‘So what do you want me to do about this sunflower?’ I asked Suki. ‘I suppose we could dig it up.’
Suki turned pale. ‘That would make me a murderer!’ she gasped. ‘It was unkind to us when we were leaving, but it doesn’t deserve to die!’
‘Okay,’ I said quickly. ‘We won’t dig it up.’ I couldn’t help thinking about all the weeds I dug out of the garden and threw in the council’s green bin. I hoped the pixies hadn’t seen, and what did they think of me if they had?
‘If you don’t want to dig it up, do you want to do anything about it?’ I asked, once a bit of time had passed and Suki’s glow was back to normal.
Suki thought for a moment. ‘We need to know if it’s meeting anyone,’ she said. ‘It’s harmless enough on its own, but it might be here as a spy. I don’t think it will meet anyone while we’re watching, though.’
Now, the pixies have always been confused by electronic gadgets. (Electronic gadgets are also confused by pixies, and tend to stop working after the pixies play with them.) I thought it would probably work the same way with sunflowers, and this gave me an idea.
I put my camcorder on its tripod and pointed it at the sunflower. I switched it to record at night and started it running. After a moment’s thought, I folded the screen away. If the screen was out, I knew I would end up with a recording of pixies watching themselves pulling funny faces. I then left the camcorder until the following morning.
The next day I scanned through the recording. At three o’clock in the morning, I saw Siôn arrive. I scratched my head. I had been wondering who or what the sunflower would meet, but why Siôn? The sunflower swivelled round until it was facing him. ‘How many pixies do we have in this house?’ it asked quietly.
‘Only one. I’ve lost the others, curse it. They moved out when they found they couldn’t eat trimmed thistle leaves.’
‘One will be enough for starters,’ said the sunflower silkily. ‘In two days time it will be full moon, and the witch’s power will be at its height. She can snatch your pixie then, for starters. For main course, she can come back at the next full moon.’ The sunflower sniggered quietly at its bad pun.