by K T Durham
Miriam beamed at the sight of her grandson. She planted a kiss on his head of dishevelled dark hair. “Alex! What are you doing up? You’re still recovering from the flu, you know.”
Horace grunted and wagged a finger. “Hmm, I sure hope you didn’t get up to steal a peek at the presents Santa put under the tree while you were sleepin’!”
Alex shook his head vigorously. “Oh, no! I promised you I wouldn’t cheat! I just had to, umm, get something from the suitcase downstairs. I sort of had a little accident.” He blushed.
Horace raised his eyebrows at the damp patch on his grandson’s pyjama pants and grinned. “Ahh, the mystery is solved.”
“Daddy is changing the bed sheets now,” Alex said sheepishly, hanging his head. “He sent me downstairs to change into new jammies. He packed clean ones in the suitcase he left in the foyer.” Then he caught Elly’s eye, and his cheeks flamed brightly.
Miriam smiled. “Alex, this is our dear friend Elly. She’s just, umm, arrived to spend Christmas Eve with us.” Alex offered Elly a shy smile before ducking behind his grandmother. Miriam chuckled. “Let’s get you changed into some nice dry jammies, eh? You should try get a bit more shut-eye before we call you down for breakfast later!”
While Miriam was with Alex, Horace proudly showed Elly his newly-renovated study. Her eyes grew round as she stared at the two large flat-screen monitors on the wide wooden desk.
“Who says an old dog can’t learn new tricks, eh?” he boomed, referring to the time his wife insinuated he would never learn to use a computer. There were several framed photographs on his desk. One was of Charlie, Alex, and the pretty woman was presumably Sue, Alex’s mother. Sue had long dark hair and small, almond-shaped dark eyes. There was a small mole on the tip of her nose, as though somebody had just dotted it with a marker. She was smiling in the picture, but Elly thought her eyes looked sad.
An hour later, just as Elly was turning the page of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, which she had plucked from Horace’s haphazard bookshelf, the smell of greasy bacon cooking wafted to the study, and she wrinkled her nose. Bacon and eggs were Horace’s favourite, but Miriam made sure he had them in limited quantities. “We need to keep an eye on your blood pressure,” she always muttered when he gobbled them up.
In the light of day, Elly saw that the house really had undergone a drastic transformation. Everything looked tastefully chosen, a far cry from what the house had once looked like. “Thanks to our clever but over-charging interior designers,” Horace mumbled, and Elly giggled. “The only place I wouldn’t let them touch was my shop. There was no way they could top that magical ceiling you conjured and the amazing mural of Santorini you painted, my dear,” he said, and Elly flushed with pride and gratitude.
When she got into the dining room, she first smelled pine, and the sight made her gasp. There stood the most beautiful Christmas tree she had ever seen!
She had only read about such trees being a regular household feature during the Christmas season in places like London, but this was the first time she had ever laid eyes on a real one. It was a glittering, lusciously green pine tree topped by a brilliant gold star that kissed the ceiling. The feathery branches were laden with colourful decorations in an assortment of shiny balls, angels, candy canes, trumpets, Santa Clauses, stockings, snowflakes, and pine cones. Gold and silver tinsel encircled the whole tree. Underneath was strewn a small mountain of colourfully wrapped presents of different shapes and sizes.
Elly sniffed; apart from the lovely smell of pine, she smelled something like apple and cinnamon in the warm air. It was later that she learned it was hot apple cider and eggnog, both of which she came to like.
Elly gazed around the festive room with a smile. The last time she was in Gaya, she had learned what it was like to celebrate Chinese New Year with a Chinese family in London. Now she had the chance to witness how Christmas was celebrated.
At the dining table, Alex was yawning and bleary-eyed, his hair sticking up in various places. He had changed into clean, bright green pyjamas spotted with blue cars. Next to him sat a man with a preoccupied look. He was lean, with thinning sandy-brown hair and a strong jaw with a cleft chin, which lent him a distinguished look. His tired brown eyes rested on Elly as she stepped into the kitchen.
