Once upon a time, in the middle of a forest, there was a grey house that looked rather frightening. It seemed as if no one lived there, for the windows were full of spider webs and the glass was so filthy it was impossible to see inside the house.

But in fact there was someone living there… a witch known all around the world as “the twitchy witch“. The twitchy witch had a wart right on the tip of her big nose, big black eyes and grey-and-white hair. She was a witch all right, a very ugly witch, and she was scary to look at.

The twitchy witch had always lived in the forest, and on certain days of the year she would go into the village a few kilometres away and frighten the people who lived there.

Today was one of the days that our witch, the twitchy witch, went into the village. Like all witches, she used her broom to get from place to place. So, dressed in dark clothing, she put on her pointy black hat, picked up her broom and set off.

It was getting dark by the time the twitchy witch arrived at the village. When some of the villagers out on the streets saw the silhouette of the twitchy witch flying atop her broom, they went running to their houses as fast as the blink of an eye.

The twitchy witch couldn’t stop cackling to see the people flee in fear.

But suddenly a little voice from the street called up at the witch: “Are you the twitchy witch?” cried a little boy who couldn’t have been more than 6 years old.

The witch halted on her flying broom, stared at the boy and wondered why he hadn’t run away like everyone else. So she answered: “Yes, I’m the twitchy witch!”

Then the boy asked: “Why do you come to the village to frighten people?”

The witch was puzzled. After a little while thinking about it, she eventually replied: “I’m going to tell you a secret, little boy. You can see for yourself that we witches are ugly; we have warts on our noses and we fly on broomsticks, and the only thing we do when we come to the village is buy food. But when people see us they get scared…”

“So… you’re not wicked? And you don’t want to harm children and their mums and dads?” asked the little boy.

“Of course not!!! We just want to buy our food and go back to the forest. I’d love to be able to walk down the street without anyone running away[S1] …” answered the witch, looking sad.

So the little boy decided to tell the whole village the true story, and went from house to house telling people that witches were good and wouldn’t hurt a fly.

And that was how it came about that the witches began to live alongside the villagers without scaring them, and the villagers learned to value a person’s character and not their appearance, because sometimes looks can be deceiving.

THE END