The Do-Gooders, Part 1.5
Because not that much happens in this part. You could just skip it.
Every day after school that week, Taylor visited the witch’s house. They edged a little closer to the house each time, grabbed some crumpled paper off the lawn, and ran away. By reading the crumpled papers, Taylor got to know the witch a little bit. All the papers were either about loneliness or ancient Egypt. The ancient Egypt ones were pretty interesting. Taylor learned all about the cat god Bast.
On the third day, there was a stirring at the window. On the fourth day, the door opened a crack and the witch yelled, “Go away!”
“I’m here to do… good deeds?” said Taylor.
The door opened wider. “Good deeds, you say?” said the witch.
Taylor started going to the witch’s house every day after school. They would do little things around the house – change lightbulbs, air out the bathtub, and dust the lint collection. But the witch continued to be grumpy and mean. “You’re grumpy and mean,” Taylor said, “like my brother Jonny. He only cares about himself.”
“Brother, you say?” said the witch. “Bring him over here.”
Jonny and the witch hated each other immediately, which made them both happy because they liked to hate other people. The witch loudly recited his poetry at Jonny, while Jonny pretended to cry. Taylor finally had time to relax and look around the house.
“What’s this?” said Taylor, pointing to a framed newspaper clipping about the treasure buried on the witch’s property.
“It’s all a myth,” Soren said gruffly. (Soren was the witch.) “I’ve wasted too many years looking for that treasure. It’s not real. Nothing good is real. Nobody loves me.”
“Could we look for it?” piped up Jonny, interested now.
“Knock yourself out, kid,” said Soren.
So the next day, Jonny and Taylor returned with their shovels.