There was flour everywhere. Literally. The walls were coated in flour dust, there was a fine layer over the floor, the countertops, the cabinets, the windowsill. Thankfully, a quick charm could clean up the white powder, but the damage was done. The toddler sitting in the middle of the mess was laughing hysterically and waving her Mummy’s wand all over.
“No no, please!” The tired mother, Audrey, was carrying a tiny infant against her chest. It’d probably been three days since she’d had a chance to shower, and the poor woman couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept for more than four hours in a row–and even four was pushing it. There was no sleeping when a baby wanted feeding and changing every ninety minutes. “Molly, Molly, give Mummy the wand,” she said, bending down to take the wand from her older daughter.
“No! Mummy! No!” The toddler, Molly, started to wail, kicking her feet and pumping her fists in the air. It made a little puff of white dust all around her. The wailing, though, woke her sleeping sister, who also started to cry.
“Molly! For goodness’ sake!” Audrey sighed, lifting the wand to wave it about. She cast a quick cleaning charm on the cabinets, gently bouncing the now-awake-and-fussing baby in the sling against her chest. She took a lap of the island in the middle of the kitchen to make sure that she cleaned the flour off of every surface. “You know better than to play with Mummy’s wand! Your father’s told you time and again that you need to…”
Audrey’s words trailed off, though, as she noticed that Molly wasn’t in her seat. Lucy’s crying against her chest and the cleaning spell had distracted her. “Molly?” She asked, her heartbeat quickening. “Molly??”
She heard the gate at the top of the stairs creak open. “Molly!” Audrey cried out, and rushed in that direction. As Molly took a step forward and started to fall, Audrey flung her wand out in an S movement and cast a quick incantation of “Spongify!!”
Molly’s giggles could be heard all the way down the stairs as she bounced on the rubbery surface, and landed safely at the bottom. Audrey decided it was time to let Daddy watch the girls, so she could have a nap. And possibly a stiff drink.
