Patsy had nearly forgotten about the time crystal. Of course Maggie would be able to sense its presence.
Charlotte clutched her shoulder bag tightly against her lap. The other girls watched as she visibly struggled with her emotions and thoughts. Patsy spoke gently, “It’s over, Charlotte. We won’t hurt you, but you’ve got to tell us everything now.” At that, Charlotte burst into tears, then thrust her bag at the girls. Maggie eagerly opened the bag and drew out a black box. She opened the lid, then turned the box around triumphantly so that the other girls could see the blue crystal with its swirling pattern sitting safe and unharmed in its black velvet cushion.
“Charlotte,” Maggie said after Charlotte had calmed down somewhat, “what do you know about this marble? Why did you steal it?”
“Wait,” Elena said, glancing up the stairs with a furtive look.
Maggie nodded and motioned for the other three girls to follow her into the kitchen.
“I’ll tell you everything,” Charlotte said tearfully once they were all seated around the kitchen table and Maggie had closed the door. “But you must promise never to let anyone else know.”
Without hesitation, Elena said, “I promise. Only the four of us here will know.”
Patsy and Maggie quickly echoed Elena’s words.
Charlotte breathed in deeply and said with obvious relief, “Thank you. It means so much to me. I don’t want my mum to get into trouble because of what I did.”
“Your mum?” Patsy asked.
“Yes, my mum,” Charlotte said, then turning to Maggie, added, “You’re probably familiar with her name. My mum is Lee Min Ling.”
“You’re my cousin?” Maggie cried. “I have a cousin?”
Charlotte nodded. “My mum has been living in seclusion for many years, ever since my dad died in a car accident before I was born. My mum was three months pregnant with me at that time. She ran away from home because she wanted a fresh start, away from anyone who reminded her of her painful memories.”
“My parents told me she was dead,” Maggie murmured. “I guess they didn’t want me to know she had run away.”
“My mum didn’t tell me about time magic until about two months ago,” Charlotte said. “That was when I first started feeling strange sensations when I was in school. It felt like a strong yearning—something pulling at me. I couldn’t think or concentrate on the lessons.”
“You were feeling the pull of time power, because of the centre of time power located in our school!” Maggie exclaimed.
Charlotte nodded. “Except I didn’t know what it was then. I was scared and told my mum about it. That was when she knew she had to tell me the truth. That day, I learnt about my family, my heritage and the immense power that we held. Ever since my mum told me about all this, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I wanted to go back in time, to get my dad back. You must understand—all my life I had just accepted without question that I didn’t have a father. Suddenly, I held this power in my hands to change things. I just had to try it, you know?”
“So you went to the centre of time power in Mount Em,” Maggie said and Patsy felt a thrill of anticipation as she guessed what had happened.
“Yes,” Charlotte admitted. “Once I found the centre, I could feel the power radiating strongly from the ground. I placed my hands on the ground and willed myself to go back in time. I felt a surge of power through my body but I couldn’t control it. It burst out from me and dissipated into the air.”
“You! You were the one who caused the breach!” Maggie said excitedly. “I thought I had caused it when I was learning how to use my power!” Maggie clasped her hands in a paroxysm of happiness. “So it wasn’t me! I’m not such a bad Keeper of Time after all!” She looked all around her, beaming, until her eyes met Charlotte’s and her smile died away. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to say you’re a bad Time Keeper. I just meant…”
“No, you’re right,” Charlotte said dejectedly. “I’m worse than a bad Time Keeper. I had no idea what I was doing. When nothing happened after that, I was disappointed. I thought I had no real time power after all. Then, I started seeing things. Weird things. Objects shifting and disappearing, then reappearing. I was terrified. I didn’t know what was happening, but I knew it was my fault.”
“What you saw was the beginning of the time breach,” Maggie said.
