into humans and were spun outside her apartment.
That
afternoon, she decided to take the path along the high school as a short cut to
the store to buy worms for her soup. As
she was passing the high school, she saw two teenagers in the parking lot. She watched as they got into fighter’s
stance. They each had their fists in the
air. Just as both gave each other an
uppercut, she twirled her wand.
Lightning struck them and their bodies fell to the ground.
