by K T Durham
Maddy shook her head at Elly with a smile. “Seriously, you’re a vegetarian? Who can resist food like this?” She took a huge bite of her pepperoni pizza slice and grinned. Teddy had picked off the pepperoni from his slice of pizza and was eating them separately from the base. He did the same thing with the salad: He segregated the cherry tomatoes, lettuce, and olives into three neat piles, and ate them separately.
Teddy concentrated on eating his food, occasionally counting on his fingers and muttering to himself. To Elly’s relief, father and daughter just let her eat while they chatted comfortably.
“It takes time to fit in at a new school, honey…”
“I know, Daddy, but those girls want me to be a part of their group…”
Elly tried to pay attention, but she was becoming preoccupied with thoughts about Organoth blue amber again. She fidgeted with her fingers and took a deep breath.
“Um, Andy? May I ask a question?” she blurted, not realizing she had interrupted them midsentence.
But they didn’t seem to mind. They smiled at her. “Sure, Elly. What is it?” Andy asked, looking at her closely. She had been quiet throughout lunch so far. Maddy had noticed, too.
Elly’s ears had gone quite pink at the tips. It was a good thing that her long hair concealed them. “Do—do you know where I can get blue amber?”
Andy looked at her blankly. “Blue amber? What’s that?”
Elly’s heart sank. “It’s a special type of gemstone, supposed to be very rare. I was told it is found in one place in the world. I want to know if I can possibly find it here in London.”
Andy knitted his eyebrows. “I suppose they must have online shops for this blue amber you’re talking about?”
Elly frowned. “Online shops?” She turned to Maddy helplessly.
Maddy had a thoughtful look on her face. “Blue amber… Something about it sounds familiar. But I can’t remember why, for the life of me.” She touched Elly’s arm reassuringly. “I’ll ask around and see what I can find out. But why do you want to look for this blue amber? Is it for a gift?”
“Oh, well,” Elly stammered. “Well, it’s for something really important. Yes, my parents would be happy if I’m able to find it.”
Maddy nodded, assuming that meant her parents probably wanted it as a gift.
Andy watched Elly intently. He could sense her distress. Why would her parents ask her to search for something as obscure as this blue amber? Something was a little odd.
Then he remembered; he had to call her guardian! He jumped up from his chair. “Excuse me, girls. I’ll just duck out for a minute.” He sauntered out as he took out his mobile phone and the scrap of paper from his pocket.
When Elly mentioned that she had gone into a shop called Tiffany’s, Maddy almost choked on her strawberry milkshake. “You went to Tiffany’s? If they sell that blue amber you’re talking about, it must cost a fortune!” She then proceeded to talk about a movie called Breakfast at Tiffany’s. When Elly looked at her blankly, Maddy’s jaw dropped. “It is such a classic. One of my favourites. I’ll have to watch it with you sometime!”
Elly thought about Maud and cringed. “I sure didn’t get any breakfast at Tiffany’s,” she mumbled.
When Andy returned to the table, he was wearing a bemused expression. “I just called your guardian, Mr Greymore. He sounded so refined, like he was a butler talking to His Lordship! He assured me that he would keep you safe and expressed how grateful he was that we were keeping you company.”
He smiled and shook his head slightly, trying to clear his head; he felt a bit muddled. He barely remembered what he had said on the phone. But for some reason, he felt very reassured. “Anyway, we’re happy to have you with us, Elly!”
She grinned at him, pressing one hand on her Royan. Thank you, Greymore.
I told you I would take care of it, Ellanor.
When it came time to pay the bill, she retrieved some coins from her pocket and blushed in dismay. She barely had enough to pay for a plate of muffins!
Andy immediately waved her away. “Don’t be silly! You’re our guest, and I won’t take money from a little girl! Keep that money for emergencies.” Elly smiled with gratitude and thanked him profusely.
After Andy paid for a book on astronomy that Teddy insisted on getting, they all walked back out into the cold. Andy handed Elly a small paper bag; it was filled with blueberry muffins! He grinned at her beaming face. “My treat, in case you get peckish,” he said, patting her on the shoulder. She clutched the bag gratefully.