“Yes, my mum explained it all to me. She told me about the laws of the time stream, how it’s impossible to change the past. She said that she tried it once, three years ago. Her power was much stronger than mine and she ended up creating a huge time crisis that…”
Charlotte faltered, looking at Maggie in fear, as if realising who she was talking to for the first time. But she had said too much to stop now. Taking a deep breath, she continued, “She created a time crisis so huge that her sister and brother-in-law had to step in to breach it…and…and they had to make the ultimate sacrifice to achieve this.”
Maggie looked stunned. “‘Her sister and brother-in-law.’ You mean my parents.”
Patsy remembered what Maggie had told her about the mysterious circumstances of her parents’ death. They had left her a note, saying that they had to heal a serious time breach. Then they had gone out and never did make it back home. The police had come and taken Maggie to the hospital to see her parents. Someone had sent them to the hospital, then disappeared. That someone, she now knew, must have been Lee Min Ling.
“My mum was very upset about causing the deaths of your parents. She cried when she told me about what happened. Please, please don’t blame her,” Charlotte begged. “She had been hiding from the world at first because she couldn’t forget my dad, and then later because she couldn’t forgive herself for what happened to your parents. She’s already punished herself enough.”
Patsy could see Maggie was emotionally shaken by all she had just heard. She would not be surprised if Maggie refused to forgive Charlotte and her mother. She knew that if she were in Maggie’s shoes, she would not so readily forgive the people who had caused her parents’ death. True, Charlotte had had nothing to do with Maggie’s parents’ death, but surely her presence was a cruel reminder of her mother’s rash act. However, when Maggie finally spoke up, what she said filled Patsy with admiration for Maggie’s character and shame at her own less noble thoughts.
“Thanks for telling me,” Maggie said shakily. “It must be difficult for you. At least I now know how my parents died. And it was an honourable death—the most honourable death a Keeper of Time can wish for—to die protecting the time stream.”
Charlotte said, “My mum said that the only way to heal the time breach I’d created was to use the time crystal. She said my newfound power was weak and that I needn’t do anything. You had the time crystal and could easily heal such a small breach. In fact, I could sense its presence on you in school several times. But as days passed, I could see that the breach was getting worse.”
“It was because I went to the slope on the wrong date and the power from the time crystal couldn’t disperse,” Maggie said ruefully.
“Oh, I didn’t know. I thought that perhaps I…was stronger than you after all, and could do the healing instead,” Charlotte said bashfully, then rushed on to explain herself. “I know my mum wanted to escape from all this Time Keeper business and hide away, but I was really excited to know I had the power to be a Time Keeper. I wanted to show that I could do it.”
“So you stole the time crystal,” Maggie said.
“Not yet. I wanted to though. I knew that no one would be home during Talent Night, so I stole my mum’s old house key and came over.”
“But I’d already taken it, so when you came, you couldn’t find it,” Elena continued.
“No. I didn’t even look for it. I had just arrived outside the house when you came out and straight away, I felt the strong pull of time magic in my heart. I managed to calm my heartbeat enough to locate the source of that pull to you, and knew you had taken the crystal.”
Elena
frowned. “I don’t remember seeing anyone outside the house that day.”
“I was hiding behind that big chiku tree in the front yard,” Charlotte explained. “Since that day, I’ve been plotting to get the crystal from you. But you never brought it to school and I didn’t have confidence to break into a locked house with no key. So I waited and watched, until yesterday, I saw Maggie and Mabel leave you a note. When they left, I went over and read it. It was a strange note, asking you to meet her at some non-existent place. I figured it must be a mistake and that it meant you wouldn’t be able to find them.”
“And you followed me that day?” Elena asked. “Why?”
“I saw what Mabel had written in the note: ‘Only two more days left to save the world.’ I thought about it and guessed it must have had something to do with time magic. I decided I had to get the time crystal soon and figure out how to use it before the end of the two days. So out of desperation, I followed you, hoping to get a chance to steal the crystal. And I did.”
The girls were quiet for a long while after that. Then, suddenly, Maggie leaned over and hugged Charlotte.
Charlotte stiffened in surprise. “Aren’t you angry with me?”
