“He’s Wu Ji,” Maggie said. “I met him when I looked Charlotte up two days ago.” She quickly filled Elena in on what Wu Ji was doing in 1988, then he and Patsy took over and explained what the other girls had missed in the past hour.
Maggie looked utterly stunned while Elena said in a troubled tone, “So we were late after all. I do hope they’ll be all right!”
“Patsy met Charlotte in 2016, remember?” Wu Ji reminded her. “That means she must have survived this kidnapping.”
“Although we have no idea what sort of ordeals she went through and if any of it could have been prevented,” Patsy said softly. “And then there’s Auntie Min Ling and Uncle Kang. We don’t know if they will survive this…”
Maggie cut in, “There’s only one reason why they would have been kidnapped by Midnight Warriors. I mean, they’re not rich, so it can’t be for ransom money.”
“We—I mean, Wu Ji and I—think the kidnappers must be after the Crystal of Time,” Patsy said, then saw Elena looking intently at her and she bit her lip. The “we” had just come out so naturally. Had Elena noticed?
“These Midnight Warriors,” Elena said, frowning, turning to Maggie. “Didn’t you tell us they were exterminated years ago? Last year, a Midnight Warrior nearly came through from the past because there was a time crisis and the time barriers were breaking down. Have they broken down again?”
Maggie shook her head. “I don’t think so. At least, Charlotte and Auntie Min Ling didn’t say so when they filled me in on what I’d missed in the sixteen months I’d lost.”
“That’s odd then,” Elena said. “How are we supposed to rescue them when we don’t know half a thing about these Midnight Warriors?”
Everyone looked at Patsy, as if expecting her to supply the answer. “I don’t know,” she admitted ruefully. “I only know that I’m supposed to do it. I thought it was difficult before, but I guess it’s not impossible, now that I have all of you to help me.” She gave a nervous and exaggerated full teeth smile which prompted Maggie to give her a quick, reassuring hug.
“Do you still have the crystal?” Maggie asked, turning to Wu Ji.
“What? You have the crystal?” Patsy said, startled. He’d lied to her?
Wu Ji looked embarrassed under Patsy’s scrutiny. “Yes, well, I didn’t say so before because I didn’t know how far I could trust you. I mean, you just popped out of nowhere! You weren’t totally honest with me too. You didn’t say you were a Keeper of Time.”
“Hmm,” Patsy said, amused at the thought that while she had been second-guessing Wu Ji’s intentions, he had been doing the same with her. “That’s true. Okay, we’re even then.”
“Phew,” Wu Ji said, doing a comical wipe-brow gesture that made Patsy smile involuntarily.
“Charlotte asked him to hold on to it because she had a feeling something was not right,” Maggie explained.
“Did she say what?” Elena asked.
Maggie shook her head. “She said it was just a feeling, she wasn’t sure, so she didn’t want to say.”
“What was so bad that she had to get it out of the flat?” Patsy asked. “Did she already suspect her flat would be searched?”
“I really have no idea,” Maggie said.
“The crystal is at my home. I should pass it to one of you Keepers,” Wu Ji said, looking from Maggie to Patsy.
Maggie shook her head. “Not me. I don’t know when my consciousness will disappear. Once I leave Joyce’s mind, she won’t know the importance of the crystal and might misplace it.”
“That leaves you, Patsy,” Elena said.
“I’m not in full control of my power yet,” Patsy protested. “What if I activate it by accident? That’s what happened earlier.”
“Well, I can keep it for now, but you’ll have to decide who will take it soon,” Wu Ji said. “I’m due to return to 2017 in two days’ time.”
“What?” Elena exclaimed. “So soon?”
“We knew from what my mum said that the lost boy she picked up only stayed with her for eighty-six days. Raine said she would send me here for precisely this amount of time. On the 22nd of December, at 2pm, I’ll disappear from 1988.”
“Raine can be so exact with her power?” Patsy asked admiringly, wondering when, if ever, she would be able to achieve that.
“Auntie Charlotte said Raine is incredibly gifted,” Wu Ji said. “I think she did an amazing job bringing Raine up as a single mum.”
