Helen Speaks

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

Lucy and Suniya plan to make a vegetable garden: https://helenspeaks.com/2025/05/07/lucy-skylark-entry-12-7th-may/

Dear Vera,

Well, the vegetable garden did not exactly go as planned! The trouble is, I can hear the plants and… well, some weren’t happy and some were very eager to please.

Maybe the problem was that I was really keen to impress Suniya. She was worried about watering seedlings for so long and though I can’t exactly make a plant grow as I’d like, I can definitely speed up the tentative, vulnerable seedling phase. So we planted a few trays – carrots, cauliflowers, asparagus. I left them on my windowsill for a couple of days, which Teddy liked. He kept an eye on them.

Then Suniya came over and we started to clear. Teddy came down with me – he very kindly let me put some gardening tools in the case so that it didn’t look too strange that I’d brought a suitcase to the garden! I didn’t just want to pull up the weeds – you know me – so we moved each clod of dirt bit by bit and I enticed the grass, clover and buttercups to find new spots so we could get to work on our new patch. The seedlings had barely broken through but when you’re a garden witch, surely you don’t need to worry about this. Suniya was a bit worried it was too early, but I reassured her that I had it in hand. Teddy liked this. “You show her, Lucy.” I smiled but didn’t answer. I know people don’t normally notice us talking – and Suniya didn’t see him! – but I was trying to avoid talking to him just in case she noticed that. I don’t know if you can get people without the gift to be able to see ghosts, people who aren’t babies or small children at least.

Anyway, I put the seedlings in our new bed and decided to give them a little magical push. It worked well enough on weeds and thorns on the new road back in Grainthorpe. It also works fairly well on houseplants. And the trees even listen… You know I can, after a fashion, talk to trees.

But, well, it went a bit too well. Some of them starting shooting out, leaves and tendrils forming, and the displaced grass and buttercups seemed a bit… jealous. So they started too. Well, I was feeding them all on magic and… maybe magic isn’t good for plants in larger doses?

I don’t even know where it all came from. But suddenly Suniya was panicking as there were thorns popping out and catching her clothes. And I…

I’m embarrassed to say, Vera, that I lost my temper. And I wasn’t angry at Suniya, really, although I did think she was acting as though the fast growing plants were coming to get her which was a bit melodramatic and very obviously not true. Really, I was cross with the plants for clearly not understanding and cross with myself for not getting the spell – if it could be called a spell, yet – right. I shouted at her to stop screaming. Then Teddy said, “Steady on, this is a pretty mess we’re in and she’s not magic” and I told him to get back in his case if he couldn’t say anything helpful.

“All right, I will then,” he said, and wisped away. I shut the case with a snap, and started trying to put things right. The other plants were all growing too now – the flower beds and the lawn, all growing and climbing and I tried to reverse it, tried willing them all to stop, but it felt like there was thunder in my ears and nothing would stop.

I became aware of voices behind me. Mrs Webfoot was hugging the other witch, Olive Framley! Then she turned to Suniya, offered her something out of her first aid box, and did a disappointed head shake in my direction.

I remembered Maksym, my miracle friend, caught in the middle of his storm, and I felt caught in the middle of mine. The whole garden looked like a strange, strangled jungle of weeds and shoots and flowers. Suddenly I realised that I didn’t know how to fix it, and that everything I was trying was making it worse. And I caught sight of Suniya, who Mrs Webfoot was now patting on the shoulder, looking so confused and sad and hurt.

I reached forward and clicked open Teddy’s case.

I thought, honestly, knowing what his temper can be like, that he’d come out shouting and I guess I thought I’d let him until I could ask him what he thought I should do, but instead he looked at me, and floated down next to me.

Like most ghosts, he’s cold, but I was so hot and sweaty and angry, at myself and at everyone else, that it felt very welcome as he wrapped an arm about me and we sat together in the strange inhospitable wilderness that I’d made of Dune House’s garden.

I didn’t look up for a while – I suppose Mrs Webfoot and Suniya went inside. I’m glad. I probably deserved a telling off but I don’t know if I could have endured one.

I had an awful sinking feeling, Vera. I wondered if I should put on those magical bracelets that I gave Maksym, but just leave them on. I’d made a terrible mess. I didn’t know how I dared call myself a witch.

Then Teddy said, “I think I need to tell you something. I think… I think I made this happen.”

“What?! No, Teddy, I shouldn’t have…”

“No, listen… Sometimes… I think cause I’m a ghost… sometimes when you do magic, I try to help. I dunno how much difference it makes. But sometimes… well, I really wanted them vegetables to grow.”

I blinked at him. “You can do magic?”

“I’m not a witch,” he said. “But… I’m your friend. I saw you reading in the book you got about ghosts. Did it say anything about this?”

I thought back. I remember reading the bit about how ghosts pass on, and had wondered about talking to Teddy about it, but it all seemed so dark and weird and heavy, and I hadn’t wanted to until I understood it.

(Vera, you have the Encyclopedia now – what do you think? Do you know where I could find out more? I think Teddy should know but I don’t want to scare him.)

But that hadn’t been all. There had been a part about how ghosts could do magic, again it was dark and seemed to suggest that they had to possess a host. But maybe I was being a kind of conduit for Teddy’s power.

And it made sense that the spell had gone so very over the top because neither of us quite realised and we had more power than we understood how to use, together.

But it also means that, if we are careful – and especially when a lot of magic is needed – we could do a lot of good things together.

My head was spinning a bit now, but I did feel a lot calmer. “I’m so sorry I shouted, Teddy,” I said. “You’re a good friend… to me and to Suniya.”

“You’re a witch but you cain’t do everything,” he said. “You gotta let yourself be a person, sometimes. Sometimes I wish… I wish I hadn’t tried to grow up so fast.”

I sighed at the garden, where the growing had stopped but it still looked like a tangled jungle.

“Yes, growing too quickly can be a problem,” I said, and he groaned good naturedly, making me smile.

I went back to the house and went to say sorry to Mrs Webfoot – but before I could say anything, she shook her head at me.

“I think you’d better take your tea upstairs – although you will bring down the plates of course. But I think you’ve caused enough damage for one day. Poor Suniya.”

I tried to nod, showing I was sorry, and that I was responsible, and that I’d make it right, but she turned away, and I went upstairs to cry.

Teddy stole away for a bit, and the chicks cheeped occasionally.

Things will be all right, won’t they Vera?

I’m afraid I’ve messed everything up.

Your friend,

Lucy.

Question: What do you do when you feel overwhelmed?

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Next entry (Olive’s next letter): https://helenspeaks.com/2025/05/12/olive-framley-entry-8-12th-may/

Lucy’s next letter: https://helenspeaks.com/2025/05/15/lucy-skylark-entry-14-15th-may/