Toad-ally Magic Read online

  Contents

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 310

  Chapter 416

  Chapter 520

  Chapter 625

  Chapter 731

  Chapter 836

  Chapter 941

  Chapter 1046

  Chapter 1150

  Chapter 1255

  Chapter 1359

  Chapter 1464

  Chapter 1568

  Chapter 1672

  Chapter 1776

  Chapter 1880

  Cast of Characters86

  Ruby Wishfingers 3:

  Hide and Seek88

  Ruby Wishfingers:Toad-ally Magic!

  Published by Wombat Books 2016

  Text © Deborah Kelly

  Illustrations © Leigh Hedstrom

  www.wombatbooks.com.au

  PO Box 1519,

  Capalaba QLD 4157

  Australia

  National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Creator: Kelly, Deborah, author.

  Title: Toad-ally magic / Deborah Kelly ; Leigh Hedstrom, illustrator.

  ISBN: 9781925139839(ebook: epub)

  Series: Kelly, Deborah. Ruby Wishfingers.

  Target Audience: For primary school age.

  Subjects: Toads--Juvenile fiction.

  Magic--Juvenile fiction.

  Other Creators/Contributors:

  Hedstrom, Leigh, illustrator.

  Dewey Number: A823.4

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.

  Ruby

  Wishfingers

  Deborah Kelly

  Toad-ally

  Magic!

  Illustrated by Leigh Hedstrom

  For Lucia and Leon

  May all your wishes come true!

  Chapter 1

  Ruby Wishfingers seemed like an ordinary girl.

  She lived with her ordinary family on an ordinary street, in an ordinary suburb of an ordinary town.

  She went to an ordinary school and ate ordinary strawberry jam sandwiches at lunchtime.

  But, like her name, Ruby May Wishfingers was far from ordinary.

  Ruby watched the morning sun flicker through the gap in her pink lace curtains. It made the pebbles on the bottom of Norman’s fish tank shimmer like magic. It lit up the drawings on Ruby’s wall—extraordinary pictures of a girl with superpowers, a real-life unicorn and a garden filled with lollipop flowers.

  Ruby snuggled under her quilt and squeezed Skydancer tightly. The cuddly unicorn had been her favourite toy since her third birthday.

  Ruby loved his glittering purple hooves, his flowing purple mane and the way his tail spilled over like a fountain. She even loved his rainbow-stained whiskers. But more than anything, Ruby loved Skydancer because he had helped her discover that there was far more to being a Wishfingers than having a funny name.

  On a spring morning nearly two years ago, Ruby had woken up with the most extraordinary feeling in the tips of her fingers. They had buzzed and hummed. They had tickled and wriggled. They had niggled like an itch begging to be scratched. But no matter how Ruby had scratched them—against her quilt, against each other, against her teeth—the feeling had not gone away.

  She had tried washing them with soap and warm water. She had tried rinsing them in cold. She had even tried sucking them.

  But that hadn’t worked either.

  ‘Your great-grandfather was a Wishfingers, and his father before him, and his father before him,’ explained Granny, who lived in a caravan at the bottom of the garden. ‘But your great, great, great, great-grandfather Wishfingers, well, he was a magician.’

  Ruby’s heart had pounded with excitement. So there was a reason for her extraordinary name and her tingling fingers after all!

  As the great, great, great, great-granddaughter of a famous and powerful magician, Ruby had inherited not only his name but some of his magic too. And as Granny had said, it was a name worth holding onto. The extraordinary feeling in the tips of her fingers was the sign of a marvellous gift:

  The power to wish for whatever she wanted!

  Chapter 2

  It had been as simple as wishing on the candles of a birthday cake.

  All Ruby had to do was close her eyes, make a wish and blow on her fingertips with all her might.

  Ruby’s very first wish had been to turn Skydancer into a real-life unicorn. But bringing a cuddly unicorn to life had caused problems Ruby had never expected. It turned out that cuddly unicorns had quite an appetite for curtains, as well as blankets, school uniforms and even smelly sports socks, not to mention her mum’s much treasured collection of antique lace tablecloths.

