Mount Emily Revisited

by Low Ying Ping

  First, she would make a short apology to Elena for turning her away the night she came to her flat. Then, she would state firmly that even that was no excuse for Elena’s subsequent shabby treatment of her, and even more inexcusable was Elena’s act of stealing the Crystal of Time once again. She would lay all the facts before her friend so there was no way Elena could deny what she had done. Finally, she would drop the bombshell that Charlotte had turned up and proclaimed Patsy a Keeper of Time. She would then demand Elena surrender the crystal to her, as was her right as a grand Keeper of Time, for she had to complete her important mission of going back in time to rescue the teenage Charlotte and Auntie Min Ling, and this need took precedence over whatever excuse Elena had this time to steal the crystal.

  Patsy sat at her desk, spinning a pen between her fingers. The chattering of her classmates—the usual pre-lessons chaos—welled up all around her, as if taunting her that she alone among her classmates was…well, alone, friendless. Why wasn’t Elena here yet?

  The bell rang and the prefect quietened those still making noise. The instructions to sing the national anthem came over the public address system.

  Still, Elena did not appear.

  The science teacher, Mrs Yvonne Kwek, entered the classroom and called the class to order. Mrs Kwek was a cranky woman in her fifties who wore thick glasses and a high beehive-like bun stacked on top of her head. Her voice was a raspy monotone that had a hypnotising effect on Patsy. That day, as Mrs Kwek went through the answers to the end-of-year science examination that had taken place a couple of weeks ago, Patsy found her mind wandering even more than usual.

  Elena’s probably on MC, she thought. She checked her mobile phone surreptitiously every few minutes, but there was no message from Elena. There was no reason why there should be, since they hadn’t been on speaking terms for over a week. Patsy could see from WhatsApp that Elena had not been online since the night before. She sighed. Elena was probably sleeping off a flu bug or something. Should she pay her a visit after school? How else was she going to get the crystal?

  But she was supposed to meet with Charlotte directly after school. Patsy groaned inwardly when she realised she had not thought to exchange mobile phone numbers with Charlotte. It was as if with Charlotte she was still used to operating on a low-tech basis—after all, it was in 1987 that they became friends, and they didn’t have mobile phones then. She would have no choice but to honour their arrangement and meet up after school, even though she would not have got the crystal yet.

  “Patsy!”

  Patsy looked round her in surprise. Who had called her? All her classmates were giving her strange looks.

  “Patsy Goh!”

  This time Patsy heard distinctly that the voice came from the front of the classroom. She stood up abruptly, her sudden movement scraping her chair back with a horrible screeching sound. Everyone laughed and she blushed. She had been daydreaming throughout the lesson. She surely would not be able to answer whatever question Mrs Kwek had for her.

  But Mrs Kwek was no longer the only teacher standing at the front of the classroom. While she had been lost in thought, her form teacher, Mdm Wati, had entered and interrupted the lesson. Mdm Wati now walked up to Patsy and asked in a low voice, “Do you know where Elena is?”

  Patsy gulped. Why would Mdm Wati ask her that? Did she know anything about the Crystal of Time Elena had taken? Patsy remembered how old Mrs Yvonne Kwek had turned out to be Maggie’s guardian back in 1987, though of course Mrs Kwek never did find out that her students from 2015 had travelled through time and seen her youthful self in the flesh. Patsy peered at Mdm Wati’s face, but there was no sign that she was anything more than who she appeared to be.

  “Yes?” Mdm Wati asked, tapping her foot impatiently.

  “I’ve no idea,” Patsy finally said. “Isn’t she sick or something?”

  The lines on Mdm Wati’s forehead grew deeper. “Her parents didn’t leave any message with the General Office so I called her home to check. Her mum said she had dressed and left for school as usual.”

  For a moment, Patsy felt sorry for Mdm Wati and thought she should allay the teacher’s worry by telling her that it was not unusual for Elena to run away from home, and that she would probably turn up soon, but again, an inexplicable sense of loyalty to her friend stopped her. “I’m sorry, Mdm Wati,” she said softly, “but I really don’t know where she is.”