“Charlotte’s a single mum?” Patsy asked, stunned.
“You didn’t know?”
“We didn’t get to talk much. We were supposed to meet up again, but I accidentally sent us back here.” Patsy sighed. “So you see, I’d better not keep the crystal.”
“It’s my fault, really,” Elena suddenly spoke up. “I was kind of throwing a tantrum. If Patsy hadn’t activated the crystal, I could have died. Or at least, got badly injured.”
Patsy squirmed, both gratified and embarrassed. Elena could be infuriatingly oblivious at times, but she could also be surprisingly honest about her mistakes and generous with her praises too.
To reciprocate Elena’s thoughtfulness, Patsy decided to change the subject. “But if Raine is so powerful, why didn’t Charlotte send her back to save her own mother and grandmother?”
“Because it’s too dangerous?” Elena suggested. “Maybe she didn’t want to risk her daughter’s life.”
Wu Ji shook his head and said firmly, “Auntie Charlotte’s not that kind of person. She won’t risk another person’s life just to keep her own daughter safe. There must have been some other good reason.”
“Why didn’t Charlotte come back herself then?” Elena asked.
“Oh, that’s an easy one to answer,” Maggie said. “My mum told me before that you can’t travel to another time where you already exist. You can’t have two versions of the same person hanging around. The whole time stream will break down and there’ll be chaos.”
“That makes sense,” Patsy said musingly. She remembered Min Ling had tried doing that once, when she went back in time to try to prevent her first husband’s death. What resulted was a colossal time crisis that had ended up taking the lives of Maggie’s parents.
Patsy sighed. “I really need to get trained thoroughly in this time thing if I’m going to be a Keeper of Time. I know almost absolutely nothing about time power.”
Elena shrugged dismissively. “You can ask Charlotte to teach you when you get back to 2016. But right now, we still have no idea what to do with the crystal.”
“Never mind,” Wu Ji said, “I can hold on to the crystal for two more days. Patsy, you tell me when you’re ready, and I’ll hand it over to you. So, what now?”
Maggie looked at her watch. “Mabel is going to be here in half an hour’s time.”
“Mabel? My mum?” Patsy asked, perking up.
“Yep. We arranged to meet here to go over our plans for next year’s geography project. After our bronze medal at the National Geography Fair last year and our silver medal this year, we’re aiming for gold next! We’ll be studying the population trends of—”
“Hold it,” Elena said, making a stop sign with her hand. “That’s Joyce talking, not Maggie, isn’t it? I remember when I was inside my mum’s brain, it was full of facts and figures about geography. Even I got carried away by my mum’s enthusiasm.”
“It’s an odd sensation,” Maggie admitted, “but I got used to it after a while. After I leave Joyce’s body, she’s not going to remember all those things that I made her say or do, so I’d better make sure her days still contain stuff that she can remember, otherwise this period will just be a big black hole in her memory!”
“But if my mum comes here, she’ll see this mess,” Patsy protested, feeling she needed to protect her mother from getting tangled up in this complicated and potentially dangerous time business. “She mustn’t find out about Midnight Warriors and stuff like that.”
“You know,” Maggie said, “it may not be a bad i
dea for Mabel to see this. Auntie Yvonne and Auntie Min Ling became close friends since my ‘death’. Auntie Yvonne is sure to find out sooner or later that her friend’s house has been ransacked and her friend gone, and she’ll want to go to the police.”
Patsy had to admit Maggie was right. If they had to go to the police eventually, it would be preferable to report the crime earlier rather than later. Perhaps the police might be able to find some leads too.
Maggie continued, “You bunch of time-travelling vagabonds can’t go to the police because you have no identification, so it’ll be good if Mabel can see this too, then I won’t have to go to the police alone. Of course, she won’t know about the time crystal, so she’ll just think it’s a straightforward case of kidnapping.”
“That sounds like a plan,” Patsy said.
“You know what?” Wu Ji said. “Since we have no idea how to begin looking for the kidnappers, Patsy, why don’t you come home with me to take a look at the Crystal of Time? It’s probably good if you can find out more about your powers. We might need as much magical help as we can to complete this mission.”
