“Patsy?” the lady said, and it was as if a film had been lifted from Patsy’s eyes, and suddenly she knew for sure. That voice—deepened with age yet still so familiar. Her eyes blurred and she found that she was going to cry.
“Charlotte,” she whispered, and all of a sudden they were hugging, the three decades of separation melting away in an instant.
When Elena and Patsy had first returned to 2015 a year ago, they had tried to track down the middle-aged Charlotte. They had retrieved the 1990 yearbook from their school library and saw that Charlotte had successfully graduated from Mount Emily Girls’ School that year. However, no information was given as to what later became of her. She was not in the telephone directory and when they googled her name, there were so many hits that it was impossible to tell if any of them was the right one.
After several seconds, Charlotte glanced around, then pulled Patsy up from her seat. “Let’s go somewhere quiet to talk,” she said, leading Patsy back up Mount Emily Road and towards the park.
There were a few benches at the fringe of the park but Charlotte ignored those and climbed higher and deeper into the greenery. A late afternoon breeze was rippling through the sprawling branches of the trees that dotted the swell of the hill. As Patsy lifted a hand to push away some loose strands of hair fluttering across her face, she surreptitiously wiped her wet eyes with her fingertips and stole a glance at the solemn woman walking beside her. Could this be true? Was she really with Charlotte again?
When they were near the peak of the hill, with the view of Mount Emily Girls’ School below them and the city further beyond, Charlotte settled down on a wooden bench and gestured for Patsy to do the same.
“I tried… Elena and I tried to find you,” Patsy said, “but we didn’t know where to look.”
Charlotte nodded. “You couldn’t have found me. I didn’t want to be found.”
“But why?” Patsy asked. “And why didn’t you look for us earlier?” Patsy wondered that she didn’t feel awkward speaking like that to an adult old enough to be her mother, but the Charlotte she remembered was only thirteen, and they had after all gone through a crisis of life and death together. It was a bond that transcended their twenty-eight-year age gap.
“My identity as a Keeper of Time meant I couldn’t lead an open life,” Charlotte explained. “And I couldn’t look for you earlier because I knew that if I approached you before you time travelled, you would never believe me. You might even report me to the police for harassment or something.”
“But I time travelled a year ago! You know that!” Patsy cried, resentment creeping involuntarily into her voice. “Why did you wait so long?”
Charlotte was speechless for a moment, and Patsy instantly regretted her outburst. For several seconds, the older woman seemed engrossed in watching several girls in Mount Em uniform chase each other across the lower reaches of the park, their shrieks and laughter carried over by the breeze.
“How carefree,” Charlotte said, a hint of wistfulness in her voice. “I’m sorry, Patsy. I’ve had too many secrets in my life. I guess I’m so used to keeping secrets that it’s hard—”
“It’s all right,” Patsy interrupted, appalled at herself for upsetting Charlotte with her careless words. She knew how difficult Charlotte’s childhood had been. Her father had died before she was born and just when she had discovered that she was cousins with Maggie Lim, Maggie had been killed by a Midnight Warrior—the age-old nemesis of the Keepers of Time. Since then, it must have been hard for her to shoulder the burden of being the very last Keeper of Time.
“It’s just that, I’ve missed you,” Patsy said softly, her eyes searching Charlotte’s face for traces of the teenager in her adult features.
“You’ve missed me for all of one year,” Charlotte said with a good-natured laugh. “I’ve missed you for almost thirty years!”
“I don’t know,” Patsy said thoughtfully. “This time travel business is very odd. When Maggie died in 1987, I was very upset, yet the moment I left 1987 and came back to 2015, I felt a certain peace, as if she had died many years ago and I have had time to get used to the fact. It’s the same with you… I feel as if we’ve been apart for years and years, not just one year.”
“That’s possible,” Charlotte mused. “There’s so much about time magic that I still don’t understand, despite studying it for almost 30 years.”