  Distracting Skydancer with Dad’s treat jar had been a good idea, but wishing she was tall enough to reach it had not. Bumping your head on the ceiling all the time was no fun at all. Neither was being chased by a sugar-hungry unicorn when the treats ran out.

  To stop the house from being completely destroyed, Ruby had needed to get Skydancer outside—and fast. Turning the backyard into candy land had seemed like a good idea—until it had rained jellybeans and the sun had come out from behind the fairy-floss clouds. Ruby had been left with a giant gooey mess and an oversized cuddly toy unicorn with rainbow-stained whiskers and a bellyache!

  Ruby had wished Skydancer back to good health, but it wasn’t long before he smelled something delicious coming from the bakery across the highway. Wishing she could run as fast as a cheetah had been the only way Ruby could catch up with him and pounce onto his back. But she had needed to hold on tight—and close her eyes. Cuddly toy unicorns moved surprisingly fast and Skydancer wasn’t going to let a major highway come between him and a tasty snack.

  With her parents due home at any tick of the clock and only a single wish left, Ruby had realised there was only one way to get everything back to normal:

  To wish that none of it had even happened at all.

  For Ruby, who had always dreamed of extraordinary things, this was not an easy thing to do.

  But instead of returning everything to normal, Ruby had accidentally wasted her very last wish on Granny’s mean, old cat, Jupiter!

  Now she had a cat that wouldn’t stop talking, and no wishes left to fix the mess she had made!

  It was very lucky that Granny had magic fingers of her own and always kept a pinkie up her sleeve, just in case.

  But Granny’s magic hadn’t fixed everything.

  Granny and Ruby had had to put up with Jupiter grumbling about this and whingeing about that. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the old sourpuss didn’t give a whisker how loud he spoke, much less who overheard him.

  Granny was right, thought Ruby. Wishes were wondrous, powerful things that were far too precious to waste. They never turned out quite how you expected and it was easy to make a wish by accident.

  But now that Ruby was a whole lot older, she was a whole lot wiser too.

  I will be very careful with my wishes from now on, she thought.

  Chapter 3

  ‘Peek-a-boo!’ Ruby called, poking her head around the kitchen door.

  Jellybean banged his spoon on the table and squealed with delight.

  The arrival of her sweet baby brother last year had been far more exciting than anything Ruby could have wished for.

  Even though he was almost one, and no longer the size of a jell
ybean inside his mother’s tummy, Jellybean’s nickname had stuck. His proper name, Nathaniel James Huxley Wishfingers, was fine indeed but he looked like a sweet, little jellybean. Ruby kissed the soft caramel curls on his head. He even smelled a bit like a jellybean.

  ‘Good morning!’ Ruby’s mother set a bowl of porridge in front of her. ‘So, the holidays are here at last!’

  ‘Yes!’ Ruby grinned. ‘And only one more sleep until Jellybean’s party!’

  Ruby, Mum and Granny had been busy all week making plans for Jellybean’s first birthday. They had decided on a teddy bears’ picnic, to be held in the garden tomorrow morning. There would be fairy bread, lemonade and sandwiches cut into little triangles.

  Mrs Cottesloe from next door was coming, and so was her gardener, Henry. Mum, Dad, Ruby and Granny would be there, of course, and even Granny’s cranky, old cat Jupiter. It would be a small party but a lovely one.

  Ruby couldn’t wait. She had already painted a beautiful banner for the party with ‘Happy Birthday, Jellybean!’ done in rainbow colours on an old sheet. She had even added little pictures around the edges of trucks and trains, dinosaurs and strawberries—all the things her little brother liked.

  Mum had done the shopping for the party but it was Ruby and Granny who were in charge of the most important job of all:

  The cake!

  They hadn’t decided exactly what kind of cake they would make for Jellybean yet, but Ruby knew one thing for sure—it was going to be the biggest, yummiest birthday cake in the whole wide world!

  As Ruby blew on a spoonful of porridge and daydreamed about birthday cakes, the tips of her fingers suddenly began to tingle.