  At that, Mdm Wati turned away from Patsy and addressed the class, “Does anyone know where Elena Tan is?”

  The class had fallen silent during the moments Mdm Wati was questioning Patsy. Now, the silence seemed even more absolute as they turned to each other with astonished looks on their faces. One by one they shook their heads, no one speaking, not even the girls Elena usually hung out with, as if afraid to commit themselves to knowing something, should the teachers see them talking.

  Mdm Wati scanned the classroom. “Okay, let me know immediately if she comes to class or if any of you hear from her,” she instructed before leaving the room.

  A dozen excited voices started speaking at once. Patsy could hear snippets of wild guesses at what could have happened to Elena.

  “Kidnapped!”

  “Hit by a car!”

  “Hanging out with a gang!”

  Patsy groaned and put her head in her hands. This was so typical of Elena—to do something so dramatic and draw attention to herself. Elena isn’t more special than you or me, people, she wanted to tell them. She just makes a bigger fuss. Fortunately, Mrs Kwek soon ordered the girls to quieten down, then continued with the lesson in her usual creaky, monotonous voice.

  Recess time, and still no word from Elena. Was she just up to one of her tricks again, or was she really in trouble this time? Patsy couldn’t decide, even as her irritation began to be tempered with real concern. She sat at her desk, feeling restless but not quite willing to go to the canteen alone.

  Maybe I should go to the slope, she thought. The slope. The centre of time power. Patsy realised she had not been there in quite a while.

  When they had first returned from 1987, they had often gone to the centre of time power in Mount Emily Girls’ School, where their adventure had begun a year ago with the unearthing of the Crystal of Time. But the place—a slope patchily covered with half-dead grass and hidden by an overhanging corridor—had remained dark and silent. It was as if the magic had never existed at all.

  Maybe this time, with my knowledge of being a Time Keeper, I’ll be able to feel the power of that place, Patsy thought optimistically.

  The mere thought of the centre of time power calmed her somewhat. As she walked down several corridors and flights of stairs towards the science laboratories, she began to feel even eager to get back to that place— the location where her adventures with time travel had first started.

  Mount Emily Girls’ School was built on a hill and there were a number of corridors that ran over exposed slopes that were layered with soil. Patsy reached one particular slope that hung under the corridor of the science laboratories. She had to clamber over a railing in order to reach the slope, and she recalled with some amusement how she had worried about being caught by a prefect or teacher the first time she did it at Elena’s urging a year ago.

  The slope was just as Patsy remembered it: dusty and brown with patches of half-wilted grass scattered across its shadowed surface. The centre of time power was at the top of the slope, where the ground levelled out to form a narrow ledge.

  Patsy looked up, wondering whether to make the effort to climb the roughly five metres up the steep slope, when she gave an involuntary start. Perched at the top was a huddled figure, knees drawn up to her chest and head hidden in folded arms. Even though she now knew that the so-called ghost of Mount Emily was actually herself—a girl had witnessed her time-travelling act in 1987 and mistaken her for a ghost—she was momentarily frightened at the unexpected sight.

  Then she collected herself. It was no ghost. It was Elena, crying her
heart out.

  Patsy’s first instinct was to walk away quickly before Elena saw her. If she knows I’ve seen her in this state, it’ll be too embarrassing for both of us, Patsy thought, turning to go.

  But then again, Elena liked attention. She liked people to fuss over her. Perhaps she would want Patsy to go over. Overcoming her own distaste for overt displays of emotion, Patsy got down onto her hands and feet and began climbing up the slope.

  When she was near the top, the sound of her shoes scuffing against the soil must have alerted Elena that someone was near, and the crying girl looked up. A look of horror was on her red and puffy face. She immediately hid her face in her arms and yelled, “Go away!”

  Patsy stopped short in surprise. Had she been wrong to approach her? She clung on to the slope, unsure whether to move up or down.

