The Witches: Chapters 12–22

Metamorphosis
I remember thinking to myself, There is no escape for me now!

Then very quickly the frightful burning searing scorching feeling started spreading down into my chest and into my tummy and on and on into my arms and legs and all over my body!

After that there came a fierce prickling sensation all over my skin (or what was left of my skin) as though tiny needles were forcing their way out through the surface of the skin from the inside, and this, I realise now, was the growing of the mouse-fur.

Far away in the distance, I heard the voice of The Grand High Witch yelling, "Five hundred doses! This stinking little carbuncle has had five hundred doses and the alarm-clock has been smashed and now vee are having instantaneous action!"

I leapt over witches' feet right and left, and in no time at all I was down the steps and on to the floor of the Ballroom itself and skittering off among the rows of chairs.

It was crouching on the floor holding a piece of bread in its front paws and nibbling away at it with great gusto.

"And you can creep into the larder at night," I said, "and nibble through all the packets of raisins and cornflakes and chocolate biscuits and everything else you can find. You can stay there all night eating yourself silly. That's what mice do."

It was a silly thing to do, but I did it instinctively, without thinking.

With me in her hand, she rushed back into her own room and began rummaging in the chest-of-drawers.

It reminded me of the smell inside the men's public lavatory at our local railway-station.

I had to push forward hard to make any headway, but I kept at it.

I was scrabbling about under the mattress when my head suddenly bumped against something hard inside the mattress above me.

“Do not stand out there dithering in the corrri-dor! I don't have all night!"

"Are you trying to be funny?" Mrs Jenkins said, very prim.

“You nasty cheeky old woman!” shouted Mr Jenkins.

"What a very disagreeable little boy you are," my grandmother said to him.

"Then you'll just have to creep into the kitchen and find a good hiding-place and wait...and listen. Just lie there in some dark cranny listening and listening to what the cooks are saying...and then, with a bit of luck, somebody's going to give you a clue. Whenever they have a very big party to cook for, the food is always prepared separately."

"No, thank you," I said. "I'm too excited to eat. And I've got to keep fit and frisky for the big job ahead."

At first I saw only the shoes and ankles of these women who were surging in through the door, but when I glanced up a bit higher I knew at once who they were.

A man with a tall white hat who must have been the head chef shouted, "Put the soup for the big party in the larger silver soup-tureen!"

If I can somehow clamber up on to that shelf, I thought, then I've got it made.

The fact that a tiny little creature like me had caused such a commotion among a bunch of grown-up men gave me a happy feeling.

Her hand came down and caressed me. "Well done, my darling!" she whispered back.

"No more school!" said Bruno, grinning a broad and asinine mouse-grin.

There was a mischievous little smile on her face and I could see that she was about to get Mr Jenkins into trouble.

I saw a chef in a tall white hat rushing out from the kitchen brandishing a frying-pan, and another one just behind him was wielding a carving-knife above his head, and everyone was yelling, "Mice! Mice! Mice! We must get rid of the mice!"

I saw a chef in a tall white hat rushing out from the kitchen brandishing a frying-pan, and another one just behind him was wielding a carving-knife above his head, and everyone was yelling, "Mice! Mice! Mice! We must get rid of the mice!"

You could hear Mrs Jenkins's shrill voice all over the room. "Herbert!" it was screaming.

Suddenly, he caught sight of me, a little mouse, nestling in my grandmother's hand.

"We have accomplished great feats today," she said.

Next, she rigged up an equally ingenious system whereby I could switch on the light whenever I entered a room at night.

Next, she rigged up an equally ingenious system whereby I could switch on the light whenever I entered a room at night.

"By golly, you've got a nerve, Grandmamma!"

"And that will be where the new Grand High Witch is certain to be living at this very moment with her retinue of special Assistant Witches. Important rulers are always surrounded by a large retinue of assistants."

My grandmother was getting pretty worked up herself and now she heaved herself out of her chair and began pacing up and down the room, thumping the carpet with her stick.