Alex tugged on his father’s arm. “Daddy! That’s Elly, Grandma’s friend I told you about!”
Charlie smiled. “Good morning. I believe we’ve never met.”
Elly smiled back and was about to say hello when Miriam piped up, “We met Elly last year while she was in London for the first time. Her parents, ermm, are often busy and cannot keep her company much of the time.” She paused, then winked at her son. “We certainly have much catching up to do, don’t we?” At that, Charlie smiled back at his mother and then fell silent as he sipped his coffee.
Horace entered the room holding his laptop computer. “Elly, you must see the photos we took in the Dominican Republic last year! I detested the heat, but Miriam sure loved the beach.” He plopped down next to his grandson, who was munching on his toast and intermittently throwing furtive glances at Elly. She winked at him, and the tips of his little ears turned red.
Miriam had cooked up a feast. There was freshly baked bread with butter and strawberry jam, turkey meat, bacon and eggs, a tossed salad with Elly’s favourite avocados and yellow cherry tomatoes, and cottage pie followed by vanilla cream pudding. Elly grinned at the sight of the scrumptious food as she bit into her toast slathered with butter and jam.
Charlie poked at his food. “So, where do you come from, Elly?” he asked distractedly.
Elly smiled. “Finland, the Aland Islands,” she said without missing a beat. “Miriam and Horace were ever so kind to me when I came to visit London last year!” She paused. “They let me sleep in your old room,” she blurted, not sure why she did.
He raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Is that so?”
Miriam cleared her throat and placed a large plate of bacon and eggs in front of him. “Yes, that is so. Your old room hasn’t just been a museum, you know. It has been of some use,” she quipped, and her son smiled wryly.
After breakfast, Elly helped Miriam clean up in the kitchen while Horace went back to his workshop, and Charlie got Alex ready for a play date with Jamie, the boy next door. Both were very much into pirates and something to do with Lego ninjas.
“Are you going off to the bakery now?” Miriam asked Elly, referring to Mabel Wong’s Chinese bakery several blocks away on Cornwall Street, which was where Lily lived. Elly nodded as she dried her hands on a towel and glanced up at the clock. It was almost ten thirty; breakfast had somehow turned into brunch. Miriam had asked if she should give the Wongs a call first, but Elly had shaken her head and winked. “I want to surprise Lily!” She better go before Greymore started nagging her to hurry things up. There really wasn’t that much time to spare, after all. She needed to teleport to South Korea as soon as possible.
She gave Miriam a quick hug before setting off. “I shouldn’t be too long!”
Charlie had just returned from escorting Alex next door. Elly smiled and squeezed past him with a murmured, “Excuse me.” Just as the door closed behind her, she felt the cold air prick her like a thousand needles and realized she had forgotten her coat. Where did she leave it? Then she remembered that she had taken it off in the master bedroom early in the morning when she was talking with the Cobbles, for it had grown very warm in there with the heater running.
So she quietly opened the front door and ran back inside the house, and as she was walking down the corridor she heard raised voices coming from a room diagonally across from the master bedroom. It was the study. She halted and pressed her back up against the wall. The door was ajar. They must have thought the others had left the house.
“What do you mean, adopt? I thought you were trying for a second baby!” It was Horace, and he s
ounded confused and upset.
Elly frowned, searching her memory for the word adopt. She recalled the following:
Adopt (Verb)
legally take (another’s child) and bring it up as one’s own;
choose to take up or follow (an idea or course of action);
“this approach has been adopted by many schools”
Elly guessed that they were using the word adopt in the context of the first meaning. Back in Alendria, she had never known anybody who was adopted. It was highly unusual for an elfling to have lost both parents, which would then warrant something like adoption.
Charlie’s voice spoke up. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you – we’ve been trying to have another baby for four years.” He sighed. “But three weeks ago the doctor gave us the news. Sue and I … we can’t have any more children. Simple as that.” There was a pause. “Please don’t make this harder than it already is.”
