| Cecy Elliott | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Naming | |||
| Others | The Sleeper Who Dreams The Wandering Witch | ||
| Personal information | |||
| Species | Human (possibly) | ||
| Gender | Female | ||
| Place of origin | Green Town, Illinois, USA (possibly) | ||
| Age | 17 (at the time of "The April Witch") | ||
| Relations | Elliott family | ||
| Current status | Active | ||
| Biology | |||
| Body type | Human | ||
| Sentience | Sentient | ||
| Sapience | Sapient | ||
| Behind the scenes | |||
| Universe | From the Dust Returned | ||
| Created by | Ray Bradbury | ||
Cecy Elliott is a 17-year-old girl who has the ability to project her mind out of her body. She takes great delight in her mental travels, in which her consciousness can move freely from one body to another, inhabiting animals, vegetables, raindrops and even the wind, and experiencing life from different perspectives while her real body remains asleep.
Origins[]
Cecy belongs to a family of supernatural people, each possessing different abilities and habits. She's the only one to have the particular ability to detach her consciousness from her body and inhabit others. It's not clear whether Cecy really is the biological daughter of Mother and Father, but she is very loyal to the family.
In From the Dust Returned, it's revealed that she was the second living being to settle in the House (a supernatural mansion), predating all other family members except for the cat Anuba.
Abilities[]
When she inhabits a person, she is capable of influencing and even controlling the person's actions, but it requires effort on her part. If she loses concentration for the slightest moment, the person regains control, although Cecy can then assume it again. The person remains aware that something odd is happening to him or her and may be able to feel Cecy's presence. It appears that even as she can assume control, Cecy's influence is limited and the person might still refuse to follow her wishes.
In some stories, Cecy also has the ability to project other people's minds out of their bodies, much like her own.
Personality[]
Despite her supernatural abilities, Cecy acts much like a typical girl of her (at least apparent) age. She is cheerful and helpful towards the other members of the family, though she also enjoys pulling pranks on them. She is very unsympathetic towards traitors, such as Uncle John. Despite acting carefree, she can become highly proactive when the situation calls for it.
Above all, Cecy loves to spend her time away inhabiting other consciousnesses ; from crayfish to amoeba to regular human citizens as well as the madmen of the local asylum, whose strange thoughts captivate her. In "The April Witch", she is also quite innocent in the matters of love, although this changes later and by the time of "West of October", she has also developed a more mischievous, even perverted side.
History[]
When Cecy turned 17, she decided that she wanted to fall in love, despite her parents' warning that she might lose her powers if she marries a normal person. Still, she wished to experience love from the point of view of a human girl. As a leaf falling into a well, she allowed her consciousness to inhabit the water that was drunk by a girl named Ann Leary. As she entered Ann's body, Cecy started to influence her actions and accepted an invitation from a young man named Tom to go to a ball with him, much against Ann's wishes.
During the dance, Cecy fell in love with Tom and made Ann ask him if he could visit a friend of hers, Cecy Elliott in 12 Willow Street, Green Town, Illinois. The confused Tom; having already noticed that Ann wasn't behaving as herself that night; nevertheless wrote down the name and the address. Cecy hoped that one day he would visit her and recognize in her eyes what he had seen in Ann's.
Appearances[]
- "The Traveler", by Ray Bradbury (1946)
- "Homecoming", by Ray Bradbury (1946)
- "The April Witch", by Ray Bradbury (1952)
- "West of October", by Ray Bradbury (1988)
- Ray Bradbury comics #5 (1993)
- From the Dust Returned, by Ray Bradbury (2001)
Notes[]
- Some information about Cecy differs between her original appearances and the fix-up novel From the Dust Returned. "The Traveler" has her sleeping in an ordinary bed with blankets and sheets, whereas in the novel, she sleeps in a pile of soft Egyptian sand in the attic. Her address, given in "The April Witch", is omitted in the novel, and even the surname Elliott is not mentioned (although it's still present in Bradbury's notes at the end).
- In "The April Witch", it's explicitly noted that Cecy has just turned 17. Other stories (and the fix-up novel) imply that she is much older than that, even though she still has the appearance and mindset of a teenage girl.