Free Stopping for a Spell by Diana Wynne Jones Page A

a key?” he said hopelessly.
    All the grannies were a little vague at times, when it suited them. Supergranny was supervague. “I don’t know, dear. Come along.”
    Erg knew he was locked out of the house and the prayer machine locked in. As a last hope, he tried lingering beside Granny Three’s snake green car. “Can we drive to the park?”
    But three of the grannies did not know how to drive, and that canceled out the one who did. “I don’t know how to drive, dear,” said Supergranny.
    So Erg was forced to trot along the pavement beside Supergranny. They kept passing people Erg knew. Not one of these people spared a glance for Supergranny. It was as if they saw pink-haired superwomen every day. But every single person stared at Erg, and Erg’s pajamas, and the huge teddy bear. Erg tried to keep an expression on his face of a boy playing woad-stained Ancient British convicts who had just slain a fierce teddy bear. But either that was too hard an idea for one face to express, or Erg did not express it very well. Almost everybody laughed.
    Erg was glad when they reached the park and found it nearly empty, except for some girls on the swings.
    Here Supergranny seemed to forget they had come to look for Emily. But that did not help Erg. Supergranny led him over to the slide and the swings. “You play, dear. Slide down the slide, while I rest my poor feet.” She sat heavily on the nearest park bench.
    Erg tried to defy her. “What if I don’t slide down the slide?” he asked.
    â€œAwful things happen to little boys who disobey,” Supergranny quavered placidly.
    Erg looked her in the steely eye and believed it. He leaned the teddy against the steps of the slide and began bitterly to climb up. He knew that when he got to the top, the girls on the swings would see him and laugh, too.
    But when he got to the top of the slide, everyone had left the swings except one big girl. She was such a big girl that she had to swing with her legs stuck straight out in front of her. Erg sat at the top of the slide and stared.
    That big girl was Emily!
    Unbelievingly, Erg craned to look over his shoulder. The big yellow teddy bear was still leaning against the steps of the slide. Had the invention perhaps not been a prayer machine after all? Erg looked hopefully over at the park bench. Supergranny still sat there. Her pink head was nodding in a superdoze.
    Erg flung himself on the slide and shot down it. He shot off the bottom and raced across to the swings.
    â€œEmily!” he panted. “What happened? Where did you go?”
    Emily gave Erg an unfriendly look. “To have lunch with my friend Josephine,” she said. “Dear brother,” she added, and stood up against the swing ready to shoot forward on it and kick Erg in the stomach.
    â€œOh, be nice, please!” Erg begged her. “ Why did you go?”
    â€œBecause you were so horrid to me,” said Emily. “And then when I opened the front door, Granny Three was outside heaving a teddy out of her car, and I couldn’t face her. I hate Granny Three. So I hid behind the door while she went to give you the teddy, and then I ran around to Josephine’s.”
    So the teddy had come from Granny Three. It was all a terrible mistake. It was a natural mistake, perhaps, because Granny Three had never been known to give anyone anything before, but a mistake all the same. And to make matters worse, Supergranny had noticed Erg was not sliding. She sprang up and came scouring across to the swings, calling for Erg in a long, quavering hoot, like a magnified owl. It was such a noise, that people were running from the other end of the park to see what was the matter.
    Erg watched her coming, feeling like a drowning man whose life is passing before him in a flash. The prayer machine had been working all along, he knew now. He had not asked it to turn Emily into a teddy bear, but he had asked it to send