4. Witch Stones

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THE STORY SO FAR…

Hi I’m Lucy. If you’ve been reading these stories you will already know that I have been trying to find out if my neighbour, Biddy, is really a witch, or if it’s just another rumour.

You see Ballyyahoo is full of rumours because most Ballyyahooians love making up stories.

If this is your first time here you should start reading from the beginning, or you might miss something.

So far I’ve been following Biddy, trying to find evidence – by hammering a nail into the shadow of her foot. You see, if she limps after that, it means she’s a witch… I’m hoping she turns out to be a witch – a good witch of course.

I’d really like to learn all about spells and magic. But, if she isn’t a witch and I ask her if she is, then she’ll be very, very angry with me – women don’t like being asked if they are witches and she might just pull the ear off me and if she’s a bad witch… well, let’s just say I don’t fancy life condemned to eternal frogdom.

It’s not easy trying to find out if someone is a witch. Hammering a nail into someone’s shadow is much harder than you might think. First of all, I can’t be seen doing it.

Secondly, shadows keep moving. Biddy does a lot of walking but every single time she stops and I sneak up with the hammer and nail at the ready – she starts moving again. It’s weird the way it keeps happening. It’s like as if she’s got a rear view mirror on her shoulder.

FEELING UGGY

Another thing that’s weird is that I keep getting the strangest feeling. It’s like someone, or something, is watching me. You know those holy pictures old people have in their houses? The ones that have scary eyes that follow you no matter where you go in the room – well it felt like that.

I call that the ‘uggy’ feeling. I had that feeling last week when I thought I was being watched, but it was only a bunch of curious cows. But, yesterday it was different. I had the ‘uggy’ feeling down at the bay and there are no cows there.

I had followed Biddy down to the shore. It was a lovely calm day and the sea was quiet. In other words it was great day for following someone.

Biddy kept bending down and picking things up. At first I thought she was picking up shells but then I realised she was collecting stones.

They weren’t the usual stones people collected – they were grey, not a bit colourful and not really pretty. They had holes in as well. I wondered if they were magic stones? I heard that witches make holes in stones.

If that’s true, then there must be a lot of witches around Ballyyahoo because there are stones with holes in everywhere! I’ve got loads. I decided to get a few more so I could have a closer look at them when I got home.

I was just picking one up when all of a sudden that ‘uggy’ feeling got really strong. Biddy was still walking and stopping here and there to pick up a stone. She was really concentrating and kept looking down so I was sure she hadn’t seen me.

Still I felt uggy. Really uggy so I looked all around me to see was there anyone else there watching me when suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew across the beach and lifted the biggest, blackest feather you’ve ever seen and sent it flying towards the sky.

The feather looked like a little black bird only it kept curling backwards and forwards across the stones until suddenly stopped, dropped and then landed – at my feet!

The feather stopped moving and stayed completely still balanced on the top of my shoe. Even though the wind was still strong and there were lots of other little things blowing around that little black feather stayed put.

I always wondered if something really scary happened to me, would my hair stand up on end – like in the books? But it didn’t and this was really, really scary – times ten! So hair must only stand up on end in made-up stories and this story is real!

Something did happen though because I started to feel dizzy, not dizzy like when you’ve overdone it on the trampoline, but dizzy like when you feel ill. I was so dizzy I had to find somewhere to sit down – before I fell down.