One day I was staring absent-mindedly into some water that had collected on the patio. I suddenly noticed that Suki was standing next to my feet, and then she touched the water with one finger. For a moment the water turned silver; a perfect mirror. Then it changed again, and I was looking through it, at events that had already happened in another time and place.
‘I said we were friends with all the flowers at home,’ said Suki quietly, ‘but there is always one exception. This is the day we were leaving. Look.’
I saw a line of pixies trudging wearily along a road, which ran through a vast empty plain. Suddenly, unexpectedly, the pixies came across a single tall sunflower growing at the side of the road. ‘Ha ha ha,’ it laughed nastily, swaying backwards and forwards on its stalk. ‘Goodbye and good riddance! Ha ha ha!’
‘That sunflower is right here,’ said Suki, still keeping her voice down. ‘It’s the one growing against your fence, and I’m scared. I want to know why it has followed us.’
‘But it can’t be,’ I protested. ‘That sunflower has been here since it was a seed.’
‘The flowers aren’t as magical here as they are at home, but they still move around when humans aren’t watching,’ said Suki. ‘Just after you went to bed last night, your old sunflower left. Just before you got up this morning, this one arrived. It’s quite obvious really. Your old sunflower had 634 seeds in the middle of its flower, this one has 719.’
‘I can’t say I ever counted.’