  The tingling grew hotter and stronger, spreading upwards towards her knuckles until they were buzzing and humming, tickling and wriggling, niggling like an itch begging to be scratched.

  Jeepers! thought Ruby. My wishes are back again!

  Ruby dropped the spoon. Her heart began to pound with excitement, just as it had when she first discovered her ability to wish. When she was nine years old, Ruby had been granted nine wonderful wishes. When she was ten, the Wishfingers family had enjoyed a wonderful summer filled with all kinds of special treats and surprises thanks to Ruby. Now that she was eleven, Ruby was crossing her fingers for eleven more fabulous wishes.

  I can’t wait to tell Granny!

  Ruby’s mind began to buzz with ideas. Perhaps she could wish for her own giant playground with a trampoline and a ball pit she could do backflips into. Or a huge swimming pool with a rainbow-coloured waterslide! Or a trip to Disneyland! The school holidays were shaping up to be extraordinarily good already.

  ‘Hold your horses!’ called Mum. ‘I’ve got something for you and Granny.’

  She rummaged around in a drawer and handed Ruby a recipe book with a picture of a soccer ball cake on the cover.

  ‘To help with ideas,’ she added.

  ‘Thanks!’ Ruby trotted down the back steps with the cake book tucked under her arm. She gave her favourite sparkly ball a cheerful boot before skipping along the pebbled path out into the warm autumn sunshine.

  Chapter 4

  ‘Good morning!’ Mrs Cottesloe’s cheery voice sailed over the fence. ‘What have you got there, Ruby?’

  ‘A cake book!’ called Ruby, holding it up so her neighbour could see. Without her glasses, poor Mrs Cottesloe was as blind as a bat. ‘Granny and I are going to make Jellybean the biggest, yummiest birthday cake in the whole wide world for his party tomorrow!’

  ‘I have no doubt you will!’ Mrs Cottesloe winked. ‘It sounds delicious!’ said Mrs Cottesloe’s gardener, Henry, who had popped up beside her.

  ‘What’s in there?’ asked Ruby, pointing at the wriggling plastic bag Henry carried in his gloved hand.

  ‘Cane toads,’ said Henry grimly, holding the bag open so Ruby could peer inside. ‘They’re horrible pests!’

  ‘Why?’ Ruby asked.

  ‘Well for one thing, they’re venomous.’ He held up the bag. ‘Do you see all that white foam?’

  Ruby nodded.

  ‘Cane toads release poison when they feel scared. If our native snakes or birds—or even our pets—try to eat the toads they get sick and die.’

  ‘Cane toads were brought to Australia to kill beetles that were eating the sugar cane,’ explained Mrs Cottesloe. ‘But it was a silly mistake. You see, the beetles lived high up in the cane where the toads couldn’t reach them. But it’s too late now.’ She tutted. ‘The toads are here to stay.’

  ‘And they are spreading like wildfire!’ Henry waved the bag of cane toads. ‘That’s why I’m doing my bit to keep them out of Mrs Cottesloe’s backyard—they seem to like her pond.’

  ‘Jeepers!’ Ruby shuddered at the bag full of slimy yellowish-brown bodies. ‘I hope I never find one in our yard!’

  ‘Well, keep your eyes peeled!’ said Henry. ‘They’re very good at blending in—masters of camouflage, in fact!’

  Ruby waved goodbye to Mrs Cottesloe and Henry. She ducked under the washing line and zigzagged around the old apple tree. She passed Jellybean’s empty paddling pool, which sat propped up against the fence. As she ran along the length of the vegetable patch, she waved to Dad, who was in his vegetable garden, carefully weeding between the radishes.

  Ruby’s father, George Wishfingers, was an ordinary sort of man who didn’t believe in extraordinary things like magic. He much preferred to spend his time thinking about ordinary things like work, the jar of sweet treats he kept at the top of the bookcase and his beloved vegetable garden. Unfortunately, it was the same vegetable garden in which Jupiter, Granny’s talking cat, liked to do his kitty business.

