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LONG STICK THE ASTRONAUT BROOM Long Stick was a thin ash wood broom, strong but elastic, much loved by the other brooms and brushes, inhabitants of the world of the Four Sides. Only an inner sorrow depressed her, the witches from a hundred kilometers around rejected her as a means of transport. -But, ma'am... - ...I begged Long Stick every time I met a pointy-hatted witch... Why won't you fly with me? -Lightning, toads and snakes," exclaimed the witch of the North Side of the West Corner in anger. A lady with very bad fleas, indeed. - You know they made you so perfect, so straight, you're no good as a broom for the witches' union. -But I can fly very well... and very fast. -Mmmm... I said no! Now get out or I'll turn you into firewood to heat my potion-making pot. And our broom, with its head down, saddened, went off to cry its sorrows, to a corner of the ramshackle hut of the witch Four hairs. ...