Mount Emily

by Low Ying Ping

  Patsy and Elena sat in the back of Min Ling’s car as they sped towards Mount Em. Day was breaking. Outside the car, vague shadows were giving way to objects with more defined edges.

  In little more than half an hour, she could be back in her own time. With much regret and some wistfulness, Patsy realised that in the anxiety that followed her discovery of Maggie’s death anniversary, she had not said goodbye properly to her grandparents and Uncle Pat. She began rummaging in her bag.

  “What are you looking for?” Elena whispered.

  “A pen and paper,” Patsy replied. “I need to write a letter.” After thinking for a moment, she wrote for several minutes, then folded the piece of paper and placed it in her pocket, where Mabel would be sure to discover it later that day.

  Just then, Patsy was thrown forward as the car started skidding and lurching. Patsy grabbed hold of the headrest in front of her as she felt herself being bumped about.

  “What’s going on?” Elena cried out.

  In answer, Min Ling shouted, “Seatbelts!” as she struggled with the steering wheel.

  The girls obeyed immediately, but Patsy found it difficult at first to click on the seatbelt. The car was jerking about so violently that she only managed to aim the clasp into the buckle after several tries. Then she looked out of the window to see what was going on. While she was writing her letter, Min Ling had already driven them into the city area and was now fast approaching Mount Emily. The predawn traffic that Sunday morning was not too heavy, but she could see that the few cars whizzing by were driving smoothly.

  “Charlotte, what’s happening?” Patsy asked. She could see that Charlotte was sitting ramrod straight in the front passenger seat, bracing herself against the backrest.

  “Time breach!” Charlotte shrieked. “We’re driving on a dirt track…ah…tree!” Her voice rose to a fevered pitch and she turned her body to the right as if to avoid slamming into something.

  At that moment, the car also swerved violently to the right and spun halfway around before jolting to an abrupt halt. All about her, Patsy could hear the frantic chorus of car horns as other vehicles narrowly missed hitting their car.

  Too stunned to move, Patsy sat in her seat, breathing hard. There was a fumbling at the front passenger seat, and then the door opened and Charlotte stumbled from the car. She leaned over and vomited quietly onto the road. Pale and shaking, Min Ling got out of the car and went over to Charlotte to pat her on her back.

  Patsy and Elena emerged as well. Cars around them were slowing down as people gawked at the near accident. One car stopped a short distance away and a man with a concerned expression stepped out.

  “Listen,” Min Ling said urgently. “We don’t have much time. You girls must run to Mount Em as quickly as you can, without me.”

  “Why?” Charlotte asked weakly.

  “This time breach. It’s not natural. The time power in me is attracting too much attention. Someone is widening the breach from across the time barriers to stop us, like what happened at the bridge. Charlotte has barely developed her time power, so you girls should be able to escape notice for some time. I’ll stay here and deal with this mess. Now, go!” she hissed, just as the man from the stopped car reached them and asked if they were all right.

  The girls turned and walked off, leaving Min Ling to deal with the aftermath of the accident. Patsy turned once to see Min Ling shaking her head as she talked to the kind stranger. She wondered what would become of Min Ling by 2015. She would be in her sixties by then, if she were still alive. Will I ever get to see her again? Patsy thought.

  When the girls were some distance away from the accident scene, they started running. It was only about half a kilometre to their school and they should be able to reach its gates in under five minutes.

  The girls arrived at the school just before seven. In the predawn semi-light, they could see that the school gates had already opened in readiness for the large groups of students that would soon be gathering for the National Day Parade morning rehearsal.

  They ran into the school and hurried over to the science corridor. As they climbed over the railing, Patsy felt a sense of déjà vu. It had seemed like a lifetime ago when she had first climbed over this railing, full of doubt at Elena’s adventure, still bitter about her quarrel with her mum, and eaten up with her lack of confidence and resentment towards Elena. Now, she felt as if so much had changed…yet nothing much had, really. They would return to the future and nobody in the past except Charlotte and Min Ling would even know they had been there.

