Words for Wednesday 21. November -- Unicorn Farm 8

This week's prompts are provided by Elephant's Child.

- transparent
- solve 
- theory 
- loot 
- take 
- wing


and/or

- demonstrate 
- graduate 
- justify 
- strain 
- stain 
- blackmail

Once again I wrote a small chapter from my autobiography and once again I took up the additional challenge of using the prompts in the order they were given. 
We're taking up the thread almost where we left it. It's right the second summer at Unicorn Farm, holidays has ended, and Susan is home with the twins visiting. They are planning mischief ...
 
The transparent excuse, that Tue and Lis needed some time for themselves seemed to go down well with Susan's parents. The truth was more convoluted. Their plan, assignment rather, was to make a portal at Susan's place, or somewhere near it, to the Unicorn Farm. So that all magicians could go there even if they were as yet unable to teleport, or resorting to mundane means like trains or cars.

In order to do this they had to solve a lot of problems. The theory was sound, at least. But the doings ... all the things needed to complete the portal sounded like an entrepreneur's shopping list. They felt that they'd have to loot a nearby hardware store to bring home that kind of stuff.

But their pooled money did not buy them more than a fraction of what was needed, and stealing was out of the question, even though they could easily have done so, using their magic. They spend some time after almost every meal, discussing shovels and other digging implements. In the end, their problem was solved in the most unlikely way.

Linda, Susan's younger sister, who was interested in horses, make-up and boys - in that order, one morning asked them if they could come and help at the riding school. Lots of old machinery and stuff was theirs to take, if they gave a hand. An old wing of the place was filled with stuff left there by the former owner, and had to be cleaned out to give place for more horses and an indoor riding arena.
 
Susan's mother had always tried to tell Susan that her sister was a useful person not just a nuisance. She now took great care not to demonstrate her happiness now that Tue and Lis seemed to like Linda better with each passing day.

Saturday morning they all awoke bright and early. They put on their oldest clothes, Lis and Tue got some hand me downs Susan still had not grown into, and they all drove off with a boy from graduate school, who had borrowed his daddy's lorry for the day.

All day they worked hard to justify their stashing of odds and ends. They noticed the strain in the grad's eyes as they hauled yet another appliance into the stack for bringing home. He told them that if the appliances did stain his father's lorry, he'd be in for it. The twins promised to be ever so careful. They even borrowed an old tarp from the riding school owner to protect the lorry.

Finally the rooms were cleaned out, the old partitioning walls had been torn down, everything not reusable hauled to the local dump, and all the stuff the twins needed for their work safely stored aboard the lorry meticulously wrapped in the tarp. Pizzas and soft drinks for everybody rounded off the day.

Linda, Susan, and the twins carefully climbed down from the lorry as they reached home. The pause while eating and driving had stiffened thier muscles.

Linda took a bee-line for the bathroom, while The twins aided by Susan and Dan, the boy with the lorry, carefully carried all the stuff into an old playhouse-cum-workshed in the back of the garden.

"Tell me, Dan," Tue said, as they carried the last of the many items into the shed. "Do your daddy actually know that you took the lorry today? You seem so awfully keen not to leave any tell tale signs of use on it."

Dan's face went as red as a balloon, and he grinned nervously. "Got me," he said. "I don't know what made me say I could use it. Dad's in Sweden over the weekend. He's going to blackmail me 'til forever if he finds out. And he will. I'm sure, I forgot some little stupid detail somewhere."

"Come and have a cup of tea before going home," Lis said, winking to Tue behind Dan's back. They left for the house and Tue pulled out his wand.