Free Hilda and Zelda by Paul Kater Page A

where they had
done some proletarian shopping, lacking people to accept their
money.
    The fire floated in the air, two tins with
food hovering over the flames. William kept an eye on them as Hilda
examined the plates, forks and knives they had 'found'
somewhere.
    "Do you think Zelda will have wards up at
night, when she's asleep?", William asked as he poked the tin cans
with his wand.
    "I guess," said Hilda. "She does have these
weird plants too, so it would not surprise me."
    "Yeah. These plants. They worry me. I've
never seen them before. They seem to be smart too."
    Hilda laughed. "They're not smart. They just
react to people. The one that's Zelda, and others, probably. All
basic stuff that you never learnt. No, you just go about floating
ghosts, not knowing what you're doing."
    William glanced at his witch. She did not
seem to mean it in a bad way, the link did not convey any hostile
feelings about his Headless Nick trick, but he had learnt that that
was not always conclusive with Hilda.
    The wicked witch looked at the wizard, walked
over and sat next to him. "No hard feelings, William, really, okay?
You know I love you. You do. I do. But it is still so unnerving for
me to hear what you do just like that, while you can blunder along
with the simple things, and you are so ignorant about so many more
things too. It sometimes is difficult for me."
    William put away his wand and took Hilda's
hands. "I am sure that I can make you feel insecure. And I am sorry
about that. We both know that things just happened."
    Hilda nodded. "They did. And bottom line is
that I am happy they did." She smiled at him. "So how's our food
coming along? I still think that we should have magicked it done,
not go the cumbersome way you seem to like so much."
    William grinned, popped up his wand again and
tapped the cans. "It should be done now."
    Quickly the contents of the cans were
deposited onto the plates and the floating fire was removed.
    "And this is food?" Hilda poked at it with a
fork.
    "It is sold as such anyway." William had been
gone from his old world for a while and also eyed the matter on the
plate with trepidation. "Maybe this was a mistake."
    Wands were drawn, spells were spoken. "Now
that's food."
    As they were eating, there was a knock on the
door.
    "Suck an elf," Hilda muttered, "no one knows
we're here, right?"
    "Apparently that's wrong," William said. He
got up and went over to the door to peek through the spy-glass.
"Ordinaries," he whispered to Hilda.
    Quickly they changed their attire to
something more of this world and then William opened the door.
"Hello?"
    Wearing thick coats, as the cold and the snow
were still not entirely gone, were a woman in her forties and a
teenage child. "Hello. Sorry for interrupting, but we heard sounds
from here. We didn't know someone had moved in and we thought it
would be nice to come and welcome you. We're the Winklers, from
next door."
    The woman and the child, a boy, came in and
closed the door behind them.
    William was a bit lost, Hilda was completely
lost.
    "Oh, uhm, hello. We are William and Hilda
Connoley." William improvised, hoping that Hilda would catch on.
This was all new for her. "We've just arrived here."
    Mrs. Winkler looked around in the rather
empty room. "Yes. I see." Then she marched towards Hilda, grabbed
the hand of the witch. "Hello, Mrs. Connoley, Margaret Winkler, and
this is sweet little Jeff. So pleased to meet you."
    William almost died as he saw the scene and
tried to inform Hilda through their link she should not do anything
magical to the woman.
    "Hello, Mrs. Winkler," Hilda calmly said.
    "Are you going to move in properly soon?",
Mrs. Winkler asked.
    "We are not sure if we are staying here for
long," said William. "We are here on a sort of test run of the
apartment, so to speak."
    "Yes. A test run," Hilda confirmed,
retreating to the table and the food.
    "Oh, I am so sorry for barging in and
interrupting your dinner," said the woman. She did not make any
move to