Gertie was a witch. At least, she was supposed to be. As her mother had told her at a very early age, she came from a long line of witches. A fairly crooked line maybe, but a long one all the same. Gertie\u2019s mother was a witch, of course.
\n\t\u2018So is my mother,\u2019 Ma Grimthorpe told her. \u2018And her mother and grandmother were before her. So it goes, back through the ages. The Grimthorpes have always been witches.\u2019
\n\tSo, what was wrong with Gertie?
\n\tIn truth, Gertie had been named Gertrude. She soon got it into her head however that she really didn\u2019t like the rude bit, so she persuaded everyone to leave it out. This was one of her many whims.
\n\tUnfortunately, poor Gertie had been something of a disappointment since birth. As her eager mother and grandmother had hovered over the new baby, the smiles had left their faces as quick as a flash of lightning.
\n\t\u2018She looks\u2026normal\u2026\u2019 Granny Grimthorpe said in disbelief.
\n\t\u2018Where\u2019s the Grimthorpe wart?\u2019 asked Ma in shock.
\n\tThey all had one, right there in the middle of their rather long chins. (Or in some cases ONE of their rather large, long, chins). To not have a hair or two growing out of it could possibly be forgiven.
\n\t\u2018After all, look at Great Aunt Mildred. She hadn\u2019t a hair in sight,\u2019 Granny reminded Gertrude\u2019s mother. \u2018Not on her wart, that is. Actually, she hadn\u2019t much on her head either, come to think of it. But that\u2019s beside the point. Anyway, as I was saying, she proved to be one of the most powerful witches in the family.\u2019
\n\t\u2018But NO wart?\u2019 Ma added with a sigh.
\n\tThis had never been heard of before. Granny rubbed the end of her wrinkled finger over the baby\u2019s smooth chin.
\n\t\u2018It\u2019s true,\u2019 she croaked, shaking her head in horror. \u2018No wart. Not even a pimple. A blackhead would have done for a start. It could have got worse. But nothing.\u2019
\n\t\u2018I don\u2019t think her nose looks hooked either,\u2019 replied Gertie\u2019s mother, with tears in her eyes.
\n\t\u2018Give it time,\u2019 consoled Granny, with a grimace. \u2018It might grow crooked. It\u2019s too early to tell yet.\u2019
\n\t\u2018I hope so,\u2019 replied the now not so proud mum, looking at the pretty little pink bundle in front of her. \u2018I certainly hope so.\u2019
\n\tIt didn\u2019t.
\n\tMa and Granny Grimthorpe loved the baby dearly. After all, it wasn\u2019t her fault she was normal. But still, they lived in hope that one day, soon, Gertie would show signs of being worthy to live in their exclusive village.
\n\tThe witches mixed with normal people, or mere mortals as they sometimes called them, but a happy witch is one surrounded by her own kind.
\n\tVile Vale was such a place. Only witches and warlocks lived here. Some ran small shops selling essentials such as food, black cloaks, broomsticks, cauldrons and the like. One enterprising soul had even opened up her own pub, The Cat and Broomstick. \u2018To cater for social gatherings and to serve special witches brew,\u2019 she proudly told the villagers.
\n\tAll in all, it was a village where everyone felt they belonged. The girls were all little witches. They acted like little witches. They looked like little witches. Apart from Gertie.
\n\tMa Grimthorpe watched the baby closely, day by day, longing to see the slightest sign of her looking like a special baby should. Gertie\u2019s skin problem was awful, and was the first thing that visitors to see the new member of their coven commented on.
\n\t\u2018Oh, I am so sorry,\u2019 Griselda Grott exclaimed. \u2018She doesn\u2019t look too good does she? What a healthy colour. Have you tried the usual cures?\u2019
\n\t\u2018Yes, many times,\u2019 Gertie\u2019s mum replied sadly. \u2018I make all her feeds up with carrot juice. I\u2019ve rubbed her little body with the golden dust from our buttercups made into a paste with goat\u2019s milk, too. Nothing seems to work.\u2019
\n\tGriselda shook her head in sympathy. \u2018Never mind,\u2019 she replied, trying to sound consoling. \u2018She\u2019ll grow out of it. It\u2019s nothing a good dose of jaundice won\u2019t cure.\u2019
\n\tGertie didn\u2019t get jaundice. Nor did she turn the becoming shade of yellow that all special babies should be. To the disgust of the village at large, she remained a terrible shade of the palest pink. Shocked stares met her wherever her mother took her out in her special pram. Stares that Gertie\u2019s mum began to meet with anger.