Patsy nodded, trying not to look too eager. She was disappointed she would not get to see her teenage mother, but the prospect of beholding the crystal again was enticing, not to mention the fact that she would get to spend more time getting to know Wu Ji better. Although, what if she activated the crystal accidentally again? I won’t touch it, she told herself resolutely. I’ll just look. Then nothing can go wrong.
“That leaves me,” Elena said. “Where should I go?”
“Come along with us,” Wu Ji responded. “There’ll be less explaining to do if Mabel sees only Joyce here.”
Patsy looked from one to the other, but couldn’t tell if they looked any more eager than an average teenager would at the thought of adventure. Don’t be silly, she scolded herself, but her heart would not listen.
chapter eleven
u Ji, Elena and Patsy had lunch at nearby Toa Payoh Central, with Wu Ji treating them. The money of course was from Yvonne Yoong. He told them he had felt guilty about taking Yvonne’s money at first, until he reminded himself that she was his mother after all, even if she didn’t know it!
“Ah, curly fries and root beer float,” Elena gushed, smacking her lips loudly.
“My favourites too!” Wu Ji agreed, chucking a curly fry into his mouth with gusto. “Wonder what made A&W close down in the future?”
Patsy also liked curly fries and root beer floats, but was reluctant to echo Elena as if she didn’t have a personality of her own. So, she just tucked into the meal and tried to enjoy the food despite the all-too-familiar sense of inferiority gnawing at her.
An hour later, as the threesome walked towards Auntie Yvonne’s terrace house along Green Street, off Dunearn Road, Patsy felt a sense of déjà vu. Only a year ago, she had spent several anxious hours waiting within this very house, only to learn that her friend Maggie had drowned in the nearby Rochor Canal.
Now, things were so different. She had discovered that Maggie’s consciousness was still alive, and Charlotte and her mother were missing, while she herself had become a Keeper of Time. Things were complicated enough as they were. Did she really need the extra trouble of getting a crush on a boy she hardly knew? She sneaked a glance at Wu Ji, who strode on beside her, oblivious. How much did she know about him? That he was Raine’s friend, and two years older than her… no, only one year, Patsy thought with a smile. He said he was sixteen, but he came from 2017. In 2017, I’ll be fifteen.
“What’s the joke?” Wu Ji asked, smiling that disarming smile of his.
“Noth—nothing,” Patsy said, blushing. She tried to calm herself down but felt her cheeks grow hotter when she saw Elena watching her. Fortunately, they arrived at the house just then.
Yvonne greeted them at the door. Patsy and Elena had met the youthful Yvonne Yoong before, but in the guise of Mabel and Joyce, so Yvonne did not recognise the girls. Wu Ji introduced them as friends of Charlotte’s and she welcomed them warmly in her raspy voice. She fussed over Wu Ji’s bandages for a bit, beamed with pride at her fosterling’s chivalry when she heard how he got his injuries, then left them to their own devices. Wu Ji led them upstairs, where two rooms positioned next to each other fronted a small sitting area. A short, narrow corridor led to a third room.
One of the rooms had been Maggie’s—the first one, Patsy remembered. That door was closed. Wu Ji had been given the spare bedroom at the far end. Walking by Yvonne’s bedroom as she entered the sitting area, Patsy caught a glimpse of a beehive-shaped wig sitting on the dressing table and nudged Elena. The two girls giggled.
Wu Ji raised his eyebrows questioningly at them as he slumped down on the sofa in the sitting room. “Your mum’s wig!” Patsy managed to gasp. When Yvonne had met them at the door just now, her hair was shoulder-length and straight. She looked perfectly normal. The girls were not surprised as they knew from their past adventure that Yvonne Yoong, or Mrs Kwek, only wore that wig when she was in school. They could never understand though what would induce her to wear a wig that made her look like an old dowdy.
“Oh, that,” Wu Ji laughed. “I used to tease her about it too, back in the future. She said she started wearing it to make herself look older and sterner when she first started teaching in her early twenties. You know, kids can be so naughty when they think they have a young teacher they can bully.”
