Ms. Whizz

Jacqueline lived with her family in a big modern housing development on the outskirts of a major city. The neighbourhood was full of children chalking on the sidewalks and zooming by on their bicycles. The winding roads snaked between the long rows of two-storey brick homes. The newly planted street trees stood at attention on the neatly mowed lawns. It was an ordinary new subdivision in a typical suburb.

Typical - until Ms. Whizz moved in next door.

Jacqueline and her parents were not sure how or when she arrived. The house next door remained vacant for weeks after the "For Sale" sign in its yard was covered by a "Sold" sticker. When Jacqueline and her brother Jason peeked through the front window one morning the big beige rooms looked cold and deserted.

But one spring afternoon when they pulled into the driveway after school, there she was!

A tall woman with long red hair blowing about her face was perched at the top of a ladder leaning against the front of the house next door. She was painting the trim around the windows a bright cheerful blue. The beige garage door was now a gleaming red and the front door a brilliant purple.

While their Mom put the van away, Jacqueline and Jason went over to get acquainted. The woman swung quickly down from the ladder to greet them.

"How do you do?" she said, gripping their small brown hands in a friendly fashion. "My name is Phillomena Whizzletownpuff, but you can call me Ms. Whizz." The woman wore a stiff green taffeta dress, much splattered with paint. She waved to Jacqueline's Mom who was standing in the driveway.

Jacqueline secretly wiped a smear of blue paint from her hand. "I'm Jacqueline," she said, "and this is my little brother Jason."

"Pleased to meet both of you!" Ms. Whizz said, flashing an enormous smile. "I'm sure we'll be good neighbours and friends."

And so began the transformation of the house next door. The new paint was only the beginning. Ms. Whizz attached an immense weather vane to the roof of the garage. She hung wind chimes all around the eavestrough so that the slightest breeze sent fairy music down the street. She painted the boards of the back fence in alternating stripes of blue and orange. Flowery chintz curtains were hung in all the windows. Ms. Whizz planted pink climbing rose bushes all around the house and trained the branches up the brick walls. An enormous vegetable garden filled the back yard and she crammed the front yard with lawn ornaments.

Ms. Whizz seemed to have a green thumb. Everything she planted grew exceedingly fast. Her vegetable garden was very productive and she often left baskets of ripe tomatoes or bags of onions on the porch for Jacqueline's Mom. In May, her roses burst into a profusion of blooms and by August their branches had reached her roof. When Jacqueline opened her window in the mornings the scent of freshly opened blossoms filled her bedroom.

Ms. Whizz had a rusty old-fashioned bicycle with a wicker basket strapped to the handlebars which she used to run all her errands. Most mornings, Jacqueline would see her peddling vigorously along the sidewalk with her lacy skirts tucked around her knees. She always stopped to chat with Jacqueline's Mom and any other neighbours who remained on friendly terms with her.

For not everyone on the street liked Ms. Whizz. Some were suspicious of her boundless energy, for she never seemed to stop working. Some objected to the appearance of her house. "Too gaudy for the area," as one woman put it. Others simply thought she was a little weird. "She dresses like a rag bag!" "And how does she expect to get around in this neighbourhood without a car this winter?"

But Jacqueline thought Ms. Whizz was wonderful. When school started again that autumn, she could hardly wait to get home each day and see what Ms. Whizz had been up to. There was often a new lawn ornament or flowering shrub to see. By September, the asphalt driveway had been removed and replaced with new sod and a little brick footpath running up to the front door.

One November afternoon Jacqueline arrived home to find that four mature apple trees had been planted in Ms. Whizz's front yard. "Gosh," said Jacqueline's Dad, "her landscaping bills must be incredible." Jacqueline skipped over the grass to take a closer look.

One large tree had been set out in each corner of the little front garden. The trees were of identical height and shape but each seemed to be at a different stage in its growth. The tree closest to the house was completely bare. The tree next to it was filled with pale green buds and apple blossoms. The third tree was in full leaf and the tree closest to Ms. Whizz's front door had yellow leaves and branches heavy with apples. Jacqueline wanted to ask Ms. Whizz about the strange trees but her father called her to come inside the house.

Jacqueline's chance came after supper. She had brought a box of chocolate bars home from school to be sold as a fundraiser. "I don't know how you'll sell all those," said her mother in dismay, "Every kid in the neighbourhood will be trying to unload them. Why don't you run next door tonight and see if Ms. Whizz will buy one."

Slipping into her sweater, Jacqueline ran up the red brick footpath. She rang the chimes next to the purple door. Almost immediately Ms. Whizz jerked the door open.

"Jacqueline," she cried, "How nice to see you!"

Jacqueline held out the box of chocolate bars. "I was wondering if you would like to buy one of these chocolate bars?" she said. "I have to sell them for school. They're three dollars each."

"Oh," Ms. Whizz wrinkled her forehead in consternation, "I'd love to help you out but I don't know if I have enough money left."

She started digging around in the pockets of her blue velvet smock, pulling out pennies and dimes and bits of string and piling them into Jacqueline's hands. Quite a heap of change materialized but when they counted it, they only had two dollars.

Ms. Whizz looked crestfallen for a moment but her face brightened as she caught sight of the tree behind Jacqueline's shoulder. She sprang down the front steps, pulled a large red apple from a branch and presented it to Jacqueline with a flourish.

