Katie's Magic Personality, Part 1.

Hello, this is Natasha, and I'm here with the first in a two-part story about Katie the witch.

As you know, Katie lives in the ordinary world and goes to an ordinary school with ordinary pupils.

You might think that witches would travel everywhere by broomstick.

And indeed, there was a time, even as recently as great Aunt Chloe's girlhood, when it was more

or less safe to fly by broom, unseen on a dark night.

But those days are gone. You wouldn't get far before air traffic controls spotted you on the radar.

Alarms would sound and the words UFO would flash on computer screens at the Defence Ministry. Who could say what sort of incident

might happen next? And so now I have explained all that. You can understand why Katie and her

mum were hanging around at the railway station. They went into the newspaper shop and Katie's

mum bought one of those glossy women's magazines. When eventually they were seated on the train

and they were slowly rattling past the backs of suburban houses. Katie's mum thumbed through the magazines.

I'm not really interested in the latest royal baby, she said, and she handed it to Katie. Katie looked at the contents page. Among all the features about celebrity diets, relationships

and beauty treatments, there was one that caught her eye.

The magic personality.

How to cast your personality like a spell.

Charm. Everyone you meet and win instant popularity.

Hmm. That looks intriguing, thought Katie.

And she turned to page 45 to read on.

It's not every day you meet a girl or a guy who wins you over with a single smile.

But it can happen anywhere, any time.

It might be a waitress.

...