When Night Doesn't Fall

One upon a time there was a family who lived in a house by the woods. They were a happy family, Mum and Dad and the two kids, Johnny and Rosie.

One weekend, just like any other, when they had just finished their evening meal they decided to go back out into the garden for some fresh air, but there was something strange about the light in the sky. It wasn’t getting dark like it usually did in the evenings.

Dad looked at his watch. It had stopped. “That’s odd.” He said. He went back in the house to see the time on the clock in the hall. Mum and the kids waited a while for him but he didn’t come back out.

“I’ll just check that dad’s alright” Mum said and went inside too. Johnny and Rosie decided to play a game of chase and played for ages. The sun was still high in the sky. They didn’t notice, but they played for a long time and in the end they got so tired they fell asleep on the lawn.

Well, as everyone knows, at nighttime all the night animals come out. There are owls and bears and snakes and rats. All the animals decided they couldn’t wait any longer. They were hungry and tired of hiding behind trees in the forest so they crept slowly and carefully into the garden.

A snake was the first to see the sleeping children. “Oooo, I’m ssssssoooo lucky hissss” said the snake. It slithered across the grass until it was at Rosie’s toes and opened its mouth wide. It was just about to swallow her foot when something came crashing though the garden hedge.

A big brown bear leapt on the snake’s tail and tugged it off Rosie. The snake let out a great hiss of anger as the bear tossed it into a tree, but the bear wasn’t here to save the kids. “I’ll even have enough left for Mrs Bear when I’ve finished.” Said the bear to himself as he put his claws above the boy’s chest. But he froze still.

A witch was flying over the house and she had seen the bear over the boy. “Alacazam” shrieked the witch, pointing her wand at the bear. The bear immediately turned into a little sparrow and flew away in fear.

The witch landed as quietly as she could. She looked up at the sky with her black eyes and said, “Alright, alright, let it be night. ” Suddenly the garden plunged into darkness and the full moon shone high in the sky.

She carefully pulled Johnny and Rosie onto her broomstick and took off without a sound. When they were quite high Johnny woke up. “Wha… where… Rosie wake up, what’s going on?”

Rosie opened her eyes and screamed “A WITCH”. The witch croaked a toad-like croak, and said, “Well done, very observant of you.” And she laughed the most horrible laugh. “Put us down, put us down” Demanded Rosie.
“I’ll put you down… when we get to my cave.” Said the witch.

Soon they were gliding down through the trees at the other end of the forest. The witch went slowly so they could see her friends. There were slugs and bats and ugly looking creatures that neither of the kids had seen before. Finally they landed at the mouth of a cave. There was a fire burning inside with a big pot of boiling water on top.

“I’ll just add some salt.” Said the witch walking over to the pot, “Why don’t you get ready?”

“Get ready? What do you mean?” Asked Johnny.

“Take your clothes off of course.” Screamed the witch.

“We will not take our clothes off, no way, Rosie and I are going home right now.”

“Very well, I’ll do it for you.” Laughed the witch and said some magic.

“Stinky bandage, garden hose make them both lose all their clothes.”

Suddenly Johnny and Rosie were naked. It was cold. They had to think of something. Johnny noticed a big kitchen knife by the pot. He started moving slowly towards it. He said “That’s a big pot you’ve got, but you won’t be able to fit us both in it at the same time. Why not start with my sister, look at her – she’s smaller so she’ll cook fast.” Rosie couldn’t believe her ears.

“What are you saying? I thought we were friends.”

The witch laughed and said, “I need a boy like this, a good little evil boy to do my errands.” She went over to look at the girl to see if what Johnny was saying was true. Johnny saw his chance and jumped for the knife. Before the witch could see what was happening he ran at her and chopped her head off.

It looked like fireworks were going off as her head spun wildly up into the sky. It flew up and up and didn’t stop until there was a big bang like a rocket exploding and they knew the witch wasn’t going to be coming back.

“Wow, Johnny, how did you do that?” “How are we going to find our way back home?” They found their clothes and got dressed by the fire. They really were lost. How could they get back?

Then the moon spun around in the sky. “I can help you. You killed the witch, it’s the least I can do. She was the most horrible thing I ever saw.”

They looked up. The moon had a face! Big round eyes set into its white craters. “The trouble is I don’t know right from left. Just follow the direction of my eyes.”

Johnny and Rosie did, and though they had a few accidents, where the moon couldn’t see a pond in the way or a fallen tree, they finally got back home.

They went inside and mum and dad were still up. “Is it dark yet?” Mum asked.

“You won’t believe what happened to us.” Said Rosie. “A witch took us away to the other side of the forest. She was going to cook us, but Johnny killed her.”

“Don’t be daft. What on earth are you saying?”

Just then a little bird flew up to the window. It let out a tremendous roar like a bear. Mum screamed. “Off to bed now, both of you, I don’t know how you pulled that little trick but I didn’t like it one little bit.”

After Johnny and Rosie had brushed their teeth and mum put them in bed Johnny looked out of the window. The moon shone bright in the night sky and just as he turned to go to sleep it gave him a wink.