Helen Speaks

Introduction: https://helenspeaks.wordpress.com/2025/04/06/lucy-skylarks-magical-year/

Characters: https://helenspeaks.com/characters/

Dear Vera,

The most peculiar thing happened yesterday. Mrs Webfoot and the other lodgers were all out so I was sitting in the Dune House dining room eating a sandwich and sketching. It was a beautiful sunny day outside.

I did hear what sounded like a shower going at one point, but I thought one of the others must have got back. Then Teddy appeared at the dining room doorway. He looked faint, as he does the further he moves from his case.

“Lucy, come quick! Something very weird is happening!”

Teddy doesn’t usually come down, especially now that he and Suki are getting on a little better. So I rushed upstairs and discovered he was right… there was a storm howling outside my window.

One half of the house was in sunshine… the other being battered by a full-on storm.

“The chicks – I cain’t do anything…”

They were squeaking urgently by my open window as the rain pelted their box. As swiftly and carefully as I could, I moved the box down out of the way, then shut the window.

“But Suki’s still out there,” Teddy said. I was touched at his concern.

“She won’t be flying in this,” I told him, “And she knows the chicks are safe with us.”

“But what’s making this happen?”

“It sounds like something I need to find out,” I said.

I didn’t intend to go far. I took my raincoat, but luckily the front door reached out to the sunny side, and when I went out, I saw the most peculiar sight. The storm started and ended at the tidiest line all the way across the peninsula. Where I stood, it was peaceful and calm. But daring to step into it, I discovered a near-hurricane like wind whipping around me, my raincoat giving into the downpour in mere moments.

It had to be magic.

There’s a beautiful oak tree at the back of Dune House, and it was shaking in the onslaught of the rain.  I felt my heart go out to it.. and then I had an idea. Plants have always responded to me… perhaps I could respond to them. Carefully, I crossed the sodden grass and touched its branch. I could definitely feel something. This tree had a memory. It had seen something like this before. And it knew it wasn’t good.

“What should I do?” I asked it, feeling slightly foolish, but hey, my two best friends are a dead 1920s gangster and a blue tit who can talk.

I could feel it listening too, to all the other trees and plants. And I heard a river rushing… the River Rindle has its mouth just south of the cliffs.

I knew I needed to go down.

It took me half an hour in driving rain, and the road near the bay were flooding. A car had broken adrift and, Vera, there were people inside.

There was a great sycamore nearby – I turned to it. Can you help?

Trees don’t have eyes, of course, but the tree was willing. I guided a branch across the road and the car caught on it. The tree let me walk across the limb to the car, where the family inside looked increasingly panicked.

The passenger side was next to the branch, and the man wound his window down.

“Please, it’s not safe,” he told me.

“The trees want to help,” I said. “She’ll hold on for as long as she can. Can you climb out?”

The door was jammed, but the little boy in the back was at least able to climb through the window and onto the great limb, where he gripped onto me.

I asked the tree nicely again and she lowered another branch for the boy to take. “He’s safe,” I told them. The man looked frantic – his wife, at the wheel, looked like she’d frozen. “You need to get out or you’ll be washed out to sea,” I told them.

It seemed to take forever, but with the kind help of the sycamore, the two finally climbed out, and eventually all three made it onto dry land.

I looked at the devastation the flood was causing and wondered what else I could do…

And then the clouds parted and the wind died down, and the sun shone as if it had never been away.

The little family had hurried to safety, and now others came out to stare at the flood waters, but the danger seemed to be past.

It was all very strange and it made me ill at ease. I had to be very careful on the mud-laden paths going home, and when I got back, Mrs Webfoot scolded me for being so silly as to go out into the rain. She had been in town and to her, it had just looked like a distant rainstorm like any other.

She had her friend with her, who had apparently had her fortune read by Olive Framley and they were excited because it seems that what she had said – that she would find something precious that she had lost – had come true. Mrs Edgwood had found her long-lost engagement ring that morning, at the back of a bookshelf she rarely dusted.

“Now she’s a witch, eh Lucy. You should talk to her and see what you could learn.”

I would’ve been hurt, but honestly, after all I’d seen that day, I realised there’s a reason I’m a witch and it’s not about showy tricks. It’s about making things better in this world. Maybe there is a reason I am here. I wish I knew what had caused the storm.

A funny thing has happened since, though! This morning I awoke and I found myself imagining the whole countryside stretching out from Barkmouth, and it felt like I could see the weather. Every cold breeze, every little shower, every place the sun would break through! How odd. I think it may be some kind of after effect.

Suki came home safely, and Teddy has been very much in her good books since she found out that he helped save the chicks from the storm. They are getting bigger and noisier now. I am sure Suki will start training them to fly soon.

They’re noisy roommates but I’ll miss them when they go.

Love to Tibbles and all the neighbours.

Your friend,

Lucy.

Question: Do you like going out when it rains?

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Next entry (Olive’s letter): https://helenspeaks.com/2025/04/16/olive-framley-entry-2-16th-april/

Lucy’s next letter: https://helenspeaks.com/2025/04/18/lucy-skylark-entry-8-18th-april/

The mysterious weather continues: https://helenspeaks.com/2025/04/25/lucy-skylark-entry-10-25th-april/