Mount Emily

by Low Ying Ping

  Patsy looked at her uncle in delight. “You’re a genius!” she cried out.

  Patrick squirmed in pride and embarrassment. “Nonsense,” he said. “Everyone who knows a bit of Chinese culture will know about the concept of run-yue. It’s you who’s ignorant.”

  Patsy was too excited to take offence at Patrick’s bantering. Today was 2 August, which meant that the Liminal Date was only seven days away. If her surmises about the lunar-based time magic system were right, the time crystal could be activated in seven days’ time, the time breach would be healed, and she and Elena could go home! She had to tell this to Maggie right away.

  Then her heart sank again. So what if they knew about this new date? The Crystal of Time had been stolen, and they had no idea how to get it back.

  chapter seven

  hat night, Patsy lay awake on her bed, thinking over the events of the past few weeks, and by Monday morning, she had come to a firm resolution.

  The moment the girls were dismissed for recess, she strode determinedly to Elena’s desk and said, “We need to talk. At the slope.” Without waiting for a reply, she crossed the classroom to collect Maggie, then left the class. She glanced back once and was relieved to see Elena following them.

  When they were all seated at the slope, Patsy took a deep breath, then recited rapidly the short speech she had prepared, “I don’t want to quarrel anymore. There’re things at stake that are bigger than our silly spat. I’m sorry I suspected you. I don’t really think you’re the thief. Can we be friends again?”

  Elena looked confused. “You don’t suspect me anymore? Why are you telling me this now?”

  “I found out some information. And now we need to work together to find the crystal. There isn’t much time left,” Patsy said, making her tone businesslike to prevent Elena from inquiring any more about their friendship problems, and it seemed to be working. She was ready to make peace with Elena for the sake of the bigger picture, but that did not mean she no longer felt hurt and upset at how Elena had treated her.

  Briefly, Patsy told Maggie and Elena what she had found out from Patrick.

  “Only six days,” Elena whispered, her voice hoarse.

  “Only six days,” Maggie echoed. She hesitated, then said, “There’s something I need to tell you.”

  “What is it?” Patsy asked.

  “I think the time barriers are breaking down more rapidly now. I was already seeing strange things some weeks ago, which was how I knew there had been a time breach. But for the past few days, I’ve been seeing these strange occurrences more and more frequently. If we don’t find the time crystal in six days’ time and heal the time breach, the world is going to be in a lot of trouble more quickly than we thought.”

  “What do you mean ‘strange things’? I don’t see anything strange,” Elena objected. “So far, the only things I can see that don’t belong here are me and Patsy, and we aren’t really ‘things’. We’re more like thoughts in our mothers’ heads.”

  “You can’t see it because you don’t have time power,” Maggie explained. “Only people with time power are sensitive enough to see the breakdown in the time barriers now. But if we don’t heal the time breach soon, the phenomenon will escalate quickly until even normal people will be able to see the breakdown in the time barriers and get affected by it.”

  Elena still looked dubious, so Maggie said, “Let me show you. Hold my hand.”

  Though unsure of what to expect, Patsy and Elena each took one of Maggie’s hands. “We’re at one of the centres of time power, so you should be able to see this with my help.” She scanned their surroundings for a few seconds, then pointed towards the grassy part of the slope that lay beyond the confines of the science corridor. “Look over there. You see that big, old tree?”

  “With the yellow flowers?” Patsy asked.

  “Yes,” Maggie said. “Continue looking at it.”

  At first, the other two girls saw nothing extraordinary. The branches of the yellow flame tree were gently shaking off its flowers as they were buffeted by the wind, but that was nothing special. Then the strangest thing happened. The tree seemed to shimmer, as if it was going to disappear at any moment.

  “What was that?” Elena asked in awe.

  “It’s a breakdown in the time barriers,” Maggie said. “The tree looks like it might disappear because we’re catching a glimpse of how the place looked like some years ago, before the tree was planted. If we don’t heal the time breach, the time breach will get bigger and the tree won’t just be shimmering. We’ll actually see it disappear for longer stretches of time.”

