A Hat Full Of Sky

extremely wooly was what she’d heard…while every eye in the room watched Miss Level—
    —making tea using four arms, two of which did not exist, and not realizing it.
    The black kettle sailed across the room and apparently tipped itself into the pot. Cups and saucers and spoons and the sugar bowl floated with a purpose.
    Mistress Weatherwax leaned across to Tiffany.
    “I hope you’re still feeling…alone?” she whispered.
    “Yes, thank you. I mean, I can…sort of…feel them there, but they’re not getting in the way…er…sooner or later she’s going to realize…I mean, isn’t she?”
    “Very funny thing, the human mind,” whispered the old woman. “I once had to see to a poor young man who had a tree fall on his legs. Lost both legs from the knee down. Had to have wooden legs made. Still, they were made out of that tree, which I suppose was some comfort, and he gets about pretty well. But I remember him saying, ‘Mistress Weatherwax, I can still feel my toes sometimes.’ It’s like the head don’t accept what’s happened. And it’s not like she’s…your everyday kind of person to start with. I mean, she’s used to havin’ arms she can’t see—”
    “Here we are,” said Miss Level, bustling over with three cups and saucers and the sugar bowl. “One for you, one for you, and one for—oh…”
    The sugar bowl dropped from an invisible hand and spilled its sugar onto the table. Miss Level stared at it in horror while, in the other hand that wasn’t there, a cup and saucer wobbled without visible means of support.
    “Shut your eyes, Miss Level!” And there was something in the voice, some edge or strange tone, that made Tiffany shut her eyes too.
    “Right! Now, you know the cup’s there, you can feel your arm,” said Mistress Weatherwax, standing up. “Trust it! Your eyes are not in possession of all the facts! Now put the cup down gently…thaaat’s right. You can open your eyes now, but what I wants you to do, right, as a favor to me, is put the hands that you can see flat down on the table . Right. Good. Now, without takin’ those hands away, just go over to the dresser and fetch me that blue biscuit tin, will you? I’m always partial to a biscuit with my tea. Thank you very much.”
    “But…but I can’t do that now—”
    “Get past ‘I can’t,’ Miss Level,” Mistress Weatherwax snapped. “Don’t think about it, just do it! My tea’s getting cold!”
    So this is witchcraft too, Tiffany thought. It’s like Granny Aching talking to animals. It’s in the voice! Sharp and soft by turns, and you use little words of command and encouragement and you keep talking, making the words fill the creature’s world, so that the sheepdogs obey you and the nervous sheep are calmed….
    The biscuit tin floated away from the dresser. As it neared the old woman, the lid unscrewed and hovered in the air beside it. She reached in delicately.
    “Ooh, store-bought Teatime Assortment,” she said, taking four biscuits and quickly putting three of them in her pocket. “Very posh.”
    “It’s terribly difficult to do this!” Miss Level moaned. “It’s like trying not to think of a pink rhinoceros!”
    “Well?” said Mistress Weatherwax. “What’s so special about not thinking of a pink rhinoceros?”
    “It’s impossible to think of one if someone tells you mustn’t,” Tiffany explained.
    “No it ain’t,” said Mistress Weatherwax firmly. “I ain’t thinking of one right now, and I gives you my word on that. You want to take control of that brain of yours, Miss Level. So you’ve lost a spare body? What’s another body when all’s said and done? Just a lot of upkeep, another mouth to feed, wear and tear on the furniture…in a word, fuss . Get your mind right, Miss Level, and the world is your…” The old witch leaned down to Tiffany and whispered: “What’s that thing, lives in the sea, very small, folks eat it?”
    “Shrimp?” Tiffany suggested, a bit puzzled.
    “Shrimp? All right. The world is your shrimp, Miss Level. Not only will there be a great saving on clothes and food, which is not to be sneezed at in these difficult times, but when people see you moving things through the air, well, they’ll say, ‘There’s a witch and a half, and no mistake! and they will be right. You just hold on to that skill, Miss Level. You maintain. Think on what I’ve said. And now you stay and rest. We’ll see to what needs doing today. You just make a little list