The Witches #4

 

‘Sometimes it is so hard to focus, to concentrate and listen and also take in everything around you, the world and the sun and the smell of spring.’

‘I know.’

Tulip smiled. ‘And then… then you have all these ideas, too, all these thoughts to sort through, hopes and ideas and even less than that, even just little like jobs to do, a task you mustn’t forget - but you will, you have to because how could you remember when there is already so much happening? It would be ridiculous.’

‘Impossible,’ the girl at Tulip’s side agreed. Tulip, eyeing her sideways, suddenly grew worried she was talking too much, too fast, too loudly, that she should be smaller and take up less rom and be less and-

‘Go on,’ the girl said, her tone gentle and kind. ‘You hadn’t finished, had you?’

Tulip breathed. Batted her worries off to the side and shook her head.

‘No, but I…’

‘You don’t have to go? I like listening to you.’ And she really sounded as if she did, a fact that made Tulip feel pleased and a little melty.

‘Thank you,’ she whispered. ‘Well, I… and then, on top of it all, there’s the people around you, the other people who’re supposed to be focused. It’s so interesting to pick apart their thoughts, their reactions and expressions, it feels private and wonderful and as if you’re in on a secret, just you in a world no one else can touch, at least for a moment.’

‘What if they notice you, the other people? What if they catch you looking?’

‘That’s even better, it’s the best of all because then you get to share a moment with someone else in a world only for you two and it feels… it feels…’

‘Yes?’

‘As if you could hold it, that moment, see it come to life for a single second, only for you.’

‘Gosh,’ the girl sighed. ‘That sounds… I can’t even describe it, but it sounds complex and shockingly wonderful.’

‘And to top it all off?’

‘There’s more?’ She leaned forward, eyes shining.

‘Just one last thing. It’s you, your own self. Your breathing and your body, how it shifts and adjusts, is full of this or that emotion. And you notice all of it, every part of every thing, you and them and the world and your ideas and before you know it you’ve flown into a valley you don’t recognise. Then you think on that for a while and, look, there’s the sea! The sea? you muse… and you’ve flown into a wave and have to be rescued. Thank you for that, again.’

‘It really was a pleasure. But how will you get home?’

Tulip ran her fingers through her nearly dry hair. ‘I’m not too-’

‘TULIP!’

‘Ah. Those are my sisters.’

The Witches is a serial story, published every week on Thursday/Friday. See you then!