Hilda and Zelda

by Paul Kater

and went inside also, the black cat running ahead of him.

  36. Finishing up

  In the living room almost all seats were taken. Rick and Vivian were there, of course. Andy, Gladys, Tory and Jessica were sharing the couch. Cornelia sat on a cushion on the floor, and to William's surprise Buster was sitting next to her.

  "Hey wizard," Hilda cheered from the kitchen chair she sat on. There was another one next to her, empty, and she patted it. "Come, sit here."

  William sat down. "Everyone looks cleaned up," he grinned. The cat jumped up in his lap and lay down there. Only then the wizard noticed that Hilda also had a cat on her knees.

  "Do you want coffee? Or tea?" Vivian asked, already on her feet.

  "Tea please. Lots of it."

  "No problem." Rick stood up also and pushed Vivian back in her chair. "You sit, you've done enough. I'll take care of this." Many eyes followed him as he made his way to the kitchen.

  "Now there is someone who changed overnight," Jennifer commented.

  Vivian nodded. "We told him what happened. Well, most of it. He's -uhm- impressed?"

  The magical couple then heard how the return trip of the coven had gone. As the first cars had reached town, the people in it had gotten out and proceeded on foot, telling everyone that the witch who had wreaked havoc on the town for so long had been defeated.

  "Not many wanted to believe us at first," Cornelia said.

  "Guess that's cuz how we were looking," Buster added. "Crap all over, and wearing robes and stuff."

  "And tattoos and earrings," Cornelia grinned. Then, to the surprise of Hilda and William, she hugged the devil worshipper, and the hug was returned.

  "Uhm... 'scuse me?" Hilda wiggled her finger towards the two on cushions. "Did we miss something interesting or sleezy?"

  Cornelia giggled. Buster shook his head. "No."

  "Oh Goddess, you should have seen them, in the car," Gladys laughed. "Cornelia was stuck on top of him and he almost did not dare to hold on to her in corners. She cursed him for letting her bang into the side of the car, and then he held on to her-"

  "Hey! No need to become specific!" Cornelia turned red.

  The laughter made Rick reappear from the kitchen. That and the gifts he carried, in the form of hot beverages, cakes and sandwiches. He was highly appreciated for it.

  As the group was eating and talking about the sincerely strange events of the day, there was a loud knocking on the door. Rick looked at Vivian and got up to answer the door. He came back with two police officers in his wake.

  The two men in uniforms did not need long to state their business: they spotted Hilda and William, walked up to them and then one of them said: "You two are under arrest."

  William raised his eyebrows almost to his hairline, "I beg your pardon?"

  Hilda responded in a slightly more witchy manner. She flipped out her wand and said: "You're kidding."

  One of the policemen drew his gun. He should not have done that.

  "Gravis telum," the witch said, pointing her wand at the gun that was pointing at her. The weapon dropped to the floor where it landed with a thud that was far louder than a normal handgun should make.

  "Pick it up!" the other policeman said, embarrassed that his partner made such a fool of himself. The subject of this aggravation kneeled down and tried to lift his gun from the ground.

  The room had gone silent. The coven members stared at policemen, Hilda and William picked up some more sandwiches and the two cats jumped to the floor and silently walked off.

  "Jack, it's too heavy," the kneeling police officer said.

  "Idiot," Jack said and kneeled down. His attempt to lift the gun ended in him falling over, as it had gotten extremely heavy from Hilda's spell.

  "Would you mind telling us why we are under arrest?" William asked as policeman Jack gave the gun another useless try.

  The other one, standing again, said: "You have disturbed the peace in the neighbourhood. In all the town, actually. Your actions have caused damage to buildings and roads, as well as blocked most public life over the last weeks."

  "Oh." William did not sound impressed. "And of course you have evidence and witnesses all over the place to prove that we are to blame."

  "In fact we do, sir. Almost every good citizen in this town has seen you and your partner cause disturbances while you were fly-... uhm... moving around over... uhm... through the streets."

  "We did not really try hard to conceal our presence. Officer." William stood up and looked the officer in the eye.

