Ellanor and the Curse on the Nine-Tailed Fox

by K T Durham

  “After Sue recovered from pneumonia, though, she was in no shape to collect her son. She was weak, and all the money she had earned before she fell sick had been spent on medication. Her relatives probably filched some of it. So Sue waited until she got stronger, and she continued to work three jobs as a nurse, a farmhand, and a seamstress.

  “Finally, one spring day, twelve months after she left Korea, she got word from her uncle to pack her bags, her passport, and leave for London the following week. ‘See, he hasn’t forgotten about you!’ her relatives exclaimed with relief, glad to have one mouth less to feed. The news left Sue feeling subdued. She felt depleted, as though she were a train that had long run out of steam. There was no way she could return to Korea in this state. So, she decided to wait and endure a bit longer.

  “By the time she arrived in London, Sue was a ghost of her former self, down to ninety pounds. Jong-Min was over 2 years old by then and had started walking and talking. His first word was ‘Umma’, which is ‘mother’ in Korean. Heartbreaking, isn’t it, when he didn’t have a mother to call to? Poor thing.

  “Sue was determined to make it back to Seoul within the year. Once again, she buried herself in work, saving almost every penny she made. But alas, even with the best of intentions, life does not always go according to plan. Time went on, and she worked herself to the bone, and slowly, her heart turned hard. Months turned to years.

  “By the time she felt established enough to hold her head up high, the hardened part of her had become convinced that Jong-Min would not recognize her; in fact, he had probably grown to hate and resent her for abandoning him when he was only a baby. That fear took hold, and her desire to reunite with her son was replaced by her desire to avoid rejection. Then one day, one of her friends in Seoul mentioned over the phone that her former husband had remarried.

  “Sue let herself believe that she had been replaced as mother to Jong-Min and fell into a deep depression. Perhaps he is better off without me, she thought. Then a year later she met Charlie, and she felt some happiness seep back into her life. When Alex was born, Sue swore that she would never, ever leave her child. Years passed, and Sue would often think about her other son, her firstborn, in the dark recesses of the night before crying herself to sleep.

  “Then one sunny January morning, about five months ago, Charlie received a phone call at their home in Surrey. ‘Hello, this is Mr Lee calling from Seoul. May I speak with Han Soo-Min, please?’ the man asked in halting English. Charlie was surprised to hear his wife’s Korean name. ‘Sue! Call for you!’ he yelled, downing the last of his coffee and signalling to Alex that it was almost time to leave for school. Sue hurried to the phone in a rush to leave for work. After a minute on the phone, she grew pale and almost passed out, still clutching the receiver. It took her a good hour to speak coherently again.

  “Apparently, Mr Lee is a family lawyer in Seoul who received an anonymous tip that Sue is Jong-Min’s birth mother, and he was able to track them down in London. So Sue finally reunited with her firstborn son. My Korean grandson. As to whether this story has a happy ending, I think it would be more accurate to say that the story for Sue and Jong-Min has just started, and it shall be a long and happy one.”

  Elly was transfixed. The clock struck midnight in the hallway.

  Miriam chuckled as she placed an old afghan over Horace, who had nodded off and was already snoring. “Don’t mind him, dear. He hasn’t been sleeping well, fretting and checking in on you several times in the night. He’s exhausted.”

  Elly smiled when Horace let out a snort in his sleep. On her lap, Snowy purred softly. “That really is an amazing story, Miriam. I’m so happy for Charlie and Sue!” She leapt up and gave Miriam a hug. She wondered how Jong-Min felt when he saw his birth mother. Did he realize how much she loved and missed him, how much she had suffered?

  Miriam beamed. “I’m a little nervous about meeting Jong-Min for the first time. He’s my grandson, and I want to try my best to be a good grandmother to him.” She fiddled with her bracelet absent-mindedly. “Charlie and Sue are coming to visit with the kids next month, before school resumes. Oh, and Jong-Min’s grandma is coming too, of course. Horace won’t admit it, but he’s as nervous and excited as I am.”

