It was a school day like any other, but that day Chupchip and Toothy Boo were much more excited to go to school than usual.
“A wizard is coming to school today,” Toothy Boo told her mom, wiggling with excitement. “But wait, that’s not even the best part. They say he’s coming all the way from Dreadheads. But wait, that’s not the best part either. He’s going to teach us how to do magic.”
“Well, you’ll have to tell me all about it when you get back from school. And maybe you’ll teach me a spell or two,” Mom smiled.
“I’ll come back as a mighty wizard, Mom,” declared Chupchip, grabbing a wooden spoon and waving it around like a magic wand. Abracadabra, turn my sister into a goat!”
“Chupchip!” growled Toothy Boo.
“Look, it’s working. You’ve already got horns,” laughed Chupchip.
Toothy Boo ran to the mirror in alarm. Luckily, she didn’t have any horns on her head.
“Chupchip, you are such an annoying little spook!”
At school, all the little ghosts were waiting at their desks for Wizard Alarmius to show up. He should’ve been there ages ago.
“He probably forgot to set his alarm clock,” Chupchip snickered.
“It’s more likely that it’s just a long way from Dreadheads,” Toothy Boo disagreed.
“He’s a wizard—surely he doesn’t ride the bus, right? He should just wave his wand and appear wherever he wants,” Chupchip mused out loud, waving the wooden spoon he’d brought from home as his magic wand.
No sooner had he finished speaking than there was a sputtering sound and a cloud of smoke appeared in front of the blackboard. Out of it stepped Alarmius. He was dressed in a classic wizard costume—the kind you wear to carnival—with a long beard, looking serious. But it seemed he’d forgotten his wand—Chupchip couldn’t see it anywhere.
“Sorry I’m late, I forgot to set my alarm clock,” said the wizard. The children burst out laughing at that—Chupchip most of all, of course.
Then the wizard told them how important it was for every little ghost to know a few basic spells. That’s useful, especially when you need to scare some people.
“Today I’m going to teach you three important spells,” said the Wizard. “First, let’s see how to make spooky fog.”
“Oh, I know how to make spooky fog!” said Adeline Fairley, raising her hand. “You need a pot, an egg, and our dad. Last time he cooked, we couldn’t get the fog out of the house at all.”
“We’ll try a different fog—an even spookier one,” laughed Alarmius the Wizard. “I can’t cook at all myself; I have magic for that! So why would I bother learning to cook when I can just conjure things up?”
Then he showed the kids a magic spell. He spun his hand closed in a fist, twirled around in a circle, muttered something, blew into his closed hand, and then opened it. A thick white mist rose from his palm, and soon it covered him completely.
“And don’t forget to say the magic spell: “Fog so thick, fog so bleak.”
The kids started practicing. In a little while, Toothy Boo managed to make a small puff of steam.
“That’s nothing,” Michael Drowndale snorted. “Watch this.” And he started waving his hand just like the Wizard. “Yuck, what nasty fog! What dreadful fog!”
A foul little cloud shot from his hand and quickly filled the whole classroom.
“Open the windows! Michael mixed up the spell. That was a Fartfog!” the wizard cried, covering his nose.
Once the room had aired out, the Wizard moved on to the next spell.
“Next, I’ll teach you how to disappear. But just for a moment, so you won’t try it in front of the school to skip lessons. Here’s how you do it. Watch closely.”
Alarmius waved his arms in a circle a few times and whispered, “Disappear, disappear, disappear.” And right then, the wizard vanished. A moment later, he appeared again.
“I want to be invisible!” shouted Chupchip, and started waving his wand so hard that he snapped it against the school desk. “Oh no, my wand! How am I supposed to do magic now?”
“You don’t need a wand or any kind of stick to do magic,” the Wizard explained.
Chupchip waved his hands, repeated the magic words, but all he managed was to make his ears disappear for a moment.
“It doesn’t work.”
“It just takes practice,” said the Wizard. “Even the best wizards couldn’t do magic right away. The harder the spell, the more you have to practice. Maybe you’ll have better luck with the last spell today – making a flower bloom in your palm.”
“What’s the use? So if I want to scare someone, I just conjure up a flower? Boo! A dandelion!” said Chupchip.
Magic isn’t just for scaring people. There are also kind spells that make the world more beautiful. Like this one. Give it a try, and then show it to your mom. You’ll see how magical it is,” said Alarmius the wizard, and right away he showed them the spell.
He held out his hand, tapped it three times with his other index finger, and said, ‘Flower!’ And in a flash, a little violet appeared on his palm.
‘But what if I want a rose?’ asked Toothy Boo.
‘The magic word is the same—you just have to imagine the flower really well.’
Once the children had practiced making flowers appear, the wizard said goodbye.
“See you soon,” he said, bowed, stomped three times, and disappeared.
Toothy Boo hurried home right away to conjure up a bouquet for her mom, Alarmist was right—Mom was absolutely thrilled. Chupchip wasn’t interested in making flowers. He wanted to learn how to travel like the wizard did. Then he wouldn’t have to walk everywhere. Or ride the boo bus. How did the wizard do it? He stomped three times and disappeared. He must have thought about the place he wanted to show up.
So Chupchip kept trying it over and over again in his room, even shouting that he wanted to appear in the garden, but nothing happened. Then suddenly the world spun around him and he vanished from his room.
“Help!” came a shout from the garden.
Toothy Boo ran right away to see where Chupchip was calling from. She found him quickly. He was hanging by his shirt from the top of a tall cherry tree.
“That spell didn’t really work out for you, huh?” she laughed at him. “Don’t worry, Dad’s coming with the ladder.”
And so Chupchip made it down.
“Maybe you should stick to the flowers,” said Toothy Boo.
“Oh yeah? I’ll conjure one right onto your nose, just watch!” Chupchip replied, tapped his nose three times, pointed at Toothy Boo, and shouted, “Flower!”
And poof—a little dandelion popped up on his nose. Toothy Boo burst out laughing. Chupchip was not amused. Still, at least he didn’t have to bend down to sniff the dandelion.
“How do I get rid of this?” Alarmius never taught us that!” he moaned. But luck was on his side. Dad knew the counter-spell, snapped his fingers right under his nose, and the flower vanished.
From then on, Chupchip didn’t try any tricky magic outside of school hours. He only practiced what he’d been given for homework. Because you have to learn the easy things first, so you can later master the greatest spells.