Then – suddenly – there it was!
‘Oh,’ she said.
‘Is that all you can say?’ I was a bit put out, especially after all the trouble I’d gone to. Eye of newt is not that easy to come by, not around here.
‘We’ll I’d expected… well, something a bit more….’ She made one of those vague-shaped gestures that are not easy to interpret.
‘What is that supposed to mean?’
‘Well, you know…?’
‘What?’
‘Magic and all that?’
‘Yes…?’
‘I’d just… I suppose… expected something a bit more…?’
‘A bit more what?’
‘Well, magical… basically.’
‘Oh.’
‘Not that I’m complaining,’ she complained. ‘Another thing?’
‘Yes.’ I realised I was tapping my arm with my magic wand. I remembered what that had done to the handsome prince… well, toad now, of course, and stopped. ‘What other thing?’
‘It smells of pumpkin.’
‘Right. What do you expect it to smell of?’
‘Well… I dunno… leather, metal… that new car smell.’
‘It smells of pumpkin… because… well.’ I gestured in the air with the wand, making sure I’d turned it off first, of course.
She sighed. ‘Typical.’
‘What?’
‘I never asked to be the daughter of a wizard. Other dads on their daughter’s birthday…. Well, you know, they at least go out and buy something… not this.’ She pointed down at the car. Maybe bright pumpkin orange is not the right shade for a teenager’s first car, but I’ve seen worse.
‘I bought the pumpkin,’ I protested.
But by then it was already too late. She had already stormed off.
‘Don’t slam the…!’ I yelled as the door slammed.
‘Well, that went well,’ her mother said in her I told you so voice.
‘Yes,’ I agreed. ‘At least I didn’t have to tell her about having to be home by midnight with it.’
Kids, eh?
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