\n\t\u2018Oh, let me see the new arrival!\u2019 the villagers would say, then after the briefest of looks would turn to admire the pram, one of the best money could buy. It was a delightful shade of black, shaped like an oval version of a cauldron but with wheels where the four legs would have been. There was a hood made to look like a spider\u2019s web that could be pulled up to protect the baby if it rained. The finishing touch was the realistic spider that dangled from it to keep baby happy, watching it swing to and fro.
\n\tEveryone praised Ma Grimthorpe\u2019s bad taste, but not the baby inside the magnificent pram.
\n\tIt was after one such meeting, a quick glance at the baby then open admiration of the pram, that Granny Grimthorpe hissed, \u2018Are you sure she\u2019s getting enough of the night air?\u2019
\n\t\u2018Yes, of course,\u2019 the troubled mother wailed. \u2018Every night when it\u2019s clear I sit moon-bathing with her!\u2019
\n\tThey both shook their heads as they stared at poor Gertie, and wondered if there might be some more spells they hadn\u2019t yet tried.
\n\tIt wasn\u2019t only her skin either. Gertie\u2019s teeth were a worry too. \u2018And wouldn\u2019t you just know it,\u2019 Ma complained to Granny, \u2018she smiles when anyone looks in her pram. We can\u2019t even keep it a secret she hasn\u2019t any teeth.\u2019
\n\tMany special babies were born with a full set of lovely sharp pointed teeth. Others got them after a few weeks. This baby took three months. Then only two popped through in the centre of her lower jaw. In horror, Gertie\u2019s mother gazed at the two, white, milk teeth. Flat topped, straight little things. She believed she had never seen anything so horrible in anyone\u2019s mouth before. It was more than she could take.
\n\tAs Gertie\u2019s mother wailed and rocked herself, she groaned, \u2018Oh, what have I done to deserve this? Why should I be cursed to have a baby that looks so normal? Haven\u2019t I been bad all my life?\u2019 she said to the room in general. She thought of tiny pointed fangs showing in a lovely, yellow, grimacing little face; then stared at the chuckling, happy, pink bundle beside her and cried loudly, \u2018Oh I can\u2019t bear the shame, I can\u2019t!\u2019
\n\tAs Gertie grew up, she was never loved any less because of her normality. In fact, maybe she was loved more, because Ma and Granny Grimthorpe were so sorry for her. Still, they watched day by day to see if she would begin to look special.
\n\tAs the first few years of Gertie\u2019s life went by, it became obvious that the bright pale blue eyes and long blonde curly hair would remain. The Grimthorpes gave up hoping for a change of appearance.
\n\t\u2018All her power will be inside,\u2019 said Granny with a nod one day, as she was clicking away knitting a new spider\u2019s web shawl for winter. \u2018Yes, that\u2019s what it is. The Great Evil Powers have seen fit to make her LOOK normal, so it will be so much more of a surprise when she shows us how special she really is. You mark my words. You\u2019ll see.\u2019
\n\tThe idea passed around the village, and wagging tongues discussed the power that Gertie might soon begin to show them. They watched her picking flowers, befriending butterflies, and smiling at everyone. And they waited. Then they waited a bit longer. Then they got tired of waiting and found someone else to talk about.<\/p>\n
Gertie was a happy and cheerful child. She sometimes wondered why the other witches stared at her in a funny way, especially Grothilde. Grothilde stared at everyone in a strange way though, because one eye looked you in the face while the other seemed to be fixated on something hovering above your head. Still, something told Gertie she was different. It wasn\u2019t just the fact that all the other children and witches were yellow skinned, hook nosed and warty. It was something more. Something that went deeper.