Miriam’s voice spoke up. “I’m sorry, my darling. I know how much you wanted Alex to have a little brother or sister.”
Charlie’s voice was hoarse. “I thought it’d be better if you heard it from me first. We’ve contacted an adoption agency. It’s only a matter of time before a second child joins our family.”
Horace coughed. “And from where, may I ask, do you want to adopt a child?”
Then Elly heard a rustling from the kitchen. Quickly, she flitted past the study and darted into the master bedroom, where her black coat was lying strewn over the couch at the foot of the bed. As she slipped it on, she wondered about what Horace and Miriam had been talking about with Charlie. She was very curious. Who would Charlie be adopting? But it wasn’t really any of her business. Besides, she had too much on her own plate to think more on this. She better make her way to Aunty Mabel’s bakery. So she darted past the study and stealthily slipped out of the front door.
Elly walked over to Aunty Mabel’s bakery, the wind wuthering down the street sending her wild black hair billowing. She remembered the first time she had found her way there with Hobbes the hamster quivering in her dress pocket, recalling the bitter cold that bit into her bare arms and legs the previous winter. She had unwittingly plunged into an unwanted adventure, totally unprepared for what was in store for her. Now, she had wittingly plunged into another unwanted adventure, and she still felt unprepared for what was to come.
Marlow was squirming in her pocket in complaint. She glowered down at him. “Be patient! I can’t very well go meet Lily and her family with a hamster perched on my shoulder!” she muttered. She remembered their large dog named Soybean and groaned. She had to make sure Soybean would be on his best behaviour around Marlow the hamster. After Hobbes last time, it would seem far too odd to have another hamster pop out from her pocket.
As she approached Cornwall Street, it slowly occurred to her how nervous she was feeling. She hadn’t seen Lily and Maddy in a year; she had not been able to keep in touch with them, and surely so much would have happened in that time. Would Lily still be interested in being her friend? What if they didn’t want to have anything to do with her after she’d vanished on them so suddenly without even a goodbye?
She reached Cornwall Street, and she noted with some pleasure that everything still looked pretty much the same. Aunty Mabel’s bakery was just another block ahead –
“Stop!” a panicked voice cried out, and Elly froze.
A large black-and-white husky was racing down Cornwall Street straight towards her, tongue hanging out and flapping about, bright blue eyes deliriously happy as he leapt up and put his paws on her shoulders. Gasping, she lost her balance and fell backwards onto the pavement and landed on her bottom. “Ow!”
Elly, you are back! You are back! The husky clung to her happily, his plumy tail wagging furiously, licking her face all over. She couldn’t help but laugh. He must’ve smelled her from a block away. “Soybean!” she cried happily, hugging him.
A girl with short dark hair stopped several feet away, panting and out of breath. “Oh, I’m so sorry, he’s usually not that crazy—”
Then the girl stopped short, stared, and gasped. “Oh my gosh! Elly?”
It took Elly a moment to recognize the girl, and her jaw dropped. “Lily?”
Lily had shed her thick glasses for contacts and eyeliner. Her waist-long hair had been cut short into a stylish bob streaked with copper highlights, and she was wearing silver hoop earrings. She had grown taller, dressed in trendy skinny jeans with sheepskin boots and a fitted, blue down jacket. She looked so different that Elly had to look twice. She leapt up from the pavement, with a joyous Soybean still clinging to her.
Lily clapped a hand over her mouth as Elly smiled shyly. “Hello, Lily.”
“It’s really you!” Lily squealed and threw her arms around Elly.
She laughed and hugged Lily back. “I’m so happy to see you again!”
Lily stood back and pouted. “You didn’t keep in touch all this time! Where have you been?” she cried. “We were really worried about you last time you left without a word in the middle of that awful reunion dinner. Carrie wouldn’t let me hear the end of it for the longest time, kept calling you all sorts of nasty names. It’s a good thing your grandmother appeared and told us you were safe and sound. We thought you had gotten kidnapped or worse!”