  Hilda followed his cue and also got up. She bent over with a whisper, took the gun from the floor and looked up at the officer. "Listen," she said, "you do not go around arresting witches and wizards. We've been talking to you lot many times, and you looked the other way as we busted our brooms trying to bring Zelda down. Now the word is out that the evil witch is gone, and now you are coming in here two strong to stick us in your dungeons? I'm sorry, but you will have to do better than that."

  "Yes!" Tory stood up. "We've done hard work too, we risked our necks, we put ourselves in danger. So if you are going to arrest Hilda and William, you will have to bring us all in."

  More and more people got to their feed; the policemen felt very uncomfortable all of a sudden.

  "Here. This is yours. Take it and leave." Hilda pushed the gun into its owners hands.

  His reaction was swift and remarkable. He pointed the gun at her. "You are under arrest."

  "Look," Vivian said, "we don't want trouble. We've had our share. I think we can all agree that you had your share of crap also, with a witch out on the loose, right?"

  The officers nodded. They had indeed had many a troubled night.

  "Cool. These two," Vivian pointed at Hilda and William, "did the hardest work to get the witch out of the way. Your orders to bring them in are insane. Which idiot instructed you to do so anyway?"

  "Our comissioner is not an idiot," Jack the policeman said. "Please, I advise you to be silent, or we have to arrest you for insulting an officer."

  "I could turn you into a frog," Hilda said. "Would you like that?"

  The armed policeman shook his head. "You cannot frighten us with things like that, ma'am."

  Hilda sighed. "They've seen us fly brooms. And then they think that turning someone into a frog is not frightening. Ranunculus." The last word was accompanied by a swing of a wand, and the gun fell to the ground again. It was followed by a uniform and a frog.

  Jack, the officer who was not changed, stared at the heap of things and the amphibian that had been his partner. "You can't do that!"

  Hilda picked up her coffee cup. "Wrong."

  "Make him a person again!"

  William put his hand on the man's arm. "Use the magic word. Please. It helps. Believe me, I know her."

  "Make him a person again, dammit!" Jack made the mistake of reaching for his weapon also.

  William changed it into fudge, and as the police officer stared at the goo in his hand, Hilda put a spell on the man's shoes. They slowly started walking out of the house.

  The witch picked up the frog and put it in Jack's hands. "Here. Take good care of him. In a few hours he will become human again, so make sure he is home, or you have clothes for him at hand."

  "Ribbit," complained the frog as he was carried away by his partner who had no option but to walk on: his shoes did not give him time to kick them off.

  "You're going to get in trouble over that," Gladys grinned.

  "I doubt y'ever gonna see them again," Buster commented as witch and wizard returned to the room. Cornelia and he had seen the policeman walk off through the window. Buster had enough experience with the arm of the law, apparently. "Nice trick too."

  "What are you going to do now?" Vivian asked as everyone sat down again.

  "We're going home," said William.

  "Away from the madness," Hilda agreed. "Would be awfully great if you have a broom for us. We got her
e on mine, but that's not fit for two people."

  "And two cats," William added.

  His witch glared at him. "Sure. Dream on."

  Vivian grinned. "Yes. I have a broom for you. Not a new one, but I guess it works for you."

  "As long as it is in one piece," Hilda nodded. "William, you want to go and have a look? It will be yours."

  William grinned.

  Vivian got up. "Come, it's in the shed."

  When they returned, Hilda had a cat in her lap and her hand was resting on the black furry body as she was chatting along.

  The other cat was lying on William's chair, as if it was waiting for him to return. He picked the animal up and put it on his knees. "The broom will do fine, Hilda. No problem at all."

  "My broom will go to their world. Their fairyland," Vivian said. There was obvious pride in her voice. As she sat down next to her husband, she added: "It is a good one, he said. It's been used well. Maybe something for you to remember."

  Laughter ran through the room, affecting everyone but the cats.

  "We should go," said Hilda. "It's going to be dark soon and I do want to be able to find the spot from where we can go back home."

  William agreed. "It's best that we leave now, yes. The people from the town will be able to get things in order again. Except the Denton Building, probably."

  The people in the room said emotional goodbyes to the magical couple. Many a tear was shed, and the coven members all tried to coax a "we'll come back" from William and Hilda, but they could not make such a promise. A maybe was the best they could give.

  They went outside, where now two brooms leaned against the wall. They mounted the utensils, and as they were