Truth told, Jenna had always been a little bit jealous of her children when they were at the park. They got to whizz down the fantastic new tube slide and swing up practically into space, while she got to sit on a bench and doomscroll or talk to the other mums about their divorces. So it had seemed like such a good idea—such an important, righteous and rebellious idea—after few too many glasses of rosé with Caroline and Suzy, to climb up the slide, even as it looked ominously like a haunted house in the dark and launch herself down shouting 'wheeeeeeeeeeee!'

Who could have predicted that she'd get stuck? She wasn't that fat, barely even overweight at all.

Still, stuck she was. Suzy was standing at the bottom laughing her pants off, possibly literally. Good thing Caroline had gone home already, she'd have been sober enough to call the fire brigade.

Jenna wished dearly that she hadn't had quite so much to drink, because she had a decision to make. She could get out, but should she? Suzy was drunk enough that Jenna couldn't in good conscience teleport home and leave her there alone, but not drunk enough to fail to notice her friend teleporting out in front of her. She was going to have to do the right thing, but it might be messy, if she had to reveal that she was a witch after ten years of friendship.

Jenna wriggled one more time, hoping she could free herself naturally. It was no use. She took a deep breath, summoned magic from the universal energies that lived within her, and rematerialised behind Suzy. Or behind where Suzy had been, because Suzy was now vomiting into a bin and inconveniently facing right where Jenna had appeared.

Suzy wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"How the hell did you do that?" she said.