Very Short Story - Toil and Trouble

 The below was written for a long ago writing challenge somewhere across the internet but in honour of yesterday being Halloween, it seemed appropriate to post today. ;)

Toil and Trouble

“What do you mean, you forgot the eye of newt?”

“I mean it just slipped my mind! It was so busy at the Wicca market, there were so many stalls and the slug juggler was flirting with me…”

“Well, you got to admit, dearie, he is a fine figure of a man….”

“Shut up Ursula! Just keep stirring that cauldron!”

“Fine by me, dearie, fine by me…”

“I’m sorry, Medea. Do you want me to go back?”

“Well, there isn’t time now, is there? We’ll have to make do. Did you get the fillet of fenny snake?”

“Umm… they were out…”

“Of for the love of Hecate… All right, the toe of frog?”

“They were out of that too. There’s this recipe for wart growth in Circe’s latest compendium that’s proving very popular, you see…”

“I don’t care what’s popular! We need those ingredients! Please tell me you at least got the wool of bat and tongue of dog!”

 “Oh, I got the tongue of dog! Here!”

 “What… is that?”

 “Tongue of dog!”

“What king of dog?”

“Well, they only had Chihuahua…”

“And that? What is that?”

“They didn’t have wool of bat either. But I did find this lovely crochet kit…”

“So, tell me Glenda. On this four hour trip to the Wicca Market, what exactly did you buy to make that bag so full?”

“I picked up some green tea. Oh and some Jammy Dodgers.”

“So let me get this straight. Any minute now, the hapless plaything of fate will be riding his big strapping horse over that moor and what will he find when he gets here? No eye of newt, no toe of frog, no wool of bat and a tongue of dog you’d lose if you sneezed. But instead of a dread hell-broth, we can offer him some green tea and a Jammy Dodger. Oh, and we can crochet him a hat.” Sigh. “Well, at least we have a nice, bubbling cauldron….”

“Umm… dearie?”

“What?”

“The fire’s just gone out…”

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