As they walked back to the train station, Elly overheard Andy talking to Teddy in hushed, pleading tones. “We’ll go to the Tower of London next weekend, buddy. I need to take you kids home to your mother before supper, so we only have enough time for the London Eye before we call it a day. Otherwise, your mum will never let me hear the end of it. What do you say, eh?”
But Teddy was upset. Lips trembling, he started shaking his head vigorously and made odd clucking sounds with his tongue. His hands were balled into fists, and he began rocking back and forth.
“Uh-oh,” Andy muttered, glancing at Maddy. She went up to Teddy and gently put her arms around him. This seemed to have a calming effect. He went limp and quiet.
“Let’s go, sweetie,” Maddy whispered, taking him by the hand. “We’ll go on the London Eye with Elly!” This seemed to cheer him up; Teddy smiled and locked eyes with Elly for a split second before looking away again.
Andy breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness he listens to you, at least,” he muttered.
On the way to the gigantic Ferris wheel—which Elly learned was the London Eye—they passed a street performer dressed as a clown, handing out balloons to children. Teddy ran up to him and stuck his hand out.
“I want a balloon, please!” he said loudly. The clown did a little dance and laughed jovially before handing him a red one.
Andy shouted, “Hold on tight, Teddy! It’s pretty windy!”
At the London Eye, they joined the long queue. Andy once again refused to take Elly’s money. “Honestly, dear, you don’t expect a gentleman to let a lady pay, do you?” he joked with a grin.
Once they had all gone inside their capsule, Teddy stood beside Elly and took her hand. Maddy giggled. Elly looked out at the view before her and gasped. Beside her, Maddy smiled and said softly, “Isn’t it beautiful? I love coming up here.”
Andy was busy clicking away on his camera. “We don’t get awesome scenery like this in Manchester City,” he murmured.
Elly could only nod, marvelling at the way the River Thames seemed to have turned pink and gold as the sun set over the city, where skyscrapers gleamed and sparkled like precious jewels. Elly could see Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral, and Big Ben’s clock tower.
Teddy pointed towards the direction of a very tall, glassy, cone-shaped building. “Daddy works as a lawyer at the Gherkin now,” he announced.
Andy laughed and draped an arm around his son. “I sure do! Anything for you munchkins.”
The pink and gold in the sky had given way to the darkness by the time they left the London Eye. Andy checked his watch and frowned. “Elly, we should take you home. It’s not safe for a young girl to walk around at this hour. The streets can get pretty rough at night.”
Elly feigned a laugh. “Oh, please don’t worry! I’m meeting my guardian nearby. I’ll be off now. Thank you so much for everything, I had a wonderful day!” She gave a little bow, which surprised and delighted Andy.
He laughed. “Maddy, you should pick up some of these lovely manners! I can’t recall the last time anyone ever thanked me with such heart!”
Maddy rolled her eyes before turning to Elly. “Give me a ring when you want to hang out, OK? I’ll try to ask about blue amber.”
To her surprise, Elly’s eyes welled up. Maddy frowned and wondered whether there were
problems at home with her parents; why else was she wandering the city by herself? She felt sorry for Elly. Although her own parents were divorced, they always tried to spend time with her and Teddy.
Maddy dug out a pen from Teddy’s backpack and scribbled their home phone number and address on a crumpled receipt from lunch. “I’ve probably said this a million times already, but Teddy has really taken a shine to you. That rarely happens. Needless to say, you’ve won us over too.”
At this, Elly smiled. Maddy grinned and hugged her tightly. “So you must keep in touch, all right?”
Teddy was looking past Elly, his invisible hand puppet in tow. “Goodbye, Elly. See you again soon.” He said this matter-of-factly, as though Elly was someone he saw frequently.
She smiled and gave him a hug, and she was reminded of her little brother Luca. “Thank you,” she whispered. Though he did not hug her back, he was smiling.
