Violet And The Magic Book

• Perry Ayres, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2012

Violet McDonald groaned to wake up to the familiar sound of her alarm clock. She swore that it was so loud, it'd probably wake up the neighbours if it didn't have a piece of masking tape over the speaker. She slowly rolled over and clicked the off button, then buried her head under the covers.
A few minutes later, her mum came in and shook her gently.
"Time for school, love," she said, and backed out of the room and down the stairs.
Violet groaned again, even louder this time, and quietly got dressed before heading downstairs for breakfast.
"Pancakes again, dad?" she smiled, licking her lips.
"Yup!" her dad grinned. "And sunny-side up, too, just the way you like 'em."
"Thanks, dad."
After breakfast, it suddenly came to Violet that she was going on a school trip with the class today into town.... And, better yet, school finished at 1 O'Clock! Awesome!
But then, something else dawned on her.... She had no money whatsoever to spend in town.
Her mum must've noticed her disappointed expression and realised, for she quickly got out her purse and put a ten dollar note in front of her daughter.
"Oh, thanks so much, mum!" Violet cried, jumping up and hugging her. "I'll spend it wisely. In fact, I'll buy you one of those necklaces there that you saw the other day!"
"That'd be lovely, dear. But now I think you'd better go to the bus stop to wait for your bus, eh?"
"Wow! Crikey, mum! Thanks!" And with the money in her hand, and her school bag in the other, she raced out the front door.
The next thing she knew it, she was getting off the bus and stepping into town. It was the busiest place she'd ever seen! There were stalls everywhere she looked, and it was such fun browsing through all the stalls with her classmates. She chose a cute little blue opal necklace for her mum, which was on a one hour only sale for only two dollars! Then, Violet realised that she'd been left behind by her class, so she hurried off with her eight dollars change jangling in her pocket and the necklace around her neck to catch up with them all.
Suddenly, a small, shabby doorway caught her eye. She turned and, without thinking, started to walk towards it. There were moons and stars in a night sky painted around the doorway, and bits of midnight blue paint flaked off the outer walls. She entered, and a bell jangled somewhere nearby. Violet looked up, but didn't see one joined onto the door. Suddenly, an old man with a long, white beard appeared behind the counter.
"Can I help you with something, young lady?" he asked in an old-fashioned sort of voice.
"Erm.... No thanks, sir," Violet stammered. "I-I'm just browsing for now."
"Very well," the old man said, and disappeared! Right before Violet's shocked eyes!
She hurried to the back of the shop and made herself busy by looking at all the china things, and reading their labels, one by one, until she came to a book. It was dusty, and Violet coughed a little as she wiped it off the cover but, underneath, were the words; SIAME NUTI VONEZ. It was foreign, that's for sure. But she'd never seen any language like it!
She carefully opened it out to the first page, but all it said was a price. An old English dollar sign, and a number five. She went to pay for it. The old man appeared again, and Violet was sure she hadn't imagined it.
"Ah," he said, "you've taken a fancy to the book of magic." So, apparently, Violet's a witch!