  By the time Ruby reached the bottom of the garden, she was no longer worrying about her father or talking cats. She wasn’t thinking about Henry and his bag of horrible toads either. She was far too busy thinking of all the marvellous, wondrous things she was going to wish for.

  Chapter 5

  Ruby stopped at the door of Granny’s small yellow caravan. She knocked three times and then peered through the window.

  Granny was sitting in her usual spot, wrapped in a blanket with a scarf around her neck. She looked up from her knitting and waved at Ruby to come in.

  The temperature in Granny’s caravan was usually set to freezing, but that first icy blast still took Ruby’s breath away.

  ‘Shut the door!’ growled Jupiter. ’You’re letting the cool air out!’

  Granny’s cat, Jupiter, was a Maine Coon and one of the largest cat breeds in the world. It was also one of the hairiest.

  Unfortunately for Jupiter, solidly built cats with long, thick fur weren’t designed for hot climates. They were supposed to live in the snow. Even now in autumn, he still complained about the heat. Perhaps it was because of this that Jupiter was the grumpiest cat in the world. Thanks to Ruby’s accidental wish two springs ago, he was now the most talkative too.

  ‘The only thing worse than a rude cat,’ said Granny, frowning over the top of her glasses at Jupiter, ‘is a rude cat who can talk! Come in, Ruby darling. I’m just finishing off this row.’

  Shivering, Ruby dropped the cake book on the counter and quickly pulled on the jacket that Granny kept on a hook by the door—just for her. She hopped impatiently from one foot to the other, partly because she was trying to keep warm but mostly because she couldn’t contain her excitement any longer.

  ‘Good news!’ Ruby grinned, wriggling her fingers in the air.

  ‘Aha!’ Granny cried. She put down her knitting and held out her arms. ‘So your wishes are here again!’

  Ruby hugged Granny and picked up the framed picture from the table beside her chair.

  ‘Thank you for the magic, Great, Great, Great, Great-Grandfather Wishfingers!’

  ‘Well, then!’ Granny smiled, patting the arm of her chair. ‘Now seems like the perfect time to t
ell you about The Golden Rule of Magic.’

  ‘The Golden Rule of Magic?’ marvelled Ruby, settling in beside Granny. ‘Now that sounds interesting!’

  ‘The Golden Rule of Magic is something you must always keep in mind,’ began Granny, ‘for as its name suggests, it is a rule of great importance.’

  Ruby nodded enthusiastically.

  ‘The Golden Rule of Magic is—’

  ‘I’m so hot!’ whined Jupiter, pushing his dish towards Granny’s feet. ‘I want ice cream!’

  ‘I beg your pardon!’ exclaimed Granny.

  ‘Strawberry,’ Jupiter added, licking his whiskers.

  Granny’s mouth dropped open for a moment and then she pursed her lips very tightly.

  ‘Cats with bad manners don’t get any ice cream—strawberry or otherwise!’

  What a spoiled cat, thought Ruby.

  She turned back to Ruby, ignoring Jupiter who had retreated underneath the bed, his tail swishing angrily.

  ‘As I was saying, my dear, before I was so rudely interrupted, The Golden Rule of Magic is–’

  Jupiter hissed from underneath the bed.

  ‘That’s quite enough!’ Granny scolded. ‘One more interruption and I’ll put you outside!’

  Quick as a flash, Jupiter poked his head out from under the bed and bit Granny on the slipper.

  ‘That’s it!’ Granny declared. ‘Out you go! Out, out, out! And don’t come back until you are ready to apologise!’

  The caravan door flew open and out sailed Jupiter, landing on his paws with a shake and a scowl.

  Granny took a moment to readjust her scarf before settling back down in her chair.

  ‘Now, dear Ruby, where were we?’

  ‘You were about to tell me about The Golden Rule of—’

  ‘Aaaaaaaarrrrgggghhhhh!’

  Chapter 6

  Ruby and Granny rushed to the door and flung it open.

  Mr Wishfingers, his face as pale as a marshmallow, flew past them into Granny’s tiny bathroom, locking the door behind him.