  After a moment, figuring it would look silly for her to backtrack now and later pretend nothing had happened, she climbed up to the ledge at the top of the slope, taking care not to bang her head on the low ceiling. The five-centimetre-deep hole they had dug in the ground a year ago when investigating the ghost story was still there, and Patsy sat down opposite Elena with the hole between them.

  Elena did not repeat her outburst, and Patsy sat there quietly, waiting for Elena to calm down. After a while, Patsy fumbled in her pocket and drew out a crumpled packet of tissue paper, placing it discreetly at the edge of the hole near Elena so it lay within her line of vision. After a moment, Elena took it without looking up. Eventually, the huge, gasping sobs became soft, sniffling noises, then silence.

  “Better now?” Patsy asked.

  Elena gave a big sigh and finally raised her head, but still said nothing. Her usually large eyes looked small within their swollen lids.

  “What happened?” Patsy asked. “Your mum, the teachers… everyone thinks you’ve gone missing! Kidnapped or something.”

  “I wish I were,” Elena said. “I wish I could just disappear!”

  “What?” Patsy asked, aghast. “What do you mean?”

  “I wish we could go back to 1987 or some other time again. Any time but this!”

  “That’s why you came back to this place?”

  “What?” It was Elena’s turn to look surprised.

  “This!” Patsy gesticulated impatiently. “The centre of time power! You brought the Crystal of Time here to try to time travel, didn’t you?”

  “I brought the Crystal of Time here? How do I do that when I don’t have it?”

  “Don’t tell me you didn’t take it when we returned to 2015,” Patsy said sternly.

  “Wait a minute,” Elena said, indignation breaking into her miserable tone. “Are you accusing me of stealing the crystal again?”

  “Why not? I wasn’t wrong the first time, was I?” Patsy said, her eyes flashing defiantly even as in her heart she was groaning, No, no, no, this wasn’t how I was going to say it…

  “You are really too much, you know that? I don’t know why I’ve put up with you for so long,” Elena snapped.

  “Put up with me?” Patsy spluttered. “How about me putting up with you? All your unreasonable behaviour, taking me for granted…”

  “Fine! Since we can’t stand each other, we don’t have to hang out together!” Elena stood up angrily, but she had clearly forgotten about the low ceiling. Hitting her head painfully on it, she instantly lost her balance and fell backwards towards the slope.

  Patsy rose and made a wild grab at Elena, but only managed to catch the skirt of Elena’s pinafore in her hands. She braced her left foot at the edge of the ledge and her right foot against the hole in the ground and pulled with all her might. Elena’s fall was broken and for half a second her upper body hung over the slope as she flailed her arms about, trying to regain her balance.

  The girls locked eyes and in that split second, seeing the pure terror in her friend’s expression, Patsy forgave Elena everything.

  Then Patsy’s foot slipped in the loose soil and Elena began falling backwards again, pulling Patsy with her.

  chapter seven

  s Patsy fell, her foot shifted in the hole and she felt something hard pressing up against the sole of her shoe. A strange sensation passed through her, and suddenly it seemed as if time had slowed down. She looked at Elena, who seemed to be taking forever to hit the ground. Her face was frozen in an expression of terror, but there was something unnatural about it, as if it were a still frame taken from a paused video.

  In that instant, the knowledge came to her. The object pressing against her foot was radiating power. She felt a momentary faintness as her heart actually physically ached from the pull the object asserted on her. Almost without thinking, she steadied herself against the low ceiling with one hand and with the other gave Elena an immense tug. Her friend fell towards her and they tumbled down together onto the ledge.

  Time sped up immediately and they were all knees and elbows as they scrambled to untangle themselves. Finally they sat gasping on the ledge, stunned at their close call.

  “Wow, Patsy,” Elena said, breathless, “you have amazing reflexes and the strength of a bear!”

  Patsy shook her head. “Didn’t you feel it?”

  “Feel what?”

  “Time slowing down, giving us more time to react?”

  Elena stared at Patsy as if she were crazy.

  Patsy turned away abruptly and looked around her feet.

  “What are you doing?” Elena asked.

  “The Crystal of Time,” Patsy muttered. “I felt it just now. Against my foot.”