Patsy remembered that the night Maggie died, Charlotte had sworn to take on the mantle of Time Keeper and protect the time stream the way her cousin Maggie and their ancestors had. Her mother, Lee Min Ling, had been touched by Maggie’s sacrifice and agreed to break her vow to renounce time magic, so that she could teach Charlotte all she knew.
“So Auntie Min Ling did fulfil her promise to teach you,” Patsy said.
“She did,” Charlotte said softly, looking pensive, as if Patsy’s words had dredged up some tender memories. Patsy remembered Charlotte had always been rather melancholic, and the years did not seem to have changed her much.
“Do you have any children?” Patsy asked. “Keepers of Time always send their daughters to Mount Em, right?” It was during her last time-travelling adventure that she learnt that Mount Emily Girls’ School had been built over a very special place—the centre of time power. It was the only one in Singapore, and she knew Time Keepers saw it as their duty to guard the place.
“I have a daughter, Raine,” Charlotte replied, her eyes glittering with pride. “She’s twelve and is going to take her PSLE this year. Hopefully she’ll do well enough to get into Mount Em.”
“Cool!” Patsy replied. “Then we’ll be schoolmates!”
So Charlotte had grown up, got married, had a child. And just one year ago, they had been teenagers together. Patsy was dying to know all that had happened to Charlotte in the twenty-nine years since they had parted, but now she hesitated to ask. What if the years had not been kind to Charlotte, and her memories were filled with sad stories?
“It’s good there’s someone to carry on the legacy of the Keepers of Time,” Patsy said, deciding that it was safest to focus on the present. She knew from her interactions with Maggie and Charlotte in the past that time power was hereditary.
Charlotte looked at Patsy for a long moment without saying anything.
“What?” Patsy asked. “Did I say the wrong thing?”
Charlotte shook her head. “No, it’s just… Raine and I aren’t the only ones left.”
“What do you mean?”
“I have proof that there is one more Keeper of Time in this world.”
“There is? Who is it? Quick, tell me!” Patsy exclaimed.
“Haven’t you guessed?” Charlotte replied in a conspiratorial whisper.
Patsy could only shake her head, more confused than ever.
Charlotte smiled. “My dear, it is you!”
chapter four
or a moment, Patsy thought she had misheard. “Who?”
“Have you never wondered why you were able to time travel?” Charlotte prompted.
“Well…” Patsy said, counting off her fingers, “there was the Crystal of Time, we were at the centre of time power, it was a Liminal Date when we happened upon the crystal—”
“That’s the thing,” Charlotte interrupted. “When Maggie heard how you time travelled, she assumed it was on a Liminal Date. Did she actually check it out?”
Patsy recalled Maggie’s explanation of what a Liminal Date was. She had given a long, complicated analogy, but basically, on a Liminal Date, the boundaries of time were blurred, and time could occupy past, present and future simultaneously. That was when time power was at its strongest.
Patsy thought hard to remember exactly what Maggie had said. It was true that Maggie had conscientiously checked and double-checked the Liminal Date in 1987 as she needed to activate the time crystal on a Liminal Date to heal the time breach. But now that she thought about it, she realised Maggie never did confirm that Patsy and Elena had travelled out from 2015 on a Limin
al Date. At that time, Maggie had thought she was the only Time Keeper left in the world. With no one to consult, she had had to study to be a Time Keeper simply by reading from her parents’ old notebooks. They had known even then that she had not fully understood the laws of time travel, and it would not be surprising if it turned out she had made some erroneous assumptions.
“You’re right,” Patsy acknowledged. “Maggie didn’t check. Should we check now?”
Charlotte smiled. “No need. I know the dates by heart now. And I know for a fact there was no Liminal Date in 2015.”
“So you’re saying only Keepers of Time can time travel on non-Liminal Dates?” Patsy frowned, still skeptical.