\n\t\u2018Why am I so different, Mummy?\u2019 she asked, but Ma hugged her and said she was destined to be special in her own way.
\n\t\u2018Granny Grimthorpe says so, and she has never been known to be wrong,\u2019 she added. \u2018Well, apart from the time she convinced Aunt Satana she could swim right across the river if she put her mind to it. Then, half way across Aunt Satana realised she couldn\u2019t. Still,\u2019 Ma continued with a faraway look in her eyes, \u2018no one ever talks about that. Everyone is entitled to one mistake.\u2019
\n\tSo, Gertie grew up knowing she was different, in a special way. She accepted everything she saw and did as being normal, because it was the only life she knew. She thought nothing of waving their visitors off as they flew over the rooftops on their broomsticks, and sitting out in the moonlight with her mother. They collected herbs and roots together while the dew was still fresh on them, or at exactly the stroke of midnight, or during a storm. Her mother promised one day soon she would explain to Gertie the best times to pick everything. She had already begun her simple education with reading and writing. She taught her how to read spells and curses, and how to write important words like toad, cat, cauldron (that was a hard one), wart, cloak and broomstick. She also began to teach her numbers.
\n\t\u2018After all,\u2019 Ma explained, \u2018if a spell requires three drops of bat spit, then that is EXACTLY what is needed. Not two, or four. Four can result in the most horrifying results.\u2019
\nGertie knew she was thinking of Grothilde, who had once made the near fatal mistake of looking away with her good eye while adding the final ingredient to a spell. Her other eye was too busy watching a bee buzzing overhead to notice the fourth drop. The explosion that followed had blown Grothilde clean out the window, which was fortunately open at the time, and into the holly bush outside. She had felt so silly about it, especially since someone was passing by as it happened.
\n\t\u2018Nice day in\u2019t it?\u2019 she had called. \u2018Just need a bit of holly for my latest spell. Bit temperamental, that\u2019s all.\u2019
\n\tThe other witches would never have found out the truth if Grothilde\u2019s sister, Mona, had not drunk a little too much witches brew in \u201cThe Cat and Broomstick\u201d one night and told her good friend all about it. In complete secrecy, amidst guffaws of hysterical laughter. The good friend naturally went on to tell the rest of the village. It had now become a well known conversation starter, \u2018Have you heard about Grothilde and the bat spit?\u2019
\n\tIt never failed to cause an uproar at any gathering. The only one who didn\u2019t find it funny was Grothilde. She said that on bad days, she could still feel the prickles.
\n\tGertie had heard the story told many times, and knew Ma placed great value on teaching her to be absolutely sure about her numbers. She could count her fingers and toes at a very young age.
\n\tGertie\u2019s education about important things continued in this way for the first years of her life. Witches and warlocks in general didn\u2019t attend school in any normal sense, as they could learn all the things that mattered in their own villages. No one from the normal world ever pressed the point by trying to make them attend schools, because they were wise enough to know that you never tell a witch what she must, or must not, do. Not if you want to go away with the same head and body you arrive with, that is.
\n\tThe nearest education committee to Vile Vale had long since decided that life was better this way.
\n\t\u2018Can you imagine the disruption there would be if those strange children got into our schools?\u2019 they asked one another.
\n\t\u2018Our little dears would be frightened to death by them,\u2019 they agreed.
\n\tAnd so it was, the witches and the normal people lived happily apart, hoping to have as little dealings with each other as possible.
\n\tOnly the most special of the witches\u2019 society ever went away to a school for witches and warlocks. The Academy was for the select few who showed great potential.
\n\tThe Grimthorpes didn\u2019t have much hope for Gertie on that score.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gertie was a witch. At least, she was supposed to be. As her mother had told her at a very early age, she came from a long line of witches. A fairly crooked line maybe, but a long one all the same. Gertie\u2019s mother was a witch, of course. \u2018So is my mother,\u2019 Ma Grimthorpe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-519","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lynnenorth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lynnenorth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lynnenorth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lynnenorth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lynnenorth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lynnenorth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lynnenorth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}