To Whoever Reads This Note,

My name is Nine and I need you to do me a favour.

Go down Whinney’s Passage until you reach the tumbledown terrace. Knock on the third door and say, “No strawberries today”.

Tell Pockets that Nine sent you. Tell the old weasel-faced devil he will never see me again. Why? Because he’s wrong – sometimes life does bring you strawberries. Sometimes you are a whisper away from magic without even realising it.

And that’s exactly what happened to me.

Nine

P.S. And tell him to drink this tea. It’s just magical.

The fishwife put the tin in her basket and turned back down the alley to deliver the note and the tea.

“Consequences,” she murmured, as she went. And underneath the scarlet shawl, the witch smiled.