  “What happens if I’m under the tree when it disappears?” Patsy asked.

  “Well, at the moment, nothing. The breakdown in the time barriers is still small. But if the breach becomes big enough, you might be transported even further back in time,” Maggie said.

  The girls sat silently, letting the implications of this revelation sink in.

  Patsy knew the time crisis was more important than anything now, but she could not help getting distracted by her thoughts of Elena. She hasn’t said she’s forgiven me yet, Patsy thought. It hadn’t been easy for her to apologise. Why didn’t Elena have the courtesy to acknowledge her apology? Was she still angry?

  Patsy glanced furtively at Elena and a slight movement behind her friend caught Patsy’s attention. Feeling as if she was in a dream, Patsy saw a dark, hooded figure draped in a long cape standing underneath the drooping branches of the aged tree, yellow flowers drifting down all around him. She blinked and the figure was gone.

  Still holding Maggie’s hand, Patsy tried to shake off the strong feeling of dread that had descended upon her when she saw the vision. “Maggie,” she said with a nervous laugh, “I just imagined the strangest thing. I thought I saw a man in black standing under that tree.”

  Maggie and Elena turned to look at the tree, but there was nothing there.

  “What man in black?” Maggie asked.

  “A man dressed all in black, with a black cape,” Patsy said. “I saw him for only a second. I wonder what made me imagine that.”

  “Did he have a hood? And bright eyes?” Maggie pressed, her tone serious.

  “Yes! Did you see him too?” Patsy asked eagerly. “So I didn’t imagine him?”

  “I didn’t see him. I must have been looking away then,” Maggie said. “But I think you just saw a Midnight Warrior!”

  Patsy and Elena exchanged uneasy looks.

  “What do you mean? I thought you said they were all wiped out years ago?” Patsy asked.

  “Yes, but there’s a time breach, remember? When the time barriers opened up for a second, you caught a glimpse of a scene from the past.”

  “Oh, lucky you!” Elena said to Patsy. “I wish I had been the one to see him.”

  “I’ve never seen a Midnight Warrior in real life too,” Maggie admitted. “I’ve only read descriptions of them in my parents’ notebooks.”

  “Luckily he’s on the other side of the barriers, not on this one!” Patsy said with a shudder. She could still see the haunting black figure in her mind.

  “Don’t be too quick to celebrate,” Maggie warned. “If the time breach gets big enough, he might just pass through! And the first thing he’ll want to do is to find the Crystal of Time!”

  “We’ve got to get to the time crystal first then, and soon,” Patsy said. “But how?”

  “Right, there’s no point just waiting for something to happen,” Maggie declared. “I don’t think the thief knows how to activate the power of the time crystal, since I’m the one and only Time Keeper left in the world. That means the time crystal is probably lying untouched somewhere in the country. I’ll spend all my afternoons after school on public buses and cover as much of the country as I can. Singapore is not that big. If I happen to be within 10 metres of the time crystal, I just might be able to sense its presence, especially if it’s in the daytime when my power is stronger.”

  “That sounds li
ke a good plan,” Patsy said. “I’ll go with you!”

  “Me too!” Elena added quickly.

  Patsy glanced at Elena eagerly, thinking this must be a signal that her friend wanted to make up with her, but Elena did not seem to want to make eye contact. What is wrong with Elena? Patsy thought, feeling frustrated and helpless.

  For the next few days after school, the three girls took long bus rides together, hoping for a miracle to happen. To reduce the monotony of those journeys, the girls chatted and the better Patsy got to know Maggie, the more she found herself growing genuinely fond of her mother’s friend. While Patsy’s friendship with Elena always seemed fraught with undercurrents of jealousy and insecurity, she felt totally at ease with Maggie. Was it because Maggie was not as strikingly attractive as Elena, so Patsy didn’t feel inferior around her? Or was it because of the way Maggie was utterly open about her thoughts and feelings, so Patsy never had to second-guess her? Or perhaps, Patsy thought with some guilt, it was because Maggie was an ordinary, rather unexceptional person, just like her? Although Maggie had been born with time magic in her blood, she hadn’t seemed to have lived up to what her ancestry demanded of her.