Elly ducked her head sheepishly. “I’m so sorry! I’ve been wanting to apologise in person …” She faltered. She had gone over this conversation a hundred times in her head. Why was she still stumbling like an idiot? “You see, umm, there was a really serious break-in at home … Some family heirlooms got stolen, and people got hurt—”
“Oh!” Lily gasped, her indignation evaporating.
Elly smiled. “It’s OK, don’t worry. My family was unhurt. I’ve just been so busy with school and things. But I have missed you, and I’m truly sorry for not keeping in touch.”
She looked so forlorn that Lily broke into a smile. “All right, if it takes my forgiveness to wipe that mopey look off your face, then I forgive you. Your grandmother did warn us you would be hard to keep track of, anyhow, on account of so much travelling.” Elly grinned as Lily giggled and pulled her towards the bakery and pushed the door open, bells jingling. Elly quickly looked down at the ecstatic and salivating Soybean, her forehead furrowed in concentration as she locked eyes with the husky.
Soybean, there is a hamster in my coat pocket. You are to behave as if the hamster is not there. Do you understand?
A glazed look came over the husky’s blue eyes, and Soybean blinked rapidly after the persuasion enchantment had sunk in, and he nodded. Yes, yes! Whatever you say, Elly!
Then Elly was greeted by the much-missed aroma of Mabel’s delicious pineapple buns. Her heart and stomach instantly warmed over. But instead of seeing Mabel at the counter as she had expected, she found herself facing a tall girl with long strawberry-blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Both girls’ jaws dropped in tandem as they recognized each other.
“Elly?”
“Maddy?”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Seoul Searching
Maddy dropped the red-bean bun she was sampling after having baked another batch. “Elly, it’s really you!” she cried and rushed over. There was much squealing and laughing and hugging, prompting some of the customers to smile and some to frown and grumble.
The three girls – Elly, Lily, and Maddy – all clambered up to Lily’s bedroom after Lily’s mother, Mabel, came into the bakery upon hearing all the noise and did her own double-take at the sight of Elly. After a round of explanations and recaps, interspersed with much giggling and oohing-ahhing, Mabel laughed and embraced Elly. “My dear, I am very glad to see you again. Look how much you’ve grown, prettier than ever! You girls should go upstairs and catch up. I’ll take over. Lily, you’ll have to fill me in later!”
Lily beamed. “Thanks, Mum! We’ll make it up to you!
”
Maddy was hesitant. “Are you sure, Mrs Wong? I don’t mind joining them later on my break.” Maddy had been working part-time at the bakery by way of earning spending money. Lily and Maddy had become best friends, a fact which made Elly smile as she recalled how the two girls had virtually been strangers at the same school the last time Elly saw them.
Mabel grinned at Maddy as she quickly put on her apron. “Of course, silly girl. Don’t worry; this is an exception. Now go, before I change my mind!”
Then she shooed them off and thrust a plate of freshly baked pineapple buns at them, which delighted Elly. The three girls trundled up the stairs excitedly. Elly beamed, feeling light-hearted; for a short while, she could pretend she was just a regular schoolgirl like Lily and Maddy and not an elf shouldered with the burden of restoring the orbs of power to save her homeland …
Much had transpired in the past year. Maddy and Lily were both fourteen going on fifteen, and they had been busy studying for their GCSEs that would eventually lead to university entrance exams. “I really want to study English literature at Oxford,” Lily gushed.
Maddy sighed; her worst subject at school was English literature, which Lily had been helping her with. “I’m kind of interested in becoming a vet, maybe even do an exchange year over in America … but I’m not sure if I’d be able to hack it since I’m not doing so great in maths or science,” she lamented. Then Maddy threw Lily a cheeky look and said teasingly, “And of course, she hasn’t told you about Adam, right? He finally asked her out a few months ago, much to the annoyance of the Space Cadets!”
Elly well remembered the clique of mean girls led by Clare Andrews, who reminded her of the ever-awful Darrius. She grinned at Lily, who was blushing. “That’s wonderful! Adam was really nice to you at the school fair. I knew it would happen sooner or later!”