_This world is a puzzle_

_Find all of the pieces and put it all together_

_And then I’ll rearrange it_

_I’ll follow it forever _

_But maybe—_

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“I just can’t do it! I don’t understand!” I take my wand and fling it into the underbrush. I plunk myself down on the bank of the river and cover my head with my arms.

Gia is largely unphased by this. I can tell because I peek through my arms to see her reaction and she remains positioned against the rocks, tilting her wand up to the sun so it refracts through the little blue jewels at the tip. My wand does not have any little blue jewels, and it does not make river water or sunbeams or flowers.

“You can do it,” she tells me. “But you are right. You don’t understand, not yet.” She leans down and presses her hand into the mud, eyes closed. I pick up my head so I can fully see the strands of blue light entwining with the soil.

“There’s too much,” I whimper, and the blue light becomes blurry as tears fill my eyes. “The sky and the ground and the sun and the trees and flowers. And then the bugs and animals and humans, and we’re supposed to know how they all fit together. I can’t do that.”

Gia takes her hand away. There are bright green plants growing out of the mud. “Why was I able to make Eatgrass grow here?”

The question pushes the tears from my eyes. “I don’t know,” I choke out. “Because you know everything and you have magic inside of you. Because you are a true Witch. I can’t make a single strand of Eatgrass.”

Gia sighs and takes my hands. Both of our hands glow and pulse. “You have magic inside of you, too. It’s about understanding why.” She eases my hands down to touch the grass. “Did you know humans eat the Eatgrass, too?”

I blink. I hadn’t known that. “Why would a human eat it?”

“It doesn’t just nourish the animals. It doesn’t just strengthen the powers of a Witch. Humans need it to grow strong, and to help their bodies heal after they’ve been sick.” She uses her wand to point out a cottage in the distance, far beyond the river. “I put Eatgrass here. Witches do their work here, animals live here, and humans live just beyond the river. Why did my magic place Eatgrass here?”

I wipe at my eyes so I can see the grass more clearly. “Because…the humans can come and eat it. And the animals, too. And Witches can come and get some for their magic.”

“All of these things and more.” Gia points her wand at the river, jets of blue light pressing the water upward. The river water keeps going up, up, up, until it feeds the clouds above us.

“Why did the river water need to go up to the clouds? Why couldn’t I have just left it the way it was?”

As I think, the clouds turn gray above us. “The water…will turn into rain? Does it need to rain soon?”

Gia smiles. “My magic helped me to sense it. The humans need to collect water soon, and the trees need the rain, and of course we can’t live without it either. We will almost be out of potions if it doesn’t rain soon.” She goes to the bushes and retrieves my wand.

“I know it’s a lot,” she says softly. “I know it looks like we just make things appear when we want them to. Whatever we want. But we need to sense what is already in the world, and what the world needs to be a little better. We have magic because the humans and the animals and the plants…they need us to.”

I take my wand— no jewels, but strands of carved wood in my favorite mahogany brown— and examine it. “How can I possibly know what they need? What all of them need, all the time?”

Gia holds my shoulder this time. “You don’t need to know what all of them need. You are one Witch. Look around at what surrounds you. Listen to what your magic says about our little world. Not because you want something, but because the world needs you.”

I look up at the clouds, filling with rain.

_Maybe now the water below gives a gift to the sky_

_And the clouds give back every time they cry_

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I press my hands— one holding the wand, one empty— into the dirt.

Eatgrass appears, just as bright green as Gia’s. The grass is followed by Dayflowers, for the animals to eat and for the humans to make drinks that give them energy all day. I point my wand up at the sun and concentrate, until a few sunbeams come loose and gather around my plants.

_Make the grass grow green beneath my toes_

_And if the sun comes out _

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I smile, and Gia wraps an arm around me. “It was never about making things appear for no reason. Our magic is for making things better. Look deeply and try to see the world for what it could be. You have endless passion and creativity, Rosalyn. Your magic can guide you to make beauty and life, wherever you go.”

I don’t understand everything. Not yet. But I understand some things. I understand that plants and water and trees can make others flourish. And I can make beauty if I try to see, in my mind, what that beauty can do.

_Gonna paint a picture all about_

_The colors I’ve been dreaming of_

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****Song: Talk of the Town by Jack Johnson****

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