"Your Penelope?" she yelled. "Why this is mine. I planted it. I watered it. I take care of it, and I live under it. What made you think that a rose bush could grow without magic anyways?"

To tell the truth, I didn't know that rose bushes grew by magic or that witches lived in them. I don't suppose that you knew that either, so I'm not alone. I decided that I couldn't keep thinking of her as just "Her," so I asked her what her name was again. This time she answered me.

"I am Cindy, daughter of Ali Di, president of the Warlock's Guild. Only I'm not much of a daughter, and not much of a witch, so Daddy sent me away to Uncle Kim Di. Uncle Kim Di doesn't like me and I don't like him either, so I came to live here," she said morosely.

I had to be sociable, even if to a warlock's daughter, so I held out my hand, and said, "Hi, Cindy. I'm Kalyn Skinkowsky. I live with my Uncle, too--over in that big white house--only my daddy's dead."

We shook hands and our friendship began. We spent the first little while talking about her, and th enext little while about me. Then Uncle Sydric came out to get me for bed. Just before i left, though, I promised to meet the little witchling outside the gate the next morning.

Thursday July 12, 1984
Dear Diary:
Yesterday morning I got up very early so that I could hurry outside and meet Sin Dee. I almost got caught sneaking out, but I finally made it. I brought her a bowl of cold cereal and milk for breakfast and outside the gate we met. When I held out the cereal, Sin Dee asked me what it was, though. To think that anyone didn't know what Capn Crunch was! I explained what it was, and she reluctantly took a bite. After one taste, she made a terrible face and told me that it tasted like the medicine her father gave her when she had a cold. I decided not to have her taste anymore Capn Crunch. How anyone could dislike Capn Crunch is beyond me, though.

When I had finished eating her cereal, Sin Dee took me into the woods to help her find a witch's breakftas. I wasn't very much help, though. We had to find all sort of things, everything in a special place. The toadstools were near a clump of lilacs, the moss under a smooth, round rock, the mushrooms by a stream, and the pussywillow by the tallest tree in the whole forest. After she mixed the whole thing together, I took a bite of it. It was terrible! She seemed to like it, though. She said that she only had stuff this good on Witching Holidays. We're going to try more of each other's food, even if it does make us sick. Maybe we'll find something that we both like.

When we got out of the woods, it was way past lunchtime, and I decided that I'd better hurry home or Uncle Sydric would get worried. We could eat supper toether, though, I told Sin Dee, because Uncle Sydrice would think that I was at Millie's.

At home I packed myself a picin lunch and met Sin Dee outside the gate again. Sin Dee told me all sorts of neat things about herself that night. She had lived under a briar patch when she was just a little baby, then she moved to under a bridge after she became too big for the briar patch. (The bridge was where her mother died. A mean old billy goat gruff pushed her off the bridge into the water, and she drowned.) Then her daddy became President of the Warlock's Guild, and she had to move to a haunted house to have the meetings in. All this time she had been going to school. her first one was easy, all you had to do was play with ctas. Then they got harder. Another one had all sorts of animals in cages. She was supposed to use spells from the book to turn them into other things. The last one that she had gone to was the one where they teach little witchlgins how to fly. Poor Sin Dee, she never could learn how to fly. They told her the words--ZOOM, BROOm, KABOOM--would make the broom go, but it just didn't seem to work for her. Maybe I can teach her how to fly sometime.

I found out last night how to spell her name the right way. Sin is a very good name for a litle girl witchling, and it sounds just like the human name Cindy when you add her last name to it. Her father thought that it would be interesting to change the spelling of the last part ofher name, just for fun. So now her name is officially Sin Dee.

That night in bed, just as the moon rose, I heard a faint voice outside my window. I got up out of the covers and hurriedly dressed. I tiptoes to the window, so that my nosy big brother wouldn't hear me, and looked out. There was Sin Dee, waiting patiently for me to come down. I swung myself down to the terrace, and from there down to the vines that came up our house. After I'd climbed down, I tried to ask her why she had awakened me. Before i could, though, she motioned me to silence and pointed to the woods. I followed her deep into the forest, until we came to an empty clearing. I couldn't see anything except some rose bushes. That is exactly where she went, though. She stood right next to the biggest one, and said something like "Open Sesame!" After she stomped on the ground for a while, an opening appeared. She walked right into it, and I followed her. After walking a ways, we came to some light. I could finally see! In the clearning were some children dressed justlike her. She whispered to me and told me some of the children's names. The one flying high above everyone and laughing was SIn Tic, the school bully. Then Atsin was over in the corner trying to teach Monty Doodle some of her spells. This was her old school, SIn Dee explained to me, the one that she just barely dropped out of. The teacher was Head Warlock Lymtem. She was telling me something aobut him when my foot slipped. I picked myself up as fast as I could and started running. Sun Dee caught up to me quickly and showed me the wawy to go. I could hear footsteps behind me closing in. They were chanting and yelling at us. We ran just as fast as we could, but they soon caught us, and encircled us.

They began chanting things such as:

Eye of Newt and hair of head,
Little Witching Baby!
She plays with earthlings and the like
She's an earthling--Maybe!

Or:
Say what you want--we know you.
You're a measly Earthling.
Can you fly or disappear
Or can Sin--the Witchling?
Suddenly everything hushed, another witchling was coming--no, it was a Warlock--a huge Warlock. He motioned for Sin Dee and I to follow him. He took us into a lighted opening and began to speak.

"My little Sin has been very bad, earthling, and you are the cause of it. The very first rule in Witchlingdowm is that little witchlings must never ever talk with Earthlings. She has broken that rule and must be punished. Perhaps you can help us. What is punishment for Earthlings?"

I thought for a while. I wanted to see more of Sine Dee, not help punish her for talking to me. Everyone was staring at me. I had to think of something. Then I knew. Capn Crunch was the answer! Sin Dee hated Capn Crunch, that was just the thing for punishment. She would come and stay with me for a while, and eat Capn Crunch all day.

I didn't tell them just then. Id ecided that I had better show it to them first, or they might not believe Capn Crunch was a punishment. I asked permission to go home and get something to show them. Reluctantly, they showed me the way out, not expecting me to return, I suppose.

I ran home to get the cereal, and ran back as quickly and as quietly as I could.

When I returned, I showed Sin Dee's dad the bowl and explained what the punishment would be. He tried the cereal, just in case. He made a worse face than Sin Dee had when she had first tried it. Then he made Sin Dee eat every bite of it. When he was satisfied, he told us what the punishment would be. Sin Dee would have to stay 7 days at my house, eating one bowl of Cpan Crunch each morning.

Sin Dee and I left, and went home. Uncle Sydric believed that Sin Dee just needed somewhere to stay for a while since her mother was sick. (I didn't tell him that her name was Sin, of course. I said it was Cindy, and he believed me.)

One day for lunch, we both had peanut butter and banana sandwiches. We finally found a food that both os uf liked. That was our whole day together, though. The next day, Sin Dee left, with the promise to return every once in a while to visit. She even promised to take me flying on her broom Halloween night, if her dad taught her how to fly well enough. That will be fun. Well. So long!

"Wow!" said John, after reading that portion od her diary.

Well, I wasn't to be outdone by my ssiter, my younger one at that, so I said, "Ahh, that was nothing. Wait until you hear about the time that I went dragon hunting. You see, Kalyn was out visiting Grandma Beck, and I was out by the stream . . ."

The End

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