Helen Speaks

Lucy Skylark Entry 14, 2nd June.

Dear Vera,

It was so kind of you to send me the “magic candy”! I was still a bit confused after reading the description but I’m glad it reminded me about Shimmers because Bea Furness came into the coffee shop during my shift yesterday. She was wearing hair in green streaks and her lips seemed to have a permanent purple hue. She looked so bright and colourful that I was sure that the other customers would stare – and I even braced myself for telling them to leave her alone – but it seems like everyone knows her in Barkmouth, and no one batted an eye, not even when she dropped a couple of coins and then stretched her fingers out to twice their length to grab them from under the table.

Bea asked me how my magical year was going, and I showed her the magic candy. She got a bit excited about them even though she’d not heard of them before. I mentioned that a Shimmer had founded the company, and she smiled. “We don’t all know each other,” she told me. “Most of us don’t go into magic – our abilities stop with our appearance.” She grinned and made her eyebrows glitter as a flourish. “And that takes years of practice. A lot of Shimmers still just wear make-up!”

Chatting to her felt so easy, Vera. It’s nice having a friend a bit older than me – just like I always appreciated having you and Mr Akhtar in Grainthorpe. I still haven’t seen Suniya since the garden magic went wrong and I shouted at her but she has exams. I’m trying to be patient and maybe she’ll want to meet up afterwards. And Olive, my fellow witch, been making herself scarce since her argument with Mrs Webfoot. And Mrs Webfoot has been a little warmer with me lately but, all the same, it’s nice having a wise friend who’s seen a bit of the world and who isn’t mad at me.

Bea looked over the instructions for the magic candy. She was really intrigued. “This is really a kind of data storage,” she said. “The fact that they’ve essentially got protection against malware… and limited memory.”

I blinked at her.

“I’ve often thought that it would be possible to use magic like we use code in computers. It says there’s a limit in potency to the spell – your mentor says they’re a training tool?”

“She wants me to use them with my growing magic.” I told her about the garden going wrong, and how I need to find ways to control the amount of magic I put into something. She thought the fact I’d overgrown an entire garden was hilarious. This made me happy, actually, especially when she said that Mrs Webfoot was a hard-hearted old biddy if she couldn’t see the funny side. I won’t tell Mrs W that though!

“Well, this I want to see,” she said. It was quiet in the café by that point but the manager was starting to look pointedly at me to get on with mopping up. She handed me a business card. Should I get business cards?! “Call me later if you want moral support, or don’t mind a bunch of nosy questions!”

I like Bea. It was good to see her again. You’re right, Vera, I don’t think I need to fix everything that I thought I had to fix.

Thank you so much for the letter and gift.

Your friend,

Lucy.

PS. Oh, something strange happened when I got home – I’m sure it’s just a coincidence – Mrs Webfoot has hired some gardeners to get rid of all the wild growth in her garden and at first I was a bit upset to see how they ripping everything out and cutting it back… and then a cloud appeared and it started to rain.

Not like my young friend Maksym’s power, I don’t think? But I was only a few feet away and I barely got splashed, even though they had to stop work altogether. I won’t mention this to Mrs Webfoot!