“No, that’s over-simplifying things. Anyone and anything can time travel on non-Liminal dates, if there is a big enough time breach. That is, if something is wrong with the time stream and the time barriers are already breaking down. You won’t even need the Crystal of Time to do that. But based on my studies and research, it is rare for someone with no time power to travel on non-Liminal Dates when there is no breakdown in the time stream.”
Something still didn’t seem right to Patsy. “If Keepers of Time are able to travel any time they wish, then why couldn’t we get back to 2015 before the Liminal Date in 1987? We tried many times, bringing the crystal to the centre of time power. But we had to wait for the Liminal Date on the 9th of August before we could go home.”
“Simple. Neither you nor Maggie had trained your time power to the extent you were able to use it at will. Your power was probably sporadic. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. You still don’t believe me?” Charlotte smiled again. “There’s one more thing I found when researching the history of time travel. This is the most important piece of evidence. Most time travellers move physically, but only those with time power have the ability to transfer their consciousness into the minds of someone in another time—usually someone with whom they have a strong emotional connection.”
Patsy’s pulse quickened as she wrapped her mind around the immensity of what Charlotte was saying. When she went to 1987, her consciousness had been transported into her mother’s body. It had felt odd at first to inhabit her mother’s mind—to be conscious of both her own thoughts and those of her mother’s. It had felt as if there were two compartments in her mother’s brain. She had been aware of what was going on in both compartments, whereas her mother only retained the memories of what went on in her own compartment. That was why Mabel, Patsy’s mum never even knew of Patsy’s existence at that time. Maggie had not realised there was anything odd about this, but then she had been far from the time magic expert Charlotte now was.
Could she, Patsy, really be a Keeper of Time? How thrilling it was to think that plain old Patsy Goh, the most average girl you could ever find in the whole of Mount Emily Girls’ School, was really someone special! Then something occurred to her. “But everything I did, Elena did too. Is she also a Keeper of Time?” The thought that the already outstanding Elena was to share in the glory of this—her one and only pride—made her heart sink a little. Would she never be able to stand out on her own?
But what Charlotte said next raised her hopes a little. “She probably did because she was with you. You were the source of time power, and you pulled her along with you into the time stream.”
“How do you know it’s not the other way round? That it’s not Elena who pulled me along?”
“I know because—” Charlotte paused, looking steadily at Patsy as if checking to see if she was ready to hear her next words, “—because twenty-eight years ago, a year after we first met, my mum and I were kidnapped by Midnight Warriors. You came back again and saved our lives.”
Patsy could only stare at Charlotte, speechless and unable to process what she had just heard. Charlotte smiled at Patsy’s stunned expression. “That’s right. Sometime in your near future, you will go back into the past a second time.”
chapter five
atsy grinned so broadly she thought her cheeks might burst. She was a Keeper of Time, and she would get to time travel again! Her first thought was that on this occasion she must get her Uncle Pat to promise to take her to New Zealand.
“When?” she cried. “How? Tell me everything!” Just as she said this, the lamps around the park flickered on and she realised with a start how late it was. Her mother would be wondering why she wasn’t home for dinner yet.
Charlotte said, “No rush. You go on home first or Mabel will worry. I’ll tell you exactly what you need to do before you travel back to 1988 so that nothing will go wrong.” She paused. “It’s not just me and Mum in danger. There’s another life at stake too.”
“Another life?” Patsy asked, puzzled.
“Yes, someone more important than me and my mum.”
“Who do you mean?”
“It’s someone you don’t know yet so it’s a little hard to explain, but I promise I’ll tell you the whole story tomorrow. You’ll need the Crystal of Time, of course. Do you have anything on after school tomorrow? No? Good. Let’s meet here at this bench then. Bring the crystal and I’ll explain what you need to do.”
Patsy looked blank. “The crystal? I don’t have it.”
Charlotte paled and stared at Patsy. “What do you mean you don’t have it? You used it to travel back in time a year ago, didn’t you?’
“Yes, but we never took it with us!”
