Helen Speaks

Introduction to Olive: https://helenspeaks.wordpress.com/2025/04/07/olive-framleys-magical-year/

The purple flashing eye spell: https://helenspeaks.com/2025/04/26/olive-framley-entry-6-26th-april/

Dear Talia,

I was in two minds about doing any more fortune telling sessions at Coastal Coffee – then I went today and that just about made up my mind. I still had a few customers, but there were also a lot of distractions. One of the women who I used to do readings for, who apparently found her engagement ring after one, was gossiping rather loudly about how those witches are nothing but trouble and not only had the little one hurt poor Suniya with some frankly dangerous magic but she’d heard tell that I had put some kind of hex on Ermingarde Webfoot.

Well. I did feel bad that I’d been unable to undo the spell, so I decided that today was the day. After all, I quite like the old stick really, and it’s nice having a family member who doesn’t mind that I have magic.

I looked up the spell but there’s not exactly a countercharm. Instead – according to a very helpful internet forum I found – the best solution seems to be a disillusionment spell. There was a warning that this can have unexpected consequences, but I’m not entirely sure how.

Well. I thought I’d better practise so I remembered the librarian I’d tried it on… and I saw that she was sitting in Coastal Coffee casually enjoying some monstrosity of a mocha choco-latte or something.

“Mind if I join you?” I asked her.

“Oh no, not at all,” she said, her eyes flashing bright purple. Poor soul. It occurs to me that I should have been a bit more considerate. It seems especially cruel that the spell exposes polite lies.

“Has anyone mentioned it?” I asked her. “You know… the purple eyes?”

She blushed. “I don’t know why it happens. Is it some sort of illness? My doctor didn’t know what had caused it.”

“Well…” I said. I paused, and took her hand dramatically. “I am gifted in the way of the magical arts. Would you like a reading? No charge.”

“Oh,” she said. “Well, I… I suppose I don’t mind,” she said, her eyes flashing purple again.

Poor thing. I traced her palm, using the disillusionment rune that I had found, reciting the words which I think were in a variety of medieval French.

“There – do you feel any better?”

She looked at me, her eyes wide and, for now, a normal colour.

“What happened – did you see anything?”

Funny she should say that, because I had a flash of her just then, sitting near the prow of a sailboat.

“Are you planning to travel?” I asked her.

“Oh – no, I should stay here for my poor mother… I don’t mind…”

And her eyes were purple again.

Well, this was no good, and I really wanted to make it up with Aunty E. I gave her a business card and went for a walk.

Do you know what I saw, Talia? What crazy and impossible thing I saw?

I saw Lucy Skylark apparently playing tag with a raincloud!

She was laughing and talking, apparently to someone else, someone I couldn’t quite see, or maybe I was mistaken.

She stopped, red-cheeked, but mostly from happiness, when she saw me. “Oh – hello Olive.”

“Hello,” I said, feeling rather competitive at this point. “What are you doing?”

“It’s… just something to do with living here, I think,” she said. “Or maybe just being a beginner. My powers just keep growing, unexpectedly… but this surprised me. I just didn’t want Mrs Webfoot to hack down the garden… and I discovered… well, it turns out that I can do something with clouds.”

“Well, I’m sure I could do something with…” I sighed. “I don’t know. You don’t know anything about countercharms, or disillusionment spells, do you?”

She blushed. “I didn’t mean to get you in trouble with Mrs Webfoot. What did you do?”

“In my defence, she was being very shady. So I did a spell that makes someone’s eyes flash purple when they lie. It seemed to work well, but…”

“You don’t know how to make it stop,” she said. She smiled, earnestly. “Has this not happened to you before?”

Oh Talia! Why do I care what Lucy thinks? Why am I impressed by Lucy now? Why was it so embarrassing to tell her that, contrary to her obvious impression of me as an experienced witch, I am a mere beginner with a couple of unreliable powers and a magic coat? Firenze can do more impressive magic than me!

She seemed baffled as to why I was embarrassed. “But it’s my training year too. I said we should stick together. You said witches should help each other. Why not be honest?”

And that’s when I had a rather uncomfortable revelation. I’ve been lying rather a lot lately. I lied to the poor librarian lady when I was trying to take away what I did to her.

I swallowed my pride. “Because I’d hate for people to look down on me. In Treville I used to be someone. And here… well, I can be Olive Framley, the famed witch, but it looks like I’m really going to be Olive Framley the total charlatan. I’ll have to change my name again. I’ll run out of middle names at this rate.”

“My mentor says that we should make mistakes,” Lucy says. “That it’s an important part of this year.”

That helped, but I still had to make it better.

“You’re a good soul, Lucy Skylark,” I said. “Friends?”

“I thought we already were,” she said, grinning.

“All right then. I think… I think I’ve figured out what I need to do. You might need to soundproof your door when Aunty E finds out though.”

So, long story short, I went and told Aunty E that I’d messed up and I didn’t know the spell but I had something I could try if she didn’t mind. And I told her that I actually hadn’t been a witch very long and I was pretty ashamed of the fortune telling thing. I’m definitely going in a different direction in future.

Somehow – and I think I knew this – my honesty unlocked the spell. Later on, I went and found the librarian and was honest, so I am now banned from the library. But I did manage to do some good before I went.

“Wait,” she said, “you said you used me as some kind of guinea pig…”

“Again, I’m really sorry. It was wrong of me and I honestly did think it would wear off.”

“But how did you know? I didn’t think I was a liar…”

“You’re not,” I said. “But I think you’re trying to keep a lot of people happy. I think maybe you’ve not been honest with yourself.”

“You mean…”

“You want to go sailing. I saw you on a boat.”

She blinked, then started to cry. “But I can’t… I…”

“You want to, though.”

She nodded. “Yes, I just want to get out of here… I just feel like I never will.”

“Weird things happen,” I said. “They happened to me and here I am.”

“Thanks,” she said. “I think I needed that.” She smiled. “You’re still banned though.”

What a day. I’ve decided to be a new me, although I’m not changing my name. But I’ve cancelled the table reservation at Coastal Coffee and I’m hanging up the magic coat.

Something strange happened on the way home from the library. I found myself noticing glimpses about people, just like the way I’d realised that the librarian really wanted to sail away. I managed a better view using a tacky handbag mirror – it seemed that in the right light, I could see people’s fondest dreams for themselves. Not everyone seemed to have one, but for some it shone so bright that I wonder that the others around them weren’t blinded – a barber dreamed of being an actor on a film set, a woman with two small children clamouring for attention dreamed of being alone on a beach.

What a strange and solemn gift – I shut it into the mirror when I got home and caught my breath. It seems like too much and I don’t know how to use it well. I don’t feel like a trustworthy witch at the moment, and I’m sure I don’t deserve to see these wishes this way. But I’ll keep the gift safe. I remember you said that we can do that – I think I don’t want to use it for now.

Yours sincerely,

Olive.

Question: What can you do when you have a dream that seems impossible?

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Next entry: https://helenspeaks.com/2025/05/24/olive-framley-entry-11-24th-may/