The full grown oak 8/9

The first thing she noticed was the captain and mate arguing again about the navigation. Then at last the captain called to her, just as she was going off watch.

“Hey there miss! All the numbers have disappeared, how do you wind this thing up? My mate and I can’t find any handle.”

Jennifer Jane trotted over and stood respectfully before the captain. “It can’t be wound up like an ordinary clock,” she said, “it needs a new battery.”

The captain looked at her with a puzzled frown. “What’s a battery and where do I go to get one?”

She held out her hand and then took the back off the watch. Then she moved a small spring clip and took out the battery to show him.

“You need another one of these; they last for about two years, which is just about the age of my watch. The only place you’ll find one the correct size is in my world. If you want a new one then you’ll have to take me there, but I promise I’ll buy a brand new watch for you when I’ve got home.”

The captain thought for a moment, then shook his head. “I daren’t take you back to your world, we’ve hardly ever traded there before and it would look very suspicious if we started now. I might accidentally go through a wishing fog though, then if you leave the new battery thing with Phil at Timber Creek, I could pick it up when we’re next there.”

Jennifer Jane tried hard not to look too happy. “Well it’s up to you,” she said, before going below to get some sleep.

That very night, she was woken by the sound of her cabin door banging as the ship rolled. She sat up and did a quick twiddle for a chocolate swiss roll. It worked! She ran up on deck into the fog and wished for Timber Creek.

The Swan disappeared and a few seconds later she found herself struggling in the water. She’d forgotten that she wasn’t going to be on a boat when she arrived and she must have arrived in the middle of the river.

A rather spluttery series of pats on her head soon made her light enough to rise out of the water, then she looked round in the dark to try and see where she was. Fortunately there was just enough moonlight to see the shape of the timber mill away to her right.

A gentle breeze was blowing her slowly away from the shore, so she had to make herself heavy enough to enter the water again and then swam for the pier. It was jolly cold, but she persevered and a few minutes later climbed up the ladder and ran off towards the George and Dragons.