"There you are," she said triumphantly. "Magic Wishing Apple. Worth much more than one dollar. All you do is eat the apple, count the seeds, turn around clockwise as many times as there are seeds and wish. Each apple is good for one wish only. All wishes are final."

Jacqueline felt a bit skeptical but she reached into her box and handed Ms. Whizz a chocolate bar. "I guess I can put a dollar from my allowance toward the chocolate," she thought glumly. She put the apple in her sweater pocket, thanked Ms. Whizz and headed home - quite forgetting to ask about the new trees.

Later that evening as she sat down to do her homework, Jacqueline found the apple in her pocket and began to eat it. It was delicious; sweet and crunchy with a slight nutty flavour. She ate it down to the core and absently lined the five apple seeds up on the table.

What if Ms. Whizz was telling the truth? What should she wish for? A new bicycle? A trip to Hong Kong to see her aunts? Jacqueline had read plenty of fairy tales and she knew that wishes were tricky. She would have to be very careful not to wish for the wrong thing at the wrong time. She remembered the man in the story who wished his wife's nose was a sausage!!

After her homework was finished, Jacqueline went upstairs to her bedroom. From her window she could see into the front yard next door. Slowly and carefully, Jacqueline turned around five times. She had just opened her mouth to utter her wish when a light in the garden caught her attention. She opened the window and leaned over the ledge to get a good look. Ms. Whizz was lighting candles and sticking them into the branches of the new apple trees.

"How strange," Jacqueline muttered to herself. "I wish I knew what Ms. Whizz was up to."

Ms. Whizz looked up from the garden and caught Jacqueline's eye. "As you wish!" she called.

Jacqueline clapped her hands over her mouth. She felt vexed. So much for her good intentions. She had made the first wish that popped into her head.

The doorbell rang. Jacqueline went downstairs to find her father speaking to Ms. Whizz.

"I've come to collect Jacqueline," she was saying.

"Here she is now," said her Dad. "Mind you wrap up warmly and be on your best behaviour Jacqueline."

Jacqueline felt a prickling sensation at the back of her neck. Here it was almost her bedtime on a school night and her father was merrily telling her to dress warmly and go outside with the next-door-neighbour. This was magic indeed.

Ms. Whizz led Jacqueline down the driveway and into her candlelit yard. She stopped in the centre of the garden at an equal distance from each of the four apple trees.

"So you wish to know what I'm up to Jacqueline?" she said. "Well, I will tell you. Tonight I am recreating the four seasons of the year. This apple tree is springtime, this one is summer, this is autumn and this one is winter."

As Ms. Whizz spoke, she began strolling around the yard. Jacqueline followed closely behind.

When they passed by the springtime tree the scent of apple blossom filled the air and fat bees could be seen bumbling about in the flowers. The grass around the summer tree was full of purple clover and the air was thick and humid. As they walked beneath the branches of the autumn tree Ms. Whizz picked another apple and passed it to Jacqueline. And as they passed the winter tree a gentle snowfall began to land on the bare branches. The candles winked as snowflakes fell into them and melted.

"I'm glad I could experience your winter before I had to leave," said Ms. Whizz. She held her sleeve close to her face examining the snowflakes resting there. "It's a good thing you made your wish tonight and not tomorrow. This is the end of my vacation. Tonight I go home."

"Home?" Jacqueline looked confused. "Isn't this your home?"

"Oh no," Ms. Whizz laughed.

"But if you weren't going to stay - why did you paint and garden and fix things up?"

Ms. Whizz's face shone with excitement. "I was enjoying the experiences available here. So many sights, sounds, and textures: giving life to growing things, creating wonderful flavours, covering the drab surfaces with colour."

"But where is your home?" cried Jacqueline.

"Sit down on the steps," said Ms. Whizz, "I'll tell you my story."

Jacqueline perched on the edge of the porch and Ms. Whizz sat down beside her. She suddenly looked tired.

"My people are powerful enchanters, Jacqueline. Many thousands of years ago we lived on a planet very much like Earth. We studied magic. We wanted to learn the meaning of the universe so that we could draw upon the power of the stars."

"We got so caught up in our magic research that we decided to cast a spell to rid ourselves of all distractions. No more getting hungry or feeling tired when we had so much to learn. Instead, we became spirits living in the gaps between the suns."

"If you're a sorcerer what are you doing on my street?" said Jacqueline.

"We made a huge mistake Jacqueline. After we became spirits, we realized that the strongest sense of magic comes from the ordinary events of life. But it was too late for us to change ourselves back."

"We cannot live as solid bodies for more than a few months at a time. So instead we take turns visiting other planets to remind ourselves of what we are missing. When I return to my people tonight I will tell them all about this house and this garden and your street."

Ms. Whizz put her arm round Jacqueline's shoulder and gave her a squeeze. "Put that wishing apple somewhere safe," she said, "And don't ever take life on Earth for granted Jacqueline."

The next morning Ms. Whizz was gone. The apple trees were gone. The "For Sale" sign went back up on the lawn.

A few weeks later new people moved into the house next door. They painted the house beige, took down the windchimes and repaved the driveway.

Jacqueline put the apple in a plastic box and set it the deep freeze. She taped a note to the lid which said, "Private Property -do not touch." She was saving her other wish for a rainy day. In the meantime she was going to sow some marigold seeds to plant round the porch next spring. And perhaps she could convince her Dad to paint their garage door pink.