  “We’re too late!” Elena exclaimed as they approached the slope.

  A hooded figure was materialising at the top of the slope, kneeling to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling. Even as they stared, he seemed to become more real, his translucence gaining more and more the appearance of solidity.

  “No, we’re not!” Patsy muttered grimly and started scrambling up the slope. Charlotte and Elena followed as quickly as they could. Before they had moved more than a few steps, the figure had become almost completely solid. His cape had achieved a rich blackness and his gleaming eyes shone threateningly from the shadows within his hood.

  The Midnight Warrior took one step forward, rising as he did so, and reached out a hand towards the girls.

  chapter fourteen

  he dark figure moved another step forward and Elena cried out, “No!”

  Patsy screamed, “Charlotte, do it now!”

  Charlotte stopped her climb and took out the Crystal of Time from her pocket. Gritting her teeth in concentration, Charlotte drew back her arm and threw the crystal. As it arced through the air, Patsy could see the pattern in the crystal swirling. She held her breath as she hoped fervently that it would somehow fall neatly into the hole the girls had dug exactly a month ago.

  Patsy gasped as the crystal hit the ceiling at the top of the slope. Charlotte had thrown it at too high an angle, or perhaps the trajectory of the throw had been skewed by the Midnight Warrior exerting his pull on the crystal.

  As the crystal fell towards the ground, the Midnight Warrior turned and reached up to catch hold of it. Patsy’s heart sank when she saw the crystal falling into his palm. It was all over. Maggie had died, Min Ling had risked their lives on a daredevil drive, and they had raced all the way here—all for nothing.

  But the Midnight Warrior was not yet fully solid. He gave a low cry of despair as the crystal fell harmlessly through his otherworldly fingers. With a dull thud, it landed directly in the middle of the hole at the top of the slope.

  Instantly, the Midnight Warrior vanished, leaving only a smoky blue mist in his wake.

  The three friends looked at each other, then broke out in nervous laughter. Shakily, they made the rest of their way up the slope and sat down around the crystal, gazing upon it with awe. Despite its small, glassy confines, its depth appeared bottomless as endless swirls of blue fumes appeared to spin in every direction.

  The three friends held hands, terrified of losing each other after what they had just been through.

  “What will happen here after we’re gone?” Elena asked anxiously.

  “I think we’ll finally be able to get that soil sample for our geography project,” Charlotte said with a small smile. “Once you’re gone, Mabel and Joyce won’t remember the true reason why they’re at the slope. They’ll think they’re at school just to watch our seniors get ready for the National Day Parade. I’ll tell them we came to the slope to get the soil sample and tease them for taking one whole month to do this simple job.”

  “Well, we’ve been busy,” Patsy said, allowing herself the tiniest of smiles.

  “Will you come look for us in the future?” Elena asked.

  Patsy remembered Maggie’s light-hearted, “You can call me Auntie Maggie!” and felt a hollow ache in her chest.

  “We’ll see,” Charlotte replied. “I’ve a lot to learn about being a Time Keeper. Who knows what the future will bring?”

  The girls continued to
hold hands. Nobody ventured a proper goodbye. Patsy thought she might start crying if she tried to say farewell to Charlotte.

  Soon, Patsy felt a strong nausea assail her senses. She saw Elena fading in and out and knew the same must be happening to her. It was almost as if the time stream couldn’t quite make up its mind whether to take just the girls’ consciousness or their bodies as well.

  Elena, or rather, Joyce, slumped down in a faint. Knowing it would be her turn soon, Patsy took one last look at her surroundings, saying her silent goodbye to 1987. In the muted light of dawn, she caught a glimpse of their school pinafore some distance away. The owner of that uniform must have heard some noises, for she turned this way and that, looking for the source. Her view, however, was obscured by the walls and ceilings. Finally, she bent down and looked under the railing and her face drained of colour when she saw Patsy/ Mabel fading away.

  Oh no, will the secret of the Time Keepers be revealed? Patsy wondered, holding her breath.

  Just then, the girl screamed, “Ghost!” and stumbled away in terror.

