The Magic Misfits: The Fifth Story

Chapter Four: Cleanup

The Misfits were heading to Theo's house. It was a new Misfit tradition: the other Misfits would stop at Theo's for lemonade on Wednesdays. Olly and Izzy secretly suspected it had something to do with Emily Meridian, who had been a rather close friend of Theo's. As they were walking, they saw a flyer attached to a telephone pole. It read: "Please join us for a community cleanup!" in bright red script. 

It went on to explain that the town jail once had a small vegetable garden and served home-grown meals to the prisoners. However, the chief of police retired, and the new chief decided to cut costs by ordering frozen meals instead. The vegetable garden had fallen into disrepair.

The creators of the poster, a couple new to Mineral Wells, elaborated that they had seen old pictures of the garden and decided to restore it to its former glory. So, they cleared their plan with the police and put up the posters.

The Misfits all wanted to help, except for Ridley, who thought the story was a little fishy. The next day, they showed up at the jail with gardening gloves and tools. They found Mineral Wellsians and police officers alike working hard. A few questions directed them to an elderly couple working on three gargantuan bushes.

"We're Edward and Sarah Smith," one of them introduced themselves.

"Well, welcome to Mineral Wells!" said Leila, remembering that they were newcomers and always ready to play Mineral Wells tour guide. "How can we help?"

"Maybe help us prune these bushes?" Sarah suggested, pointing to one of the bushes. The Misfits split up with two to a bush. Carter pulled out a pair of hedge clippers he had brought from home, but the bush was surprisingly tough.

"These branches are like iron bars!" he complained.

Sarah glanced over. "Oh, sorry, you'll need these." She handed out six enormous hedge clippers.

"Those are the size of buses!" Theo exclaimed in surprise.

A black tuft of fur was stuck to one of the clippers.

"What's that?" Ridley asked.

"Oh... um... that's Leicestershire Blackbeard moss." Sarah's eyes darted up and to the right. "I was thinking of adding some for aesthetics."

Aesthetics?  Ridley thought. That thing looks like an obese caterpillar!

Edward tapped Sarah on the shoulder and muttered something. Sarah started toward the jailhouse.

"There's a special situation," he explained to the Misfits. "Sarah has to go talk to the warden."

The Misfits worked for about two more hours without incident. They planted carrots with the town cheese monger, potatoes along with two policemen with black mustaches, and green onion with the local grocer.

As they headed home, Ridley lowered her voice.

"I don't trust those two."

"Edward and Sarah?" Leila asked, surprised. "They're nice."

"Edward Smith was the captain of the Titanic, and Sarah was lying about the moss."

"How do you figure?"

"Her eyes were darting to the up and right, which I read means that someone is lying."

"Well, we'll have to be careful around those two, then," said Leila skeptically.

"You never know." said Ridley.

Author's Note:

Some OCs! (Or are they?)

PS: Happy birthday if it's your birthday, because it's mine. Yay 😛

-Loony