Mistake

What a stupid mistake to make thought Annabelle ruefully.

She should have known better than to trust anything her Uncle Jim told her.

The rest of the family said he was a bit touched in the head, a bit simple.

Joe himself claimed to be a changeling, swapped at birth  by fairies who wanted a human child.

Either way Annabelle had been stupid to trust him.

He'd sworn the book had been given to him by a fairy but he'd probably found it in some junk shop somewhere.

But Annabelle was desperate, pale skin and red hair was not a fashionable look, blonde and tanned was, and that's what the recipe book promised.

She collected all the leaves and flowers listed in the recipe, added the stagnant water and pond slime and mixed up the awful smelling ingredients, she was almost gagging at the stench.

She was greatly relieved that she didn't have to drink the stuff but only had to apply it to her hair and skin.

Annabelle stayed hidden in the garden shed once she'd covered herself in the foul smelling gunk, she didn't dare go near the house in case her mum saw her.

Once the prescribed three hour wait was up Annabelle walked back across the garden and into the house, mum and dad were at work and her sisters were at school.

She ran upstairs and into the bathroom, turned on the shower and stepped under the warm water.

The stuff gradually washed away but it wasn't until Annabelle rinsed the soap out of her eyes that the full horror was revealed.

She was green, green from head to toe, including her hair.