  Elly wondered if she would be still be here in London by the time Jong-Min and his grandmother arrived for their visit. They would certainly recognize her. How would she explain that she knew Horace and Miriam, the in-laws of his birth mother? Would they eventually conclude that she was the source behind the so-called anonymous tip to Mr Lee? Surely, she couldn’t just chalk it down to plain coincidence.

  I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, she thought.

  “How is Jong-Min’s grandmother coping with life in London?” she asked curiously.

  Miriam brightened. “Oh, that’s another miracle! I was told she was very sick with cancer, but suddenly she began to make a recovery, and now she’s in remission! She’s living with Charlie and the family, and they’ve settled in well. Grandma is quite the cook. When she comes here next month, she’ll be cooking up a storm of a Korean feast!”

  Elly smiled, thinking about the delicious Korean dishes she had eaten back in Seoul. “How does Charlie feel about Jong-Min?” she asked carefully. “Do you think … do you think he will grow to love Jong-Min as his own son?” She thought about Mama and Papa, and her heart ached. What had it been like for them when they adopted her? Had it been easy for them to love her? Or did it take time? Did their love for her feel different from the love they felt for Luca, their own blood and flesh?

  Miriam shifted on the couch and yawned sleepily. “Oh, Charlie had known about Jong-Min for a long time. He tried to convince Sue to go back to Seoul and fetch him. Anyway, Charlie is just over the moon that Sue is so happy to have Jong-Min back.” She smiled. “And I do believe Charlie has it in him to love Jong-Min like a son.”

  Elly frowned. “But what about Alex? Doesn’t he find it strange that suddenly he has an older brother … from another father?”

  “Well, Alex is still a bit too young to understand what’s going on, but I trust that Charlie and Sue will clearly explain things to him in due time. I heard that Alex took an instant liking to Jong-Min when they sat down together to watch Transformers on TV. Jong-Min is four years older than Alex, but I suppose there are things that little boys can bond over even when they don’t speak the same language.” She smiled. “Jong-Min has been learning English, and in the meantime he speaks Korean with his mother, who translates for him.”

  Elly smiled as she imagined Jong-Min hunched over English textbooks, his smooth forehead furrowed under his mushroom haircut. Then she hesitated before asking, “How does Jong-Min feel about everything that’s happened?”

  “He was in shock at first. Charlie told me he just clammed up when he saw his mother for the first time at the adoption agency. Grandmother was so happy to see Sue again! Sue just cried and cried and kept saying how sorry she was. It took a couple of months for Jong-Min to start calling her mother. Now, they’re inseparable.”

  Miriam leaned back on the couch and yawned again. “You’ll get to meet them next month if you stay here long enough! Here’s a photo of the whole family together.” She took a photo from the pocket of her apron and grinned as she handed it to Elly.

  As Elly stared at the photo, her fingers found the amulet at her neck. Grandma, looking happy and healthy with her greying curls, was flanked by Charlie and Sue. Alex and Jong-Min were on either side of them, radiant with boyish grins. Jong-Min was next to his mother. They had the same bright, single-lidded eyes, the same smile, even the same dimple in their left cheeks.

  A lump formed in Elly’s throat as she wrapped her fingers around Graille’s amulet, and she smiled and kissed it. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  There and Back Again

  Elly entertained the fantasy of assuming a new ide
ntity. She could stay in Gaya and live with the Cobbles forever …

  But she couldn’t turn her back on her homeland indefinitely. Even if she couldn’t forgive the adults who had kept the truth from her, little Luca was innocent, and then there was Aron and Kaelan …

  No matter what her problems were, the orbs still had to be restored.

  She regretted having left Greymore and Marlow behind. They would have provided comfort and support, and she missed them terribly. She shouldn’t have been so rash, so impulsive.

  Time does not wait for anybody. And time was ticking away as the Beast continued to realize its plans. But she just couldn’t bring herself to go back and face them all. Not yet. It still felt too raw. She was afraid to hear the whole truth. Every time she thought of Thorne and Jonah, her stomach would knot up.

  Who do I take after? she wondered.

