The Fairly Good Mother....

.....Was, as we know, a witch although she wasn't green and didn't have a big nose - that isn't to say she wasn't considered a bit alien (different) and/or curious. 

She often asked questions. Most of them sounded simple enough, 

"What?" because she sometimes seemed a bit deaf. Now you might think that anyone who's not sure what you meant is a bit simple, but the fact of the matter is that they maybe rapidly processing and happily pretending in order to assist clarification.

Which may mean they're actually incredibly intelligent, but don't want you to be upset by it.

Also, if you were able to hear what people were thinking, would you know the difference? I mean, if it sounded just like they were speaking, but it was their thoughts you heard, would you know? And if you did, how would you react? People don't expect their thoughts to be heard, actually, it's not often that thoughts are worth listening to, but if you could hear them, sometimes distinctly.... you're not expected to react to them.... at all. So if it happens to you, look confused and ask, "What?" as if you're not really interested.

Psychiatrists, for example, think that it's fair to ask their patients "Do you hear 'voices' ?,".. like voices don't exist. When what they're really asking them is, "Will you admit to hearing something that everyone else thinks is impossible?" or if they can hear something that they're not supposed to. In other words, "Are you mad?".

"It's a good job so many people are patient," the Fairly Good Mother thought. So the problem is (as a witch) you're not supposed to notice that witches actually exist, and if you listen to psychiatrists (apparently) you're mad.... unless you have special effects and somehow belong in Hollywood, or ....in other words - you've got to be pretending and you're most probably bad.

So anyway, our Fairly Good Mother considered all of this in respect to a couple of her gifts but reminded herself, because she was fairly savvy, that some were very exclusive in many respects.

(She knew little bits about a lot - she thought learning was very important)

If you could hear hundreds of thousands of cries saying, "I need Help!" would you pretend not to hear it, could you deny it? Anyway, what could you do about it? Who could you tell, or would you think you must be imagining it?

The Fairly Good Mother stood at her door looking over the garden as she considered this. Just as she was about to go back inside, a couple of birds twittered "You must be joking," as they flew by. The Fairly Good Mother smiled, she thought that was funny. As she closed the door one of them said, "Did She hear me?".