The Planet of Witches

by Ananta Sharma

“Finally,” yelled Sharon. “It is finally the time I will have no one in my life, just me forever and ever.”

Sharon was a twenty-two-year-old spoilt brat who had brought her very own rocket to go to a totally different planet with no one on it just for the most peaceful life and now she was taking off.

When the rocket blasted off, Sharon had already started thinking about what planet she was going to go to and all the things she could do and how peacefully she could sleep.

Eleven years later, when Sharon landed at last, she found herself in a dusty old place with lots of cliffs and rocks and if you put your tongue out it burns. Sharon was getting pretty hot in this type of climate because she was not use it.

But still she loved it.

Sharon got her diary out and started writing about this place.

Dear Clarice, today I have landed on this extremely hot and dusty planet and so far, I have been having a lot of fun but now I am pretty tired and also, I am missing Mum and Dad badly over here. I wish I never left earth or at least I wish that there was some WIFI over here. Anyways goodnight for today I’ll see you tomorrow.

When she had finished telling Clarice about the day, she went to bed. Next morning when she woke up, she yawned loudly and yelled, “Butler!” She had already started to get her old life’s habits back. But when Sharon looked around, she remembered that she was in space all alone. Sharon then had to get up and get breakfast by herself and she was really mad.

After Sharon had her breakfast and got ready, she decided to say good morning to Clarice, so she wrote:

Good morning, Clarice I know it’s too early to share right now but I was feeling very lonely and since I have no one here but you … Anyways forget all that. This morning I am feeling mad and stupid. Why I am mad is because I am already fed up with having to do things myself and why I feel stupid is because I now think that I should have never left earth. I also think that I should have brought like an animal, you know, so that I would always have a little furball around. I really wish I brought my cat Midnight. That’s enough talking for the morning, so I’ll talk at night.

After speaking to Clarice, Sharon started reading one of her favourite books, ‘Kalika Magic’ by Karen Hughes. After she had read for a while, she was tired, so she put it away and had a little nap. When Sharon woke up, she saw that she was locked up in four walls. She started to scream, “Ahhh!”

Suddenly in front of her appeared … well, they looked like people, but their strategy of entering was not people ways. It was like sand making people. Then one person (or the weird methods person) spoke, “No need to worry, dear, you are safe.”

Sharon quietly asked, “Where am I?”

“Well, you’re at a witches planet and at the moment you are in a witch boarding school.”

“Witches!” Sharon screamed.

“Yes, dear, but why are you so shocked? Are you not a witch?” the witch asked politely.

“No way. I am a human being and I come from planet earth.”

Suddenly, one of the other witches made a weird face and asked, “Y-you come fr-from pla-planet earth a-a-and you’re hu-hu-human?”

“Yes,” Sharon said, in a rude voice.

“You evil creatures. You stole our home from us!” the witch said loudly.

The witches told Sharon a short story:

“You see, young girl, many centuries ago we, the witches, use to be the rightful owners of planet earth, until one day a human was born. We didn’t let it feel like the odd one out and we treated it with care, but after a while, there came more and more humans until one day, we witches were asked to leave planet earth because all the humans had no room for us there.”

“So, you mean to say that I am right now on a planet full of witches?”

“Yes, my dear,” said one of the witches. “Oh my, I am so sorry. We did not introduce ourselves. This is Ms Dark, the AP. This is Ms Neston, the sports teacher. This Mrs Albus, the chanting teacher and standing beside her is her husband, Mr Albus, the spell science teacher, and I am Ms Rollins, principal of this school.

“Okay, so I got all your names but what do I do here now? I mean I don’t even have magic.”

“How rude of you! At least tell us your name,” said Mr Albus.

“Sharon Paigne”

“Well, Sharon, if you want you could stay with us for a few months, but no more than a year because we do not want you to give birth to other humans, so whatcha doing?”

“I suppose I’ll stay for a month or two but when I leave you’re going to have to get me to earth safe and sound with all my luggage.”