Before they could again insist on escorting her, she started running, turning around once to wave at her new friends. They waved back. “Be careful!” Andy bellowed. “I’ll phone Mr Greymore later to check that you got home safely!” Maddy was waving furiously; Teddy was gazing at her.
She wandered around aimlessly for a while, longing for a nice bath in the Shevanie Springs back home. She hadn’t washed properly for the past few days, and didn’t want to think about the state her hair was in.
Many shops were starting to close, as people rushed home for supper. Elly watched with envy as a little girl raced happily into her house with her mother in tow. It looked so warm and cosy inside.
Then sparkles in a window display caught her eye. She trotted over and peered through the glass. Some necklaces, along with eerie-looking ceramic dolls with large vacant eyes, were on display. The tiny shop was called Zany’s.
Elly wandered in, her face frozen from the cold. The middle-aged woman behind the counter was reading a thick, dog-eared romance novel. She looked up and narrowed her eyes warily.
“How may I help you?” Roberta asked with a slight Russian accent that she had not been able to lose even after having lived in London for twenty years. She hoped the girl wasn’t a shoplifter. She wouldn’t be the first that day.
Elly looked around the small shop. There were pendants and various gemstones on display, such as topaz, crystal, garnet, amethyst. Then her eyes widened when she spotted a yellow-coloured necklace. She swallowed and took the plunge. “Excuse me, do you have any blue amber?”
Roberta raised her thick dark eyebrows in surprise. “Lassie, blue amber is rather hard to come by. We sell plenty of yellow amber, but no blue amber. Here, what about these?” She gestured to a little box filled with yellow amber pieces.
Elly shook her head, dismayed. “I’m sorry, but do you know where I could possibly get, umm, pure grade blue amber?”
Roberta heard the desperation in her small voice. She put her book down and looked at Elly curiously. “Well, perhaps you could look online. But mark my words, you might not even get the real thing when you make online purchases. A lot of fake stuff is on the market these days. Pure grade blue amber can be just as expensive as diamonds, but it is even more rare and unique because you can find it only in one place in the world, all the way in the Dominican Republic. If it is genuine, it is normally very expensive.”
Roberta sighed; she still regretted having lost the blue amber ring her husband had given her many years ago.
“You see, the colour of blue amber is best appreciated in natural light or sunlight, which really brings out the beautiful tones…” Her voice trailed off. She really could’ve fetched a pretty sum for that ring.
Elly felt a glimmer of excitement. This was progress: finally, she’d found someone who knew about blue amber! “Excuse me, where did you say blue amber is from?” she asked eagerly, her eyes shining.
Roberta peered at Elly over her gold-rimmed spectacles. “The Dominican Republic, lass. It’s an island all the way across the ocean in the Caribbean, very far from here.”
Elly’s excitement went up another notch. “Do you know if there are any volcanoes there?” she asked hopefully. Mount Organoth may not officially exist anymore, but there could be traces of it left.
Roberta frowned. “Well, I’m no geologist. I would think so, since the Carribean is known to have some volcanoes. But I think I once read that there are no more active volcanoes in the Dominican Republic.” Then she looked at Elly sceptically. “Are you prepared to pay hundreds, perhaps even thousands of pounds to purchase pure grade blue amber?”
Elly’s face dropped. She bowed her head. “Oh… I—I don’t have any money,” she said softly.
Roberta scoffed. “In that case, you won’t be buying any sort of amber,” she snapped, turning back to her novel with a disgruntled look.
So Elly walked out of the shop, her throat constricted, and she grew tense and anxious.
She hadn’t really thought about money. How was she going to get by in the human realm without it? Did she actually have to go all the way to the Dominican Republic to get this Organoth blue amber? If that was the case, wouldn’t the long trip require money? How would she get there? Her head pounded with countless questions, and her heart was heavy.
It seemed like an impossible task.
Don’t lose heart, Ellanor. You have taken small steps. You have learned something: blue amber is expensive, and it originates from the Dominican Republic. Since it is far across the ocean, it would be impossible to walk there.