Maggie hugged her more tightly. “Angry? All this time, I thought I was the only Time Keeper left in the world. Until a month ago, when I opened up to Patsy and Elena, I didn’t even have anyone to talk to about this terrible burden. Now I have a cousin and an aunt. Do you know how much this means to me?”
Charlotte hugged Maggie back. “I promise I’ll never steal the crystal again. You can’t imagine—it was so stressful, playing the part of a thief!” After a moment, she pulled away and asked in a wary tone, “So other than Mabel and Joyce here, you’ve also told other friends…Patsy and Elena?”
Maggie laughed, then explained how Patsy and Elena’s consciousness had travelled through time. Charlotte’s eyes grew wider as she learnt even more about the immensity of time magic.
Patsy watched them, her eyes filling with tears. She felt happy for them, but also a tender sadness. The time crystal had been found. She was going home at last. But after all she and her friends had gone through together, she knew that a part of her would forever remain in this era.
chapter eleven
orry to interrupt your reunion, but I’ve something to return you as well,” Patsy said, trying to lighten the mood. “You came back tonight for this, didn’t you?”
Charlotte looked at the scroll Patsy held out to her.
“My dad’s painting,” Charlotte whispered, clutching it reverently.
“I don’t suppose you’ll want to sell it?” Patsy asked hopefully.
“Of course not,” Charlotte replied indignantly. “But my mum said that she was going to donate it, together with the other three companion pieces.”
“Donate it?” Patsy asked, her heart sinking. If the paintings ended up in a museum, how would Uncle Pat get his hands on them?
“Yes, my mum said there’s a big Chinese poetry competition coming up next year, and she’d offered to donate the paintings as the prize for the winner, on the condition that the winner dedicate his or her first book of published poems to my dad. She said my dad was a great advocate of the arts and would have wanted her to continue his work in promoting what they both loved. I was really sad to hear we’ll be giving away Dad’s paintings, so I’ve been carrying this one with me ever since, just to feel closer to Dad for a while.”
Patsy brightened again. She knew who was going to be the winner of the competition. The paintings would safely belong to Uncle Pat after all.
“I’ve got to go now, before my mum realises I’m missing,” Charlotte said, rising.
Patsy thought of something. “How did you hide the crystal from your mum the whole evening? Couldn’t she sense the power in the crystal?”
Charlotte grinned. “Oh, I never brought it home. My mum would flip if she knew I was getting myself involved in this time business. I hid it in a bush near our home.”
“Oh, you!” Maggie pretended to pinch her. “What if a dog had dragged it out or something? Do you know how serious it is to lose a time crystal?”
“I’ve obviously lots to learn as a Time Keeper. You teach me, okay?” Charlotte said.
Maggie nodded happily. “Once I’ve got the time breach healed in two days, I’ll teach you everything.”
Charlotte held out her little finger. “Promise?”
“Promise,” Maggie agreed, hooking her finger with Charlotte’s.
The three girls saw Charlotte safely into a taxi, then switched off the lights and went upstairs. They crept past Yvonne Yoong’s door, giggling as they heard the woman still obliviously snoring away.
Lying on their mattresses, the girls made plans, too excited to sleep immediately. The Liminal Date, 9 August, was on Sunday. That meant that Patsy and Elena only had one last day and night before they would go back to their own time.
They decided to spend the day with their respective families, then sleep over at Maggie’s place on Saturday night, so that they could leave for Mount Em together on Sunday morning to activate the time crystal. The ninth of August was Singapore’s National Day, which provided them with a convenient excuse. They would simply tell their families that they were going to school to watch their seniors get ready for the National Day Parade.
Patsy returned to her mother’s home on Saturday morning just as it was starting to pour outside. Shaking off raindrops from her clothes and hair as she went to her room, she saw Patrick lying on her bed again. This time, Mabel’s irritation was overridden by Patsy’s sense of poignancy. This would be the last time she would see her Uncle Pat under such circumstances. She stood at her doorway, watching him for a moment before he emerged from his reverie.