  Her head teemed with endless questions that kept her up at night. What were Thorne and Jonah like? How did they die? Did she get to live with them long before they passed away? Were they people she would be proud of? How did they meet and fall in love? Did they love their twin daughters? How did Elly and Goldie get separated as babies?

  And even more insistent, the same question kept surfacing: Where is Goldie now? Though Miriam had mentioned that Goldie and Sebastian were in a safe house somewhere in Scotland, her gut told her that something was wrong.

  Elly could still hardly believe she had a sister. Miriam had said that Goldie and Sebastian were both orphans, and that they had lived in unhappy foster homes before they met the kind librarian named Winifred. Elly could not imagine what life would have been like for Goldie, being raised by humans in Gaya. Goldie probably had no idea she was part elf. And then it occurred to Elly: since they were twins, they must share some sort of special bond …Which may partly explain why she had been having dreams of Goldie. But why couldn’t she sense where Goldie was now?

  In the evenings Elly wandered the streets, savouring the fresh air and looking out for the Star of Freya, which was at times visible through the smog. During the day she stayed indoors, as she didn’t want to risk bumping into Lily or Maddy. She just wanted to be alone.

  On the third day, she began to help out around the house. The pastry shop adjoined with the kitchen through a door that remained ajar, so Elly could hear all that went on between Miriam and the customers. As before, she helped Miriam prepare the ingredients for her pastries, kneaded dough, and applied frosting. For Horace, she cut and stitched leather. Soon, she found relief in the constant stream of work in which she immersed herself. As long as she was using her hands, she did not feel the compulsive need to pound them against her chest to release the anger and hurt that threatened to boil over at the most unexpected times.

  One afternoon, she was applying vanilla frosting to a fluffy sponge cake when she heard Miriam raise her voice. “Hullo, there! It’s so good to see you!”

  “Good afternoon, Miriam! How are you doing?” chimed Maddy’s familiar voice.

  Elly gulped and froze. Then two seconds later: “Here you are, Teddy! I couldn’t recognize you for a moment. You’ve shot up like a beanstalk!”

  “Hello, Mrs Cobble,” said Teddy in his unmistakable, monotonous voice. Elly remembered he had just turned nine this year. Oh, he was such a sweet boy. She thought of Luca, and her eyes burned. He was probably all confused, wondering why his sister had suddenly disappeared without notice.

  But she wasn’t even his real sister. The thought made her heart ache.

  Then there was a clackety-clack of heels, and another voice piped up, high-pitched and gushing. “Hi, Miriam! It’s lovely to see you! We’ve been wanting to try your delicious pecan pie again, but there’s always such a long wait!” It was Victoria, Maddy’s mother. Elly smiled, reminiscing how Victoria had unwittingly given her the Organoth blue amber last year, which was at least one hundred times more precious than diamonds.

  “Mrs Cobble, you haven’t heard from Elly lately, have you?” It was Maddy. “When she visited around Christmas, she said she would come back to London after her Korea trip. But Lily and I never heard a peep from her since that day.” Elly could picture her pouting.

  Miriam had been coaxing Elly to get out of the house and visit Lily and Maddy. “I’ll go see them later,” she kept mumbling, putting it off. Miriam wiped her hands on her apron. She knew that Elly didn’t want her presence to be known yet. “Umm, yes. Elly has been in touch. Sorry, dear, she couldn’t come back to London that time … She had a lot on her plate. Family issues, you know. But she will definitely pop by when she’s in town.” She raised her voice pointedly saying the last sentence.

  And Elly certainly heard it, loud and clear. She frowned and continued kneading the dough. She would go visit Maddy and Lily. Soon. Sometime. Maybe.

  “Please tell her we said hello,” Maddy said, disappointed. “Teddy still asks about Elly. But Hobbes hasn’t been doing well lately. Getting old for a hamster.”

  Elly’s eyes teared up at the thought of the rotund ginger-coloured hamster. Poor Hobbes. Creatures such as hamsters were so short-lived …

  “Yes, Elly is such a dear girl,” Victoria chimed in. “The time that we spent together wasn’t long, but she certainly left an impression!” She was glad she had given Elly that charming blue amber necklace she’d gotten many years ago in the Dominican Republic.