  Patsy noticed that Elena was very quiet on their bus rides. Their quarrel was over; she could tell that Elena wasn’t angry anymore. But why was she so uncommunicative? Was she upset that, in a few days’ time, if they managed to find the crystal, and if Patsy’s run-yue theory panned out, they might be sent back to their own time? Patsy remembered how excited Elena had been to embark on this adventure, how much she didn’t want to go home. Had that been only slightly over three weeks earlier? It seemed like a lifetime ago.

  On Friday afternoon, when Patsy and Maggie got ready to leave school, Elena was still not back from her music elective class. Maggie was anxious to get started, so Patsy left a note for Elena at her desk: “Gone hunting again. See you at Chinatown MRT station at 5pm. Only two more days left to save the world. Wish us luck.”

  The two girls spent the afternoon on three different buses, the last one ending in Chinatown. Maggie had wanted to go there, as she had hoped the time magic, being seeped in ancient Chinese astronomy, might manifest itself in the heart of the Chinese enclave of Singapore. For an hour, they walked aimlessly around the open-air stalls selling all sorts of clothing, crafts and other knick-knacks, but finally gave up when it was close to 5pm.

  “Where did you tell Elena to meet us?” Maggie asked.

  “Chinatown MRT station,” Patsy replied.

  “What station?” Maggie asked again, looking puzzled.

  The moment Maggie said that, Patsy realised her mistake. “That’s right, the MRT system won’t be running for some months yet. But surely the station has already been built? Maybe we can still meet Elena there.”

  “But there’s no Chinatown MRT station at all!”

  Patsy stared at Elena, then slapped her forehead. “Stupid me,” she groaned. “Chinatown MRT station will only be built in about 20 years’ time! Elena will think I’m so dumb when she sees my note.”

  Maggie frowned, wiping her sweaty, puffy face with the back of her hand. “What will she do? Do you think she’ll still come?”

  Patsy looked at her friend with sympathy. Beads of perspiration glistened above her upper lip. The chubby girl was practically wilting in the heat of the late afternoon sun. “I don’t know. Maybe she’ll come and wait at the location of the future Chinatown MRT station. Or maybe she’ll go to the nearest available station, which is…”

  “Outram Park,” Maggie wheezed. “It’s not open yet, but the station is already there.”

  “Or maybe she won’t come at all,” Patsy suggested, adding hesitantly, “Maybe we should just go back to your place now to rest.”

  “No,” Maggie said firmly. “How would Elena feel if she came all the way here and couldn’t find us?”

  Patsy looked at her watch. It was almost five. “Okay then. Why don’t you go to Outram while I go to the Chinatown station location? If she doesn’t turn up by 5.15, we’ll meet back here and take a bus back to your place.”

  Maggie agreed and the girls went their separate ways. But although they waited longer than the agreed 15 minutes, Elena didn’t show up, so the girls headed home in silence, Maggie dozing in the bus while Patsy daydreamed about life back in 2015.

  The moment they entered Maggie’s house, they saw Elena asleep on the living room sofa. Patsy and Maggie exchanged looks of relief.

  Maggie gave Elena a nudge. “Wake up, sleepy head.”

  Elena yawned and opened her eyes. “What took you so long?” she asked, yawning again.

  “We were waiting for you in Chinatown,” Patsy explained.

  “Chinatown MRT station, huh?” Elena said. “When I saw your note, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.”

  “Laugh all you want. Then maybe we should start crying. I don’t think we’ll get the crystal back in time,” Patsy sighed.

