Anything for You [Jane Banks/Jack the Lamplighter]

Chapter 5

"Now children, you will wash and change yourself this instant. You look like you haven't had a bath in years." Mary Poppins stated firmly, looking around the nursery.

"But I don't want to take a bath!" Albert said, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Did I say you had to take a bath?" Mary Poppins asked crossly.

"Y-you said that..." Albert muttered nervously, startled by Mary Poppins' seriousness. 

"You said we needed to wash ourselves, Mary Poppins." Katie helped her brother quickly.

"That's correct Katherine. You need to wash yourselves, that does not have to mean taking a bath." Mary Poppins said, swiftly moving towards the bathroom. 

She got some towels out of the cupboards and handed one to each of the children. She then turned on the tap to let water fill up the sink. After it was full she turned the tap back off and nodded to herself. 

"That will do." She said to no one in particular. 

"Are we going to use these to wash ourselves?" Winnie asked confused.

"Yes Winnie. When you need to get clean quickly, this is the very best way to do so. " Mary Poppins answered. 

Then children stood there confused, not really knowing if they should start or not. All of a sudden, Winnie's towel started to float up into the air. It then continued to turn into all kinds of shapes, like it was showing off its tricks. Soon afterwards, the other towels started doing the same thing. The children laughed in delight. 

"How curious! Our towels are dancing!" Katie beamed.

"Dancing? No way. Mine is doing karate!" Albert said to his sister.

"Mine is showing me all my favourite things!" Winnie said excitedly. 

"Oh for Pete's sake. Would you please do what you're supposed to do?" Mary Poppins said, supposedly to the towels.

At that the towels stopped showing off, and each dipped a bit into the water that was still in the sink. They then proceeded to clean the dirt of off the children's arms, faces and legs. They all laughed.

"That tickles!" Winnie giggled. 

The towels then flipped around, and used their dry side to dry the children off. When they were all done they did one last trick for each of them.

"That's enough, thank you very much." Mary Poppins scolded. 

And with that the towels dropped to the floor. Now they looked nothing more than ordinary towels. 

"What? We're done already? I want the towels to dance again!" Albert cried. 

"I thought you said yours wasn't dancing?" Mary Poppins said firmly, letting the water drain out of the sink. 

"You're clean now. It's high time for tea." She continued and walked back into the nursery. 

"She's a tricky one isn't she?" Albert whispered to Katie.

"No, she's wonderful." Katie whispered back and follow Mary Poppins into the nursery with Winnie holding her hand. 

_

Soon after that the children were running down the stairs at a high speed, desperate to tell their parents about what just happened.

Jane, Micheal and Jack were surrounded by newspapers, letters and bills. They were searching for possible jobs for Jack.

"You could become an electrician? With all those electric street lights, I'm sure they could use some of those." Jane suggested.

"I don't have the slightest idea of how to work those electric lamps." Jack said, getting a bit cranky.