Free Edwina Pilkington's Computer School of Magic by Elizabeth Barber

E dwina and her best friend Gabriella were on their way home from school on a bright, sunny Friday afternoon. There was nothing to suggest that there was something strange and mysterious about to happen in Rainbow City, even though the local newspaper, Stone Age , had been full of strange and interesting articles written by Mr Pickwicks, the reporter.
    Mr Pickwicks was a plump little man who liked to collect rare and unusual stories. He often wrote the strangest articles about the Pilkington family. One of his latest stories, titled ‘Rare and unusual’, was about Edwina’s pet pig, ‘Thirty-four’, who was suppose to have been seen at the green and purple post office wearing large, red glasses and rubbing his back against the lamppost while reading the mail. Another reporter, Ms Esmeralda, was convinced they saw Edwina riding a unicorn past the old cathedral.
    Small towns – their imaginations do run wild. Well, this night would be no different. It was Halloween and the Pilkington family were celebrating with their annual fancy dress party. Everyone in Rainbow City was invited, even the not so popular Mrs Whatmore. She was a local shop owner, a large woman with a scaly face and pointy nose. Nobody knew much about her, except that on the day she arrived in Rainbow City, the previous shop owners strangely disappeared.
    Edwina didn’t like Mrs Whatmore because she was always sticking her pointy nose in where it wasn’t wanted. Mrs Whatmore had just finished delivering lots of balloons up to Stone Castle for the Halloween party when she noticed Edwina with her long, blonde hair and Gabriella; with her short, red, curly hair, running up along the narrow path towards the castle.
    Mr Gummylegs, the gardener, was also watching Edwina and Gabriella make their way home from school. Mr Gummylegs had just finished decorating Stone Castle with hundreds of fairy lights and was on his way back to the garden to get more pumpkins when Mr Philpott the postman pulled up on his motorbike and started babbling about being followed by large, bat-like creatures.
    Mr Gummylegs could not believe what he was hearing – such nonsense coming from the mouth of such an important man – so he just shook his head, grunted and went on about his business. What else could he do after hearing a story like that? He was now beginning to wonder if his old friend, the postman, had finally lost his mind.
    Edwina’s mother, the beautiful Lady Lilly Arna, was sitting by the fireplace in the Great Hall of Stone Castle reading the newspaper, Stone Age. Lady Lilly Arna would sit down at about the same time each day with a cup of hot chocolate and catch up on the local news. She enjoyed reading the rare and unusual stories that Mr Pickwicks wrote, especially the ones about her own family, the Pilkingtons. It always made her laugh. But today was different; the headlines on the front page read:
    RAINBOW CITY – BANK ROBBED
    SKELETON KEY STOLEN
    This spelled trouble.
    There had been a lot of strange things happening in Rainbow City over the past couple of weeks. There was the story that Mr Gummylegs had told Lady Lilly Arna about the local baker, Peter Pickle, who had all his meat pies stolen. All that was left on the floor were crumbs, footprints and tail ‘swishing’ marks. Then there was that weird story that Mr Philpott the postman had just told her about the bat-like creature that had followed him all the way through Rainbow City. Earlier on, she had found that nosy Mrs Whatmore drawing a plan of Stone Castle, and to make things worse, she had the hide to deny it.
    What a day it had been, and the day was not yet over.
    Lady Lilly Arna was becoming quite concerned that there was trouble brewing. There were just too many strange and mysterious things happening, even for Rainbow City. She looked at her watch. Edwina and Gabriella should be home from school by now. Exactly at the same time she looked at her watch, there