Welcome to Tick-Tock School

“Milly, Milly, wake up, wake up. We’ve found a private school just for you, where you can learn to tick-tock. They will teach you your times tables and how to tell the time - and anything else you need to learn. We’re going to sneak you out of the house.”

Then London Melody woke up. She wanted to go with them, just for the journey and the fun of it.

“Can I come, Mog Og, please?” she asked.

“Of course you can, London Melody. When we have caught our breath we’re going to run like the wind to the Musty Old Magical Curiosity Shop. If you like, you can stay for a while and do the tick-tock course. You can also learn other things, such as dancing, if you want to. Or you can make your own perfume. Why not call it Love at First Sight? Wow! I bet you’ll be famous with that perfume. Come on, Milly - quietly does it!” said Mog Og.

Milly couldn’t believe her luck. She was so excited. Mog Og helped her and London Melody down off the shelf, and the two clocks suddenly sprouted little legs to help them to be able to run, run, run, through hedges and over bridges and ditches - basically to run as fast as the wind in a midnight storm.

The two cats and the two clocks sneaked out of the cat flap and hurried down back lanes and through hedges, under bridges and over bridges. They almost flew over the moon in their haste. Past cows and pigs and hens and ducks and geese they ran, until at last they reached the Musty Old Magical Curiosity Shop out of breath.

The four of them stood in front of the old shopkeeper and the owl.

“Now, who have we here?” said the owl.

“Well, this is Milly Paris and this is London Melody.”

“Why are you wrapped up in wrapping paper, London Melody? Do you not want to take that off? All you have to do is think that it’s been taken off and it will be done,” said Mabble Merlin. “In fact, as I was the one that wrapped you I say let it be undone.”

Mabble Merlin clapped his hands and London Melody could then be seen and the wrapping paper was gone.

Mog Og, Mysty and Milly thought London Melody was such a pretty, realistic picture of London. The picture was of the city at night-time, and it showed several double-decker buses moving over Westminster Bridge with Big Ben in the background. There was a large moon and little twinkling stars.

London Melody enjoyed the admiring glances everyone gave her. She was so glad the wrapping paper was off and that she could at last breathe. She had felt suffocated in the deep-blue wrapping paper.

“Well,” said Mabble Merlin, “you certainly haven’t wasted any time in getting Milly here, have you, Mog Og?”

Mabble Merlin was wearing a purple pointed hat and a purple cloak, and on the cloak were strange symbols and equations from the works of great mathematicians and scientists, like Pythagoras and Einstein. Inside the cloak was the equation E = mc2. Magical numbers swirled inside his hat, bouncing up and down like numbered balls in a lottery machine. These numbers were alive - they could tell the truth and they could solve equations.

Milly’s eyes were wide with wonder, and so were Mog Og’s and Mysty’s and London Melody’s. Of course, the owl’s eyes were always wide with wonder, and so were Twilight’s.

“Don’t worry,” said the owl. “We’ll get you straightened out, Milly.”

The owl went over to Milly.

“Any back problems?” he asked.

The owl was also a doctor, and he dutifully took out a stethoscope and listened to Milly’s heartbeat. She had been worrying a lot lately - especially since she had been put on the dusty shelf in the closet.

“Oh dear, Milly! You have a few beats missing and your chest is wheezing. I’ll give you a spoonful of cough medicine for that, and a mixture of heather honey, sunflower honey and lavender honey. If you take this medicine, your chest will be perfect. Honey is really good for your voice too,” said Dr Hoot-Hoot. “You will be OK. After a four-month stay here with us, you’ll be fine,” said Dr Hoot-Hoot.

“A four-month stay!” exclaimed Milly, almost fainting.

Her little legs had turned to jelly.

“Well, actually, it will only be four days, because we’ll speed up time with a bit of hocus-pocus. We’ll do a bit of time-slipping or time-bending,” said Dr Hoot-Hoot.

“Oh dear!” said Milly. “I do hope it is only four days.”

“Leave it to me,” said Dr Hoot-Hoot. “Mabble Merlin always has to speed up time in the school, because no one likes months and months going by, that’s for sure, when they can get away with a few days. This place, as you know, is no ordinary place - it’s no ordinary shop.”

“You can say that again!” said Milly.

“I agree,” said Mog Og.

“So do I,” said Mysty.

“And I do too,” piped up London Melody.

“Only if you’re lucky enough, will you see the shop,” said Dr Hoot-Hoot. “We can be invisible if we want to be, and we can disappear in a puff of smoke. We’re not always in the same place. We move about like gypsies. A rolling stone gathers no moss. We like to keep our customers guessing.”

“Well, that’s fascinating,” said Mog Og. “I guess we are lucky, lucky, lucky!”

Suddenly Lucky, the magical cat, appeared. With her long curly whiskers, big green eyes and black midnight fur she did look very strange.

“Did someone call my name?” she asked.

“Oh, I’m pleased to meet you,” said Mog Og.

“Just call me Lucky.”

Then Mog Og felt so lucky that he wanted to dance and sing. There was an old dusty piano in the room, and Mog Og went to the piano and started to play and sing. The others all felt very happy, and they started to sing along. Suddenly, as if by magic, musical instruments appeared. The sometimes-invisible cat, Lucky, played the flute, Twilight played the fiddle and Dr Hoot-Hoot played the double bass. Milly started to sing; London Melody joined in in a beautiful angelic voice, and Mysty joined in too. She sang like a jazz singer, with a smooth, soulful voice.

As if by magic, the shop turned into a jazz saloon. Mabble Merlin started to dance. Musical notes with rhythm and a bass beat appeared from his hands, and musical stardust appeared in the air.

His clothes had changed. He was now wearing a white suit with a white trilby. He looked like a 1920s jazz-club singer. He wore braces and a multicoloured striped shirt.

“Let the real music begin. Let the real dance begin,” he said, and he clapped his hands.

Suddenly a 1920s dancer appeared - a flapper girl. It was Zelda Fitzgerald. She and Mabble Merlin danced the jitterbug, the charleston and the cha-cha.

They all had really enjoyed the evening. Milly felt she was in good hands. When the dancing finally ended, it was time for Mog Og, London Melody and Mystique to go home, but it was pouring down outside.

“Look at the weather,” said Mog Og. “It never rains - it just pours.”

“Don’t worry,” said Dr Hoot-Hoot. “I’ve got something for each of you so you won’t get wet on your travels.

Dr Hoot-Hoot gave Mog Og a little tartan jacket. It was waterproof and it was just what Mog Og wanted. He loved tartan. Then Dr Hoot-Hoot gave Mysty a large umbrella, and he wrapped London Melody in deep-pink waterproof wrapping paper tied with a crimson bow. On the wrapping paper he put a gift tag: ‘To Penelope from Miles, with love from the Musty Old Magical Curiosity Shop. Happy birthday’.

The friends waved goodbye to Milly, Mabble Merlin, Twilight, Dr Hoot-Hoot and Lucky.

Mog Og’s tartan jacket was a magical jacket. It made his fur change colour from grey to a mixture of black, ginger, white and tortoiseshell.