In the heart of Suffolk lay the small town of Framlingham. In-between its emerald countryside rests an array of rural and colourful houses. These ranged from the prettiest pinks to outstanding oranges. No town is quite complete without it’s castle and Framingham had the mightiest of all. Large, stones walls embraced a fascinating history. Unfortunately this wonderful little Town has had its feathers ruffled for quite some time. The fresh-faced locals were living in fear. By what you may ask… a mass murderer? A dirty water supply? An animal control issue? Nope, they were living in fear of a nine-year-old girl. Lucy didn’t choose to read minds. In fact if she had the choice she would definitely chose to not have this ability at all. It didn’t take her long to realise that most people have impure and nasty thoughts. A fact that has destroyed her innocence and makes everyone’s secrets her burden. It wasn’t until the previous year she had even realised she was abnormal. Lucy was always quiet and uniquely weird; mostly avoided by people who just assumed she had brilliant intuition. Her mother didn’t want to admit something wasn’t quite right with her daughter so she never quizzed her Lucy’s amazing ability to read a situation before it was about to happen. It was a conversation with her teacher that brought Lucy’s mystery to light. Mrs.Spriggins wears tightly fitted blazers and likes to rest her glasses on the bridge of her nose. “Mrs.Spriggins?” Lucy squeaked, “Matthew is going to cheat on his test tomorrow” It was only the day before her Dad had gave her lesson on what is moral and made Lucy vow to speak out against any wrong doing. It was now after class and she was concerned about her fellow classmates behaviour. The teacher’s silver, curly hair was sitting in a bun on top of her head. Looking shocked that the usual silent and introverted girl was speaking out Mrs.Spriggins replied, “Oh my, may I ask you how you know this?” “I heard him thinking about it” “I beg your pardon?” Lucy looked down at her shoes. They were slightly scuffed in the corner. “Erm… I heard him thinking about writing down all the answers on his arm”. Mrs.Spriggins always knew something was very unusual with Lucy but never could she have imagined something quite so extraordinary. Her mouth opened slightly and her head tilted to one side. She looked down at the weedy kid as everything started to fall in to place. She always wondered how Lucy knew the answer before the question was even asked. Mrs.Spriggins crouched down to Lucy’s level and held her firmly by the shoulders. “What am I thinking?” Her face was only an inch away and her breath smelt sickly sweet. Lucy squirmed, as she felt unsure of this strange encounter. She was regretting telling Mrs.Spriggins anything at all. Without even looking into the teacher’s eyes she could hear her thinking of the colour red. The word was repeated loud and clear “red, red, red, red” willing Lucy to listen. The young girl kept her head down and whispered “Red”. ‘Thud’ was the sound the teacher made as her limp body crashed to the floor. It was from that moment onwards that Lucy’s life was never the same. She was poked and prodded by people wanting to uncover the unknown. Her daily wanderings had spiralled completely spiralled out of control and she wasn’t happy about it. After a phone call to her parents, they decided to hold a town meeting. Determining whether the locals should know was easy as it was the townsfolk’s right to know their thoughts were being exposed. Herny and Florence, Lucy’s parents, were also not happy about the profanity their daughter could be subjected too. It was whether to let the whole world know which real shook the locals up. The townsfolk didn’t know how much Lucy had heard and couldn’t risk their secrets being revealed to the world.
It was agreed that Lucy would be held captive in the town, as she couldn’t be trusted to leave. She was now their impossible little secret.