Elly stamped her feet in frustration, feeling very cross. Greymore, I don’t need you to rub it in! She was cold, alone, hungry, and homeless. She was in no mood to listen to Greymore’s know-it-all reasoning right now. If he were so superior, he would know how to get her home.
Greymore remained silent for the rest of the night.
Elly was exhausted by the time she reached the Berry Grove Park, which was once again deserted. She had eaten one of the muffins. Though she was still hungry, she had to ration her food.
She felt so tired, so crestfallen, that all she wanted to do was curl up and sleep, and hopefully wake up from what had to be a bad dream.
So she leapt up the tree and transformed back to elf proportions. She flung herself onto her stomach, feeling wretched beyond words, and in anguish she thumped her little fists against the trunk. Then, feeling guilty for taking her anger out on the innocent tree, she stopped and pulled the coat tightly around herself, clutching the bag of muffins close to her stomach. She longed to shut out the world for now.
Once again, it wasn’t a dreamless sleep.
CHAPTER TEN
Migration from Tree to House
The sky was a clear blue, the air fresh and clean. Elly was stretched out luxuriously on the grass under a vast canopy of old oaks, surrounded by mountainous piles of pineapple buns, egg tarts, and strawberry jam on toast. It rained on and off, but the branches above were so thick with leaves they acted as umbrellas.
Elly breathed in the fragrant air, thinking that life could not get any better, when suddenly a gigantic blueberry muffin appeared before her. She gasped.
Then the muffin blurred at the edges, and transformed into a gigantic piece of blue amber shaped like a house!
The door of the house swung wide open, and there stood a girl beckoning her to go inside. She had short, curly black hair, and her bright green eyes stared at Elly. But her face was blurry.
Then the girl turned and started to run.
Wait! Elly leapt up and started running.
Then there was a harsh, ear-piercing squawk. She brightened. It must be Marlow! She looked up into the sky, her heart soaring.
But it wasn’t her griffin. Instead, a huge black-winged monster with blood-red eyes was swooping down towards her, its razor-sharp beak open, ready to devour her.
Ellanor! Wake up!
Gasping, Elly wrenched her eyes open. There w
as something big and black hovering over her. A dreadful Caw! Caw! Caw! seemed to make the very air vibrate.
She screamed; it was a crow!
“What do we have here? Something smells tasty!” rasped the foul bird, looking at Elly with cold hungry eyes. Then, in one swift movement, its beak came down, eager for a taste of this sweet little creature.
Luckily, Elly was quick; she darted away just in time, but she cried out in pain when she felt the crow’s sharp beak scrape against her leg.
Amid the chaos, she dropped the bag of muffins. It fell down to the ground below, which dozens of sparrows and pigeons would later feast on.
The crow squawked angrily, not expecting his little prey to get away so deftly. It pursued Elly, who flew as fast as she could. She didn’t know where she was heading. The sky was still dark, and it was raining; big fat droplets splashed on her. She was soon soaked to the skin, frozen from cold and fear. The crow was close behind, its raucous cries making her hair stand up on end.
Go straight and turn left at the red mailbox, Ellanor! Hide in the bushes!
Elly obeyed silently, too stricken to do anything else. The sound of the crow’s flapping wings and the howling wind roared in her ears. There was a distant rumbling of thunder.
Then she saw the red mailbox. She made a sudden left turn, throwing the crow off course. It shrieked and cursed. Elly tumbled into a thicket of rose bushes next to the mailbox, brambles and thorns scratching her skin, tiny branches flipping in her face. Breathing heavily, she lay still as she listened to the crow throw a tantrum.
“Where are you? Where are you?” the crow screamed, poking its sharp beak through the rose bushes. Elly curled into a ball and rolled farther into the thicket of leaves and thorns, squeezing her eyes shut, shaking with terror.
Then a door slammed, followed by sounds of metal scraping against gravel. The deep, grouchy voice of a man shouted, “Get away from my roses, you dirty wretch!”