  So that’s how the legend started. No wonder Maggie hadn’t heard about the ghost when we asked her a month ago, Patsy mused silently. As she lost consciousness, her last thought was: So we managed to solve the mystery of the Mount Em ghost after all.

  Patsy awoke and saw Elena sitting up beside her. She looked around. The walls were dirty again, the grass overgrown and the soil hard as rock, except for a small hole they had dug…how long ago? The hole was empty.

  Patsy felt an immense ache in her heart, as if she had experienced a great loss, and remembered that her friend had died just the night before. But even as these memories flooded over her, the pain receded rapidly until she felt a peace within her, as if the tragedy had happened years and years ago and the passing of time had wiped away the intense pain until all that remained was a tender nostalgia.

  She looked at Elena, who was smiling broadly at her. It was Elena all right, not Joyce.

  They were back in 2015.

  Patsy and Elena walked slowly to their classroom, almost afraid to find out what day it was. Back in their classroom, Patsy looked at the date on the white board and breathed a sigh of relief. It was exactly the same day they had left and lunch break was just over.

  “All right, girls,” drawled a nasal voice and Patsy looked up, startled. There Mrs Yvonne Kwek sat, large as life and twice as cranky as she remembered. The memory of the youthful Miss Yoong crying by the canal seemed a lifetime ago. “What’s your excuse for being late for class?” she demanded.

  “Uh…we lost track of time?” Patsy ventured.

  “Sorry!” Elena said, flashing one of her charming smiles, and winked at Mrs Kwek.

  But there was no flicker of recognition in Mrs Kwek’s bespectacled eyes. “Don’t be cheeky! Go and stand at the back of the class for the rest of the lesson,” she croaked.

  Things were indeed back to normal.

  Back at home that evening, Patsy found her mother sitting at her dressing table. She was combing her hair and looking almost absent-mindedly at the photo on her table.

  “Mum,” Patsy said, and Mabel turned around.

  “Yes, dear?” Mabel asked kindly.

  “I want to go with you to your friend’s grave on the eighth of August.”

  Mabel looked surprised, but pleased as well. “Why the sudden change of heart?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. I guess, I was just thinking, it’s important to remember our best friends, even if they’re gone.”

  Mabel drew Patsy to her and hugged her for a long moment. “It’s really nice that you want to come with me. It means a lot to me that you care enough to want to come. I never did tell you my friend’s name, did I? Her name was Maggie.”

  “Maggie,” Patsy echoed, a wave of emotion coming over her at the sound of that name.

  Mabel fingered the photo on the dressing table. Patsy looked at it closely for the first time. Three young girls in Mount Em uniforms stood holding hands and laughing at some secret joke. “We three, Maggie, Joyce and I, were best friends,” Mabel said, “but when Maggie died in an accident, Joyce never wanted to talk about it. She didn’t even want to visit Maggie’s grave. I think it hurt her too much. But not talking about it, it seems like she gradually forgot what our friendship meant and how it was like. Me, I never forgot.”

  With a smile, Mabel added conspiratorially, “Let me show you something.” Carefully, she removed the backing from the photo frame and drew out a yellowed piece of folded paper. She opened the paper carefully and Patsy could see from the worn creases of the folds that her mum must have unfolded and refolded this piece of paper many times in the past 28 years.

  “This is the letter I wrote to myself the night Maggie died, to remind myself of what our friendship meant,” Mabel said. “Every now and then, I take it out and it reminds me of the precious and unique friendship that we shared. That’s what keeps her memory alive. That’s why I’ll always feel she’s with me. Would you like to read it?”

  Patsy took the letter with trembling hands and read the faded words she herself had penned the day before, 28 years ago.

  Dear Mabel,

  I know you’re sad. I know you feel like crying.

  So cry, but not for too long, because Maggie isn’t

  really gone. She promised that you’d be friends for

  as long as time exists and that means forever, right?

  Remember how much you meant to her and know

  that you really made a difference in her life.