“Hey,” Elena said indignantly.
“Not you, not you,” Wu Ji said hastily. “Then she continued wearing it because she didn’t want to have a sudden change of image, for fear of more teasing from the students. Over time, she became more confident as a teacher, but she had become fond of the wig by then. She said it’s made her the butt of lots of jokes but she doesn’t care. It reminds her of me, I think. Not me, her son, but me, the lost boy of 1988.”
“Why would the wig remind her of you?” Elena asked.
“She said that silly boy stole her wig once, and wearing it reminds her of that boy—”
“Wu Que,” Yvonne’s voice floated up the staircase. “I’m going out for mahjong. I’ve ordered pizza for you all. You kids be good, okay?”
“All right,” Wu Ji yelled. The front door clicked shut and Yvonne’s footsteps could be heard receding into the distance.
“Wu Que?” asked Elena, voicing the same question Patsy had.
“Yeah,” Wu Ji sighed. “My mum loves all these characters from Chinese sword-fighting novels. I’m supposed to have lost my memory, right? So because I had no name, she gave me this temporary one.”
“Hua Wu Que from Two Peerless Heroes by Gu Long, right? I read that book once,” Patsy said excitedly. “‘Wu Que’ means ‘without flaws’.”
“Ya, right,” Wu Ji rolled his eyes depreciatingly. “Definitely not me. Anyway, who wants to see the Crystal of Time?”
Patsy’s eyes glowed. That was the reason she was here.
Wu Ji disappeared into his room for a few seconds, coming back with a plain, black box that fit in the palm of his hand. The girls leaned forward as he swung the lid up on its tiny hinges to reveal its hidden treasure. It had been a year since Patsy last saw the crystal, but she could never forget its mesmerising appearance. Smooth and round like a marble but the size of a ping pong ball, it seemed to contain infinite shades of blue within its glassy exterior.
“No touching!” Elena barked.
Patsy was startled to find that she had been reaching out her hands towards the crystal.
“All right…just looking,” Patsy muttered, settling back into the sofa again, her gaze not leaving the crystal.
“So…any feeling?” Wu Ji asked.
Patsy shook her head in frustration. She had been so sure she would be able to sense the crystal once she was near it, but here it was right in front of her, yet she felt nothing.
“It’s okay, try again,” Elena urged as Wu Ji placed the box carefully on the coffee table in front of Patsy.
With her two fr
iends sitting quietly beside her, Patsy tried to empty her mind and focus all her attention on the crystal. But the more she tried, the more she was distracted by the thoughts of self-doubt whirling in her head. Why can’t I do it? How am I supposed to save my friends if I don’t master my power? As the minutes passed, she found herself growing more and more panicky. Maybe Charlotte was wrong? Maybe I’m not a Keeper of Time after all…
Elena’s voice, sounding slightly distant, intruded into Patsy’s thoughts. “…so other than reading all these sword-fighting novels, what else do you like to do?”
Only then did Patsy realise with a start that she had so successfully tuned out her surroundings she had not noticed when Elena and Wu Ji had left the sitting room.
Wu Ji’s voice drifted over. “Erm…I don’t just read sword-fighting novels, you know, I also read poems…”
They’re in Wu Ji’s room, Patsy thought with some surprise. Why didn’t they ask me to join them? The door at the end of the narrow corridor was open, and she could hear them quite clearly now that she was not focused on the crystal.
“Yes, yes, but other than reading, what else do you do?” came Elena’s voice again.
Patsy felt a quick anger suffusing through her entire body. Elena had seemed to guess that Patsy was attracted to Wu Ji. In fact, from the various glances Elena had been giving her, she was almost certain Elena knew how she felt about Wu Ji. So why can’t she just leave him alone? Why must she take even this away from me? Why…
Patsy gave a soft gasp as her runaway thoughts were cut short by a sudden ache in her chest. Love hurts, she thought even as she inwardly winced at how cheesy that sounded. Then, she realised that she had been mistaken in thinking her heart was aching because of her friend’s betrayal and her doomed feelings for Wu Ji.
Mount Emily Revisited Page 6
