How did Gretel get the witch in the original story?

Oh. I remember. She tricked the witch! She told her she needed help with the oven and then pushed her in.

Can I trick the witch, too? Without pushing her into an oven though, because that sounds super creepy.

I turn back toward the tree we just knocked on. It may not be a portal, but maybe it’s good for something?

“Oh, no!” I cry. “Patty! Look! You have to help! Spinny ran up the tree and is stuck between two branches, and he can’t get out!”

“What?” she says, looking around. “I don’t see Spinny!”

“Over there!” Jonah says, starting to fake-cry. Jonah is really good at fake-crying. Usually it’s annoying, but not this time. “He’s stuck all the way up there. Poor Spinny!”

She sniffs the air. “Spinny! Where are you?”

Ruff! Ruff! Prince cries out from near the tree, helping me out. Good cat!

“Hurry!” I say. “Spinny is in trouble. He needs you!”

“I’m coming, Spinny!” the witch yelps. She rushes over to the tree and reaches her arms up. “Jump to me, Spinny. Jump!”

I motion to Jonah’s licorice belt.

Take it off! I mouth.

I need it, he mouths back.

We need it more, I mouth, and point to the tree.

Oh! he mouths, finally getting it. He unwraps the belt one, two, twenty times from his waist. Then he tosses me one end, and we start running. Before Patty knows what’s happening, Jonah and I race in opposite directions around the tree, tying her tightly to it and knotting the licorice rope around the back of the trunk.

Patty unsuccessfully tries to untie herself. “Hey! You tricked me!”

“I did!” I say. “Trust me, though — if you read the original story, you’d know it was better than what was supposed to happen to you.”

Ruff! Prince barks.

“Let me out this instant!” the witch screeches.

“No can do,” I say. “But you can always eat your way out.”

She spits on the ground. “Black licorice? Disgusting!”

“I totally agree,” I call out. I pocket some Skittles for the road and follow my brother and dog into the forest.

Where are we running to?” Jonah asks.

“I’m not sure,” I say. “But I want to get as far away from the witch as possible. And if you see that horrible bird, hide!”

“No kidding,” he says. “Although flying with him was kind of fun.”

“How was that fun? You threw up!”

“That part wasn’t fun,” he says. “Obviously. The before part.”

“When he had his talons in your shoulders?”

“Yeah. Exactly.”

“You’re weird,” I say. Then I have an idea. “Maybe we should go back to the vegetable patches. Remember where we came in? Maybe there’s a portal there.”

“Oh! Good idea! I think it was that way!” Jonah points to the left.

But Prince is running to the right. Ruff! Ruff!

Great. Just what I want to do. Get lost in the forest in the middle of the night.