The witches agreed and gave Sharon a room of her own. The first night there, Sharon was so excited—but a lot of bad things happened. She wrote it all in her diary.

Dear Clarice, today when I had my nap and I woke up, I found myself locked up in a tiny room all by myself. A few weird people came in and they said that they were witches and I was on a planet full of witches, but after a while I had quite a lot of fun. I played with the other little witches and they even showed me their technology called a maglet. If you draw something on it, write a witch’s name or anyone’s and tap it three times, your message will be sent to them. But then at dinner time the food was gross. It was stinky, runny and looked exactly like vomit and it tasted exactly like medicine, but apart from that my day has been very good, just the food. Hopefully they make something better tomorrow.

*

“Wake up, girls! Wake up!” yelled Ms Dark, early in the morning.

Sharon was cranky. The thing was, Sharon was not used to waking up this early. But then Ms Dark popped up in her room and Sharon yelled at her for disturbing her this early in the morning, and then Ms Dark said in her sharp voice, “If you want to live here you must obey all the rules,” and as she said that, she handed the rule chart over to Sharon. The rule chart has so many rules that if you start reading them today you will finish next week.

After Ms Dark left, Sharon got up to go have a shower. After she was ready for the day, she went to have breakfast with the other witches. When she got there, Ms Dark appeared in front of her again and whispered, “Have you not read rule number thirty-eight. Unless you are a teacher, you must wear the school uniform, now go and change into this.”

When Sharon came down to have breakfast after she changed again, she was disappointed because of the food. She asked a witch next to her, “What is this?”

“Nobody knows and nobody complains so don’t you complain either,” the witch replied.

When they were finished, the other witches went to their classes and the teachers went too, so Sharon went up to her room and decided to talk to Clarice.

Good morning, Clarice. So far today I have had a horrible morning. So first, when Ms Dark yelled out, “Wake up!” in the corridor outside and then came into my room and handed me a rule chart—it had over one hundred rules on it, but I didn’t bother to read it—and secondly, when I was ready for the day and I had reached the cafeteria Ms Dark came and said to me to change my clothes into the proper school uniform, so I went to do that and when I came back to have breakfast it looked gross and tasted even grosser, so from today for as long as I live here, I am going to make my own breakfast, lunch and dinner, and I’ll also share some with the other witches. Anyways I will talk to you after lunch or at night now.

*

Two months later, Sharon was getting tired of all this witch business. The only thing she liked about this place was not all but a few girls, the principal, Ms Rollins, and Mrs Albus, the best teacher in the whole school. But still she wanted to go back home.

So, one early morning before Ms Dark woke up, Sharon went to Ms Rollins’ bedroom to wake her up. She told Ms Rollins that she wanted to leave.

Ms Rollins looked downhearted and gently spoke, “But why would you want to leave? Everyone here would be so upset. They love you so much, especially Mrs Albus. She treats you like you’re her daughter. And also, the girls they love it when you play with them.”

“I know, Ms Rollins, but it’s just that this is not my proper home and I miss my family. My mum, my dad and my cat Midnight. And I can still talk to you through the maglet that you gave me,” Sharon replied, and Ms Rollins knew that she had to send her back to her home, planet earth.

So, when every witch in the school was in the cafeteria, Ms Rollins announced that after breakfast they were going to give a little farewell to Sharon. When breakfast was over, all the witches in the school gathered outside to say goodbye. They were all very sad, but Mrs Albus was the most depressed, and then suddenly, Ms Rollins vanished her back to planet earth and all the witches burst into tears.

When Sharon found herself in her room, safe, she was so happy. She walked out of her room and found her mum sitting on the couch watching TV. When her mum saw her, she was so delighted to see her daughter. Then Sharon met her dad. He couldn’t have been more cheerful.

But her parents were confused. How did she come in the house? Wasn’t she in outer space? Slowly, Sharon told the whole story to them. Sharon also told them to announce in the newspaper and on every news channel that witches were coming back to earth.

And in a few months, the witches moved back in, and the humans never told them to move out again.