  So, remember her—she’s still here!

  from,

  A part of me I want to remember forever

  Patsy blinked several times to clear the tears that had sprung involuntarily to her eyes as for a brief moment, she felt again that stab of heart pain at the thought of her friend’s death. “That’s a lovely letter,” she said softly as she gave the paper back to her mother.

  “Yes, I’m glad I wrote it. I think I must have been wiser than I remembered myself to be at 13!” Mabel laughed and Patsy felt a warm glow inside. She was glad she had thought to leave her mum something to remember Maggie and her transient time-travelling presence by.

  Mabel seemed lost in thought for a moment, then she smiled and said, “You know, if you really want to go for Elena’s sleepover, I’m all right with it. You could join them after we visit Maggie’s grave.”

  Patsy’s face lit up. “Really? Why?”

  Mabel sighed. “I never did tell you the true reason why I was so against sleepovers. My parents never had an issue with it and I often slept over at friends’ houses for holidays and weekends. The night Maggie died, I was at her house for a sleepover. That experience has given me a phobia, I guess. I worry about letting you out of my sight for a whole night. I’m afraid that something might happen to you and I will never get to see you again. But I’ve been thinking about this. I know you want to go very badly, and I believe I can trust you to take care of yourself. I think you’re more responsible than I was at your age.”

  “No way,” Patsy declared. “You were definitely far more responsible and hardworking than I am!”

  Mabel raised her eyebrows. “What makes you so sure? You never knew me when I was thirteen.”

  “Er…” Patsy fumbled. “I just know, okay? But still, I would love to go for Elena’s sleepover. Thanks so much, Mummy!”

  Mabel smiled and gave Patsy’s head a good-natured pat. “By the way,” Mabel said, “I’ll be going overseas for a few days after Maggie’s anniversary. Your dad will look after you while I’m away.”

  “Where are you going?” Patsy asked.

  “New York. Your Uncle Pat has just won another book prize and the award ceremony is in New York.”

  “Oh, New York!” Patsy gushed. “Can I go? I’ve always wanted to go to New York!”

  “Oh no,” Mabel said, shaking her head. “The flight’s really expensive and the organisers are only sponsoring the trip for two people.”
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  “So why do you get to go? Why not me?” Patsy asked wistfully. “Aren’t I his favourite niece?”

  “Well,” Mabel said almost smugly, “Uncle Pat said that he owes his success to me, because I gave him the first line of a poem that he entered in a competition when he was young. He won, and it launched his career.”

  “You? You gave him the first line?” Patsy sputtered.

  “That’s right, me!” her mother said with a self-satisfied grin. “So of course he invited me. Whatever did you ever do for him?”

  Patsy sighed. I should have left him a letter too, she thought ruefully. I’ve got to plan things better the next time I get to time travel.

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks to the following people: my awesome parents, for bringing me up to be a voracious reader; my amazing husband, who for some unfathomable reason never doubted I would succeed as an author; my dearest daughter, who is my biggest (and also smallest) fan; my faithful friends Chen Yipei and Joshua Ang, for undertaking the tedious task of reading the first draft of my manuscript and giving invaluable input; my wonderful editors Melissa De Silva and Sheri Goh, for going over my manuscript countless times and helping to polish it; my esteemed publisher Epigram Books and Edmund Wee, for giving me and my book our first big break; my talented illustrator Chee Jia Yi, for the gorgeous cover art and illustrations; all other Epigram Books staff, for helping in the creation and marketing of Mount Emily; my kind reviewers Ter Cheah, Jinfang, Joni, Heidi and Hannah, who were so generous with their praise; and all my supportive friends who have been ‘badgering’ me about when my book will be out. It finally is!

  About the Author

  Low Ying Ping practically grew up in CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School, which she attended from pre-primary to secondary 4. She has always been fascinated by the dynamics of the friendship between girls, and the fact that many of these become lifelong bonds. She holds a Master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Warwick, UK. Her poems have appeared in Singa, the journal of the National University of Singapore Centre for the Arts; and QLRS (Quarterly Literary Review Singapore). Mount Emily is her debut novel.