Charlotte shook her head with impatience. “I don’t mean that. The crystal only travels when the person carrying it physically travels too. Since only your consciousness travelled the last time, of course you couldn’t have taken it with you to 1987. The crystal would have been left in 2015. So when you came back, surely you would have seen it?”
“No, it wasn’t there when we came back. We figured it must have got used up or something.”
“The crystal doesn’t get used up!” Charlotte exclaimed. “Who could have taken it?”
Elena, Patsy thought straight away. She remembered that when she awoke and found herself back in 2015, Elena had already regained consciousness. They had checked their watches and found they had lost less than a minute despite having spent a month in 1987. It was impossible anyone could have crawled up the slope where the centre of time power was located, taken the crystal and then made an escape within that half minute or so. There was only one person who could have taken it. And if it really was Elena, it wouldn’t be the first time. She had stolen it once before in 1987.
“I’ll find it,” Patsy declared. “How long do I have? When will the time travel be?”
“It doesn’t matter when you travel out, so long as you travel back to the correct date in 1988, so don’t worry about the time. I’m more concerned about the crystal. Where will you look?” Charlotte asked, clearly anxious at the thought that her precious family heirloom was lost.
“Let me try a couple of ideas,” Patsy said. Some sense of loyalty to Elena prevented her from telling Charlotte her suspicions. Although Charlotte was her friend too, it was somehow different now that she was an adult. “I’m pretty confident I know where it is. If I’m wrong, and I don’t think I am, then we can think of some alternative plan.”
Charlotte studied her solemnly for a moment, then nodded. “Okay, I trust you. Till tomorrow then. It’s getting really late. You’d better hurry home.”
Darkness was descending quickly now, and they had to keep their eyes and attention on the path before them as they picked their way carefully down the hill.
“Do you want to come and see my mum?” Patsy asked when they were once more walking along Mount Emily Road. All the students and teachers had long gone home, so they still had the privacy to talk freely.
Charlotte shook her head. “I was never really very close to your mother. We were classmates, worked together on some projects, but we never did become close friends. What can I talk to her about anyway? She doesn’t know anything about this time travel business.”
“Wait a minute,” Patsy said, paus
ing in her tracks. They had reached the end of Mount Emily Road and she didn’t want to enter the busy café and shopping area beyond just now. “Maggie said time power is hereditary. If I’ve got it, doesn’t it mean my mum or dad has it too?”
“It doesn’t always work that way. It’s hereditary, true, but like many skills that children are born with, you either use it or lose it. If your parents never discovered their heritage and so never practised using their time power, they would have lost the ability by the time they reached adulthood.”
“But it’ll be so cool if one of them does have time power too and I can finally tell them about me!” Patsy mused wistfully.
“Tell you what,” Charlotte said after thinking for a bit. “For the last few years, I’ve been researching into the history of time travel, trying to find out more beyond what my mother was able to teach me before she passed away. I brought back lots of old documents on my last trip to my ancestors’ hometown in China. I think I may be able to draw up a family tree. I’ll see if I can trace the ancestry right down to you. Then we can confirm if your time-travelling genes come from your mum or your dad. You know, it is almost certain that we are distantly related!”
So Auntie Min Ling has died, Patsy thought with a tinge of sadness. When did that happen, and how? I’ll get Charlotte to tell me everything tomorrow. Outwardly, she just nodded eagerly. “Yes, please do. It would mean a lot to me.”
“It’ll probably take me some weeks or even months to complete it,” Charlotte warned.
“Oh, that’s fine. But there’s so much I want to ask you. Promise you’ll tell me everything tomorrow?”
“Yes,” Charlotte laughed. “I’ll be here.”
Patsy nodded. Her curiosity could wait one more day to be satisfied. “Till tomorrow,” she said, then ran all the way to the bus stop and caught her bus home.
chapter six
he next day, Patsy arrived at school early, eager to talk to Elena about the time crystal. She had lain in bed till late the night before, preparing her speech.
Mount Emily Revisited Page 2
