Jeanie and the Magic Bracelet

After Johnny's birthday party Bou -- that is, Witchyy-Boo -- stayed late. It seemed that she never wanted to leave. Even the girl's mother said something like won't your parents be worried? So Johnny Carmel said he would walk her home.

On their way to the Vacant Lot where Boo had covered her magic broomstick with leaves, little Bou laughed and smiled and giggled and skipped. Never did he act like the witch she was underneath. Johnny wondered what was going on.

As Bou strattle the broomstick she smiled sweetly and said, "I'll see you soon, Johnny," and off she zoomed.

When Johnny got home it was suppertime. Jeanie laughed constantly. Every other word was Bou said this and Bou did that. It seemed to the birthday boy that it hadn't been a party for him but the two girls.

Then she said something that surprised Johnny. "Bou says that she's going to move in next door."

"Oh," said mother. "How nice. It's been for sale for some time. I didn't know Bou's folks had bought it. What's her last name, Jeanie?"

But the nine year-old didn't know. Nor did Johnny.

"When will she move in?" asked Mother.

"All she said was soon."

Johnny listened carefully.

"Oh, won't that be neat, Mother? Then we can play ALL the time!"

Johnny looked at his sister's wrist. "What's that?"

"It's a bracelet Bou gave me. Isn't it beautiful?"

J"Let me see that!" said Johnny. "What did Bou say about it?"

"That it's magic."

"Did she say what it did? Or how to make it work?"

Mother smiled at the conversation. If anyone could read her mind they would have heard, "Oh, I was the same way when I was that age. Always thinking about magic and miracles." The children kept talking.

"Bou said I must wear it all the time. And whenev er I think about her moving next door I must hold my right hand over it. And if I do that it will help bring about the Big Change."

"Big Change? What's that?"

"I don't know, but Bou says it can't happen without Birdie."

The word change ran through Johnny's mind. That's the magic that Carl ring could do too...

While Johnny and Jeanie spoke, little Bou stood in the cave of the witch and smiled into the mirror. In the back bubbled the brew while ugly trolls and gargoyles and creatures and beasties roamed around the dark and dirty place.

But unlike the last time she stood in the mirror,thistime Bou did not want to change back. She was tired of being an ugly hag. Two thousand years with a hair jutting out of a wart on her nose was too much. She had decided to change. Giving Johnny the

ring and Jeanie the bracelet was her way to get PEOPLE help. Now she had to help herself.

She went to the great crystal ball. She held her wand. With all the power she had, she slowly made the figure of Heady, Head Witch, appear.

"What is this? I'm to be summoned by a GIRL?" snapped Heady.

"I'm not a girl -- not yet, anyway," said Bou, and flicked her wand. The llittle girl in the pretty dress instantly changed into her witchy self. "See?"

"What an outrage against Witchdom!" shrieked Head Witch. "And why do you call me at this rediculous time? It's the middle of the day? Explain yourself, Boo!"

Boo told her story. How she figured that losing her magic and powers were not an accident. That deep inside she was tired of being a witch. Two thousand years was long enough!

"It's the fault of that brat-BOY, what's-his-name?!" snarled Heady.

"Oh, no," said Witchy-Boo confidently. "In fact, he tried to get me to stay a witch. Oh, no, he has nothing to do with it."

"Then who does?" demanded Heady. "These are not the thoughts of arealwitch!"

"No one. No one but me. You almost zapped me with your wand to fire me from the Witch Society. Oh, how I wish you had! Now do it, Heady. Now change me!" And Boo pushed the crystall ball toward her, as well as the broomstick and wand. She stepped from behind the bubling caldron. As sher last act as a witch Boo held her ring and concentrated. Slowly the ugly, wart-nosed

creature in black changed into the little girl in a pretty dress.

"Aounds!" shrieked Head Witch. "You're a disgrace to Witchdom! But not so fast, little one. The rule is that a witch can't change permanently just because she wants to. Someone on the PEOPLE side has to wish you to be one of them first."

"You mean you couldn'thave fired me by yourself?"

"Yes, but you wouldn't have been able to become a girl," said Heady.

At the same time Johnny asked Jeanie, "Do you REALLY want Bou to move next door?"

"Oh, you don't have to ask!" laughed the nine year-old. "I've neverhad such a dear friend in my entire life and I doubt if I ever will!" She calmly placed her hand over her wrist and added, "Oh, how I wish she would move next door!"

Johnny thought outloud. "Maybe it is uup to me then."

"What do you mean?" asked his sister.

"Oh, nothing. I was jujst thinking that maybe I should visit Bou and ask her when she's moving."

"Can I come? Can I come?"

"You might not have to," said Johnny. "If everything you two have cooked up, shemightmove in pretty quick."

Johnny locked his bedroom door. He crawled under his blanket. And within seconds he stood outside Witchyy-Boo's cave.

Johnny got there in the middle of the discussion between Boo and Heady. He heard and was most interested in what Heady said: "Someone on the PEOPLE side has to wish you to be one of them so badly that they force the change." Johnny knew that

must be Jeanie. Then he remembered what Bou said about Birdie bracelet: "The change couldn't hapen unless Birdie and I help."

And then Johnny remembered what Bou said when she left the Vacant Lot: "I'll see you soon, Johnny."

Young Johnny Carmel ducked as Head Witch flew out of the cave. He heard a little girl cry inside. He was about to enter when three gargoyles spotted him. They chased hm with clubs and stones.

Johnny didn't need to be the next ingredient in the bubling caldron. Hse jumped on Banjo and said, "Home, NOW!"

"Okee dokee!" Poof! And he found himself under his blanket.

Johnny tried to put all the pieces of the witch-turn-girl puzzle together. Carl ring seemed to be the last piece. And it still scared the boy. He knew that if he wished that Witchyy-Boo change into a girl she could never go back to being a witch. Never.

That's why he'd gone to the cave. He wanted to hear straight from Witchy-Boo if she REALLY wanted to become a girl. Forever.

But maybe she didn'thave to tell me, thought Johnny. Being a girl and crying was good enough.

Just then he heard Jeanie crying in her room. "Oh, how I wish Bou would move next door! Please, Birdie bracelet, make it happen!"

Johnny Carmel looked at Carl ring. He wished. And he held his hand above it.

And don't you know that in order to hear what happened next, we have to have this story

TO BE CONTINIUED