  “Huh?”

  “I felt it, and used its power. Didn’t you feel it?”

  Elena shook her head, looking confused.

  Patsy scrutinised Elena’s appearance—but she still looked the same. Her uniform also looked the same. So their consciousness hadn’t time travelled and moved into other bodies then. Patsy looked around her—were the walls still the same shade of white? Were the trees beyond the sheltered part of the slope younger than she remembered?

  Then she saw something that confirmed beyond any doubt that they were no longer in 2016. The soil all across the ledge was undisturbed. If there had ever been a hole dug in there, someone had replaced the soil and obscured the hole.

  “Elena,” she whispered in wonder, “we’ve time travelled again.”

  Elena was also staring at the soil in amazement. Then she looked at Patsy with the same intent gaze Patsy had used to scrutinise Elena earlier. “But you still look like Patsy! That means our whole bodies have time travelled, not just our minds! Why is it different now?” Suddenly, she scrambled to her feet and scooted down the slope before Patsy could stop her. She stooped at the bottom of the slope and picked up a crumpled piece of A4-sized paper just as Patsy clambered down as well. Looking over Elena’s shoulder, she read the heading of the discarded poster that had probably been blown there by the wind:

  Mount Emily Girls’ School Open House

  19 November 1988

  Elena turned to Patsy and grinned. “I was just wishing that I was back in 1987 and here we are in 1988!”

  “Oh no, oh no,” Patsy mumbled. “This is super bad timing.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I haven’t found out from Charlotte how we rescued her and her mum yet!”

  “What?” Elena exclaimed. “You mean you met Charlotte? In 2016?”

  Patsy nodded, taking a few deep breaths to calm herself down.

  “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Elena demanded. She cocked her head, frowning. “What else are you hiding from me?”

  “I’m not hiding anything,” Patsy snapped, then sighed. “We’d better sit down and I’ll fill you in.”

  When Patsy had finished recounting her conversation with Charlotte, Elena marvelled, “So you’re a Keeper of Time? Like Maggie, Charlotte and Auntie Min Ling?”

  “That’s what Charlotte said. And it seems she’s right, because I felt the power of the time crystal, and I must have subconsciously activa
ted its power to save us when we were falling off the ledge.”

  “You mean the time crystal you accused me of stealing?” Elena’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

  Patsy reddened. “I’m sorry, but look, I didn’t tell Charlotte or anyone, all right?”

  Elena snorted, then smiled. “All right, I’ll give you ten points for loyalty but zero points for faith. Anyway, all is forgiven since you’ve taken me away from the dreaded present and brought me to 1988.”

  Patsy frowned. “We don’t know for sure this is 1988. That poster could be from some time ago.”

  Elena examined the piece of paper. “It doesn’t look yellowed or dirty enough to be very old. I’d say we’re still in 1988, or the beginning of 1989.”

  “Oh no, oh no,” Patsy said in dismay. “If it’s 1989, then we’re in the wrong year. I’m supposed to save Charlotte and Auntie Min Ling in 1988. And even if we were in the right year, I have no idea how to save them! Charlotte was going to tell me how it was done, so I could just go back in time and do it, but now there’s no way to find out!”

  Elena put her hands on Patsy’s shoulders and said firmly, “Then we’ll just have to figure it out by ourselves. If we could save the world from the evil clutches of the Midnight Warriors once, we can do it again!”

  “We had the help of three Keepers of Time then,” Patsy reminded her. “But now Maggie is dead, and Charlotte and her mother are probably already kidnapped.”

  “But don’t forget, we still have one Keeper of Time on our side—you!”

  “But I haven’t been trained!” Patsy protested. “I have no idea how to use my time power!”

  “Didn’t you just use it to save our lives?” Elena prompted. “Oh, you’ll figure it out as you go along. Have some faith!” She shook her head in mock disgust. “You really score very badly on faith—whether in your friends or in yourself.”

  Patsy gave a shy smile. It was true. That was one of the things she loved about Elena, despite all her other failings: she always had a way to encourage Patsy and cheer her up.