The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

by Sangu Mandanna

Her eyes very round, seven-year-old Altamira said, with perfect gravity, “That was some excellent Mary Poppins shit right there.”

Niceness is all about what we do when other people are looking. Kindness, on the other hand, runs deep. Kindness is what happens when no one’s looking.”

“I can’t transform the world, Jamie. The world’s too big and too messy and too stubborn.” “Who said anything about transforming the world?” He shrugged. “What about just making it a little better? And then a little better? And then a little more, until, one day, maybe long after we’re gone, it has transformed? You deserve more than what you’re allowing yourself to have.”

Altamira, rather pleased to find herself much fussed over by so many adults, was solemnly listing every single swear word she knew.

She, Mika Moon, would not be the witch who transformed the world, but she was making it a little better, day by day.