  At that, Elena sat up, all the sleep gone from her eyes. “I…I have something to tell you…to confess, really.” She lowered her gaze to her hands clasped tightly on her lap. Not looking at the other two girls, she said in a soft voice, “I…I did steal the time crystal on Talent Night.”

  chapter eight

  hat?!” Patsy and Maggie exclaimed in unison.

  “I…I stole the time crystal,” Elena repeated. “It was easy. When all of you were at Talent Night, I used the spare key you gave me to open your door, and I knew exactly where you kept the crystal.”

  “Why did you do that?” Maggie asked.

  “And you made me feel so bad for suspecting you!” Patsy said. She could feel her cheeks growing warm with anger at the betrayal. “You liar!” she spat out.

  “Wait, listen to me first,” Elena said, raising both her hands as if surrendering. “Then you can scold me all you want.” She paused, then said softly, “I stole it because I didn’t want to go back to our own time.”

  Patsy was about to interrupt, but Elena pushed on. “I know what you’re thinking. It’s not like that. I know I’m obsessed about adventuring. But I swear I didn’t do it because I wanted to prolong our adventure. It’s because…Do you remember that my grandpa died two years ago, when we were in Primary Five?”

  Patsy did remember. Elena had been brought up by her grandfather as her own parents worked long hours and were seldom at home. She had adored her grandfather and had been devastated when he died.

  “I know it’s very selfish of me, but now, having taken on my mum’s identity, I can be with Grandpa every day. I just want to spend more time with him before going back. I was going to return the crystal later, after I’ve had some time with Grandpa. But ever since you told me about the leap year solution, I’ve realised that time was running out. I could no longer just live day by day, waiting for a time when I’m finally ready to leave Grandpa. I’ve felt horrible. Every day, I wondered if I should confess, or if I should just stay on in this time forever. But that meant you would need to stay on too, and I knew you didn’t want to. I feel terrible, especially after you’ve apologised for accusing me.”

  Elena turned to Maggie and continued, “I need to apologise to you too, for letting you go on your wild goose chases every afternoon. I tried to make myself feel better by keeping you company on these trips, but it just made me feel worse to see how worried you’ve been.”

  Elena turned back to face Patsy. “I’m a horrible friend. You don’t need to say it—I know I am.” She took a deep breath. “Okay, now I’m done. You can scold me if you want.”

  Elena looked as if she expected not just to be scolded, but to be punched as well. Patsy realised her fists were clenched tightly and looked away to try to control her emotions. She was furious that Elena had made her feel so guilty for apparently accusing her unjustly, when all the time she had been in the right and Elena in the wrong! It had taken so much courage for her to apologise and try to save their friendship when, all along, Elena had been the liar!

  But P
atsy softened when she recalled how close Elena had been to her grandfather back in their own time. She had spoken of him almost every day in the early years of their friendship. Then, when he died, she had abruptly stopped talking about him. Every time Patsy mentioned him, her face would take on an angry, stony look. Patsy had felt both helpless and hurt at the time, helpless that there was nothing she could do for Elena as a friend, and hurt that Elena didn’t feel close enough to Patsy to confide in her. Now Patsy wondered if she had let her own insecurities get in the way of feeling true compassion for her friend. Should she still be angry with Elena for what she’d done now?

  But it’s not fair, Patsy thought bitterly. She always does what she likes and expects things to be all right again just by saying sorry. Well, sorry isn’t going to get her out of this. Not this time.

  Patsy was still struggling with her feelings when Maggie asked, “So where is the time crystal now?”

  “I’m returning it to you. The past few days, going with you two on the hunt for the crystal, I’ve been trying to decide whether or not to return it. Today, when I saw Patsy’s note and the words, ‘Only two more days left to save the world’, everything suddenly became clear to me. I couldn’t jeopardise the whole world just for my own selfish needs. I finally knew what I had to do. I went home to get the crystal, then headed straight over here. I thought there was no point going to Chinatown. We would probably just miss each other.”