  “I’ll let her know that she’s missed,” said Miriam cheerfully. Then there was a clattering of plates, and Maddy gasped. “Oh, I gotta try that cupcake! I’ve never had sweet potato flavoured frosting before! Here, Teddy, try this!”

  “No, I only like chocolate,” Teddy replied flatly.

  Elly stopped kneading. She wondered how tall Teddy had grown. She tiptoed to the door adjoining the kitchen and pastry shop, opened it a smidgen, and peered out.

  Maddy and Victoria were admiring the colourful array of cupcakes at the L-shaped counter with their backs to her. They had already bought a dozen cupcakes; Maddy was holding the turquoise bakery box in her hands. And Teddy was staring straight at Elly.

  She gulped and ducked back inside, ran out of the kitchen, and leapt into her room, slamming the door behind her. She flopped onto the bed and threw the covers over her head, heart pounding hard, and stayed there for the rest of the afternoon.

  Around six o’clock, she heard footsteps approaching, and then there was a soft knock on the door. “Elly?” Miriam called tentatively.

  Elly sighed and rolled onto her back, her face half obscured by the quilt. “Yeah?” she mumbled into the silky fabric.

  Miriam opened the door. “How are you doing, dear?” Snowy was at her heels, and she meowed and slinked inside the room.

  Elly sat up and shrugged. “I’m doing all right, I guess.”

  Miriam frowned. “I noticed you’d left the kitchen a few hours ago, around the time Maddy was here with Teddy and their mum. Did you see them?”

  Elly sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to run out on you. I heard you guys talking. Then when I peeped out, Teddy saw me, and I … I just kind of panicked. So I came up here.”

  “Maybe you can tell me why you’ve been avoiding your friends,” Miriam said gently.

  For a moment, Elly didn’t say anything. Then she buried her face in her hands. “I’m just sick of pretending, OK? My whole life is based on a lie. When I’m around Lily and Maddy, I can’t tell them who I really am. I have to masquerade as a regular human being who just happens to speak hundreds of different human languages.” She looked up at Miriam, and her eyes were shiny. “I’m not who they think I am. I’m neither fully human nor fully elf. How could we truly be friends when they don’t really know who I am?” She shook her head. “Even I don’t really know who I am anymore.”

  Miriam was silent. Snowy purred and lodged herself between them on the bed. Elly closed her eyes and pressed her palms to her warm cheeks. “Maybe Lily and Mad
dy should just forget about me,” she murmured.

  “Stop with this nonsense,” Miriam said sharply.

  Startled, Elly looked up. “I beg your pardon?” she asked indignantly.

  Miriam leaned over and turned on the bedside lamp. “Now you listen to me, Elly. Truth is I can’t even begin to imagine what it feels like to suddenly discover that the parents you’ve always known are in fact your adoptive parents. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be lied to your whole life. I’m not saying what you’re going through isn’t terribly unfair. But here’s the thing: you are in no way diminished as a person just because you were adopted. Inside, you are still the same person, Elly. Your character, your values, your interests, all that you love – none of that changes just because your parents didn’t give birth to you. And you have been dearly loved by them, haven’t you? Why not focus on that fact?”

  Elly was speechless. She hadn’t thought of those things herself. She had been so wrapped up in her hurt feelings that she had forgotten what Mama, Papa, and Grandpapa meant to her.

  Miriam sighed. “I’ve been thinking a lot about things since Jong-Min came into our lives. Like Horace said, we don’t have to be related by blood to love each other like family. As we’ve been saying, you are like a granddaughter to us, dear.”

  At this, Elly’s eyes filled with tears. Miriam smiled and put her hand over Elly’s. “Jong-Min is not Charlie’s blood and flesh, which means he’s not our blood and flesh either, but already I see him as part of my family. I want Jong-Min to grow up knowing that he is loved and valued, just like Alex. I believe that your family in Alendria feels the same about you. To them, adopted or not, you are simply wonderful and quirky Elly.”

  Elly was silent for a long time. Then she sniffled and hugged Miriam. “You’re right. I’ve been feeling awfully sorry for myself, haven’t I?”