“Oops,” he said, getting up sheepishly.
“What were you thinking about?” Patsy asked.
“Oh, nothing in particular. Just having writer’s block. I’m stuck at the fifth poem of my poem cycle. I think I might just give the whole thing up.”
“No, no!” Patsy said in alarm. “Don’t you want to win the prize?”
“They haven’t announced the prize yet,” Patrick said. “It may not be anything great.”
“Oh, it will be great—I mean, I guess it should be…”
“What would you know,” Patrick said in a dismissive tone. Patsy could feel Mabel’s annoyance, but she herself was relieved that Patrick hadn’t noticed her slip of the tongue again. “Anyway, it’s not like I’ll definitely win.”
“You’ve a good chance. I’ve read your work,” Patsy said firmly. “Promise me you won’t give up. I gave you the first line of one of your poems, remember? So you owe it to me to finish it.”
“Wow. How about you give me the first line of the fifth poem as well?”
Oh no, I didn’t study that poem, Patsy thought, panicking slightly. “Don’t be a lazy bum,” she said instead. “Can’t you even write a poem without my help?”
“Hmm. And I thought you were going to scold me for lying on your bed.”
“Come on, promise me you won’t give up.”
“All right. I wasn’t really thinking of giving up anyway. Just complaining.” And he shambled off to his room.
Well, that’s that, Patsy thought. She sat down on her mother’s bed and looked around. She wondered if she would miss the sensation of having both her own and her mother’s minds within her. Making a tour of the room, she picked up random objects and put them down again, trying to memorise little details about her mother’s childhood life. A calendar stood on the writing table. Mabel had the habit of striking off the dates and Patsy took up a pen to put a cross through “8 August”, thinking it would be the last time she would be striking one off for her mum.
As she did so, something seemed to nag at the corner of her mind. 8 August. The date seemed somehow familiar. National Day was on 9 August. No, it was not because of National Day. What was it?
The day wore on and Patsy spent it the wa
y Mabel normally spent her Saturdays. It had not stopped raining since that morning. As Patsy was shuttled by her grandmother from piano to dance class, she gazed out at the fat raindrops slamming against the car’s windowpane. Perhaps it was the dreary weather, but Patsy felt oddly unsettled. She couldn’t get rid of the feeling that the date was important.
That evening, as Patsy packed for her sleepover at Maggie’s house, she thought again about her quarrel with her mum over the sleepover at Elena’s in 2015. All of a sudden, the reason why 8 August seemed so familiar came to her. It was Mabel’s best friend’s death anniversary! That was the reason her mum had been so angry with her for wanting to do a sleepover that day!
Patsy felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. In which year had her mum’s best friend died? How old had she been? Had her mum ever mentioned her name? She wished she had paid more attention when her mum talked to her.
Calm down, you can work it out, Patsy told herself, forcing herself to sit down on the bed and breathe deeply several times before she allowed herself to think again. She tried organising her thoughts and came up with four facts she was certain about:
One: when she had first arrived in 1987 and seen her face in the mirror, she had recognised it immediately as the face in her mother’s old photograph of herself and two friends on the dressing table back in 2015. That meant that her mum and her friends were probably about 13 years old in the photo as well.
Two: this friend who had passed away was very important to her mum, since she visited her grave every year for so many years.
Three: if the photo had meant so much to her mum that she had placed it where she could see it every day, it probably meant the friend was in that photo.
And four: other than Mabel, there were two other girls in the photo. One was Elena’s mum, Joyce, who was very much alive in 2015. That left the other friend.
Patsy concentrated hard and tried to visualise the photo in her mind. The three girls in the photo were in their school uniform. There was a banner at the back of the photo, but the words on the banner were too far away to be seen clearly. Yet, something about the frilly edges of the banner seemed vaguely familiar. Patsy suddenly thought of the roll of undeveloped film in her drawer, the film containing the photos from Talent Night. And then she knew.
Mount Emily Page 7
