Stargirl of the Edge

Ch 24 - Library Book

Another chapter - we are now just over a third of the way through the story and things will soon start to happen, things that will upset and threaten the comfortable life of Olivia and her family.

The Easter holidays passed quickly, and soon it would be time to return to school. The summer term started on Thursday 19th of April.  And of course two days after that, on Saturday the twenty-first of April, it was the new moon and so it would be time for Olivia, accompanied by Jessie, to go onto the Edge and make contact. The year had moved on, the clocks had gone forward and so, as the app on her phone told her, sunset would be at 8.21pm.
One of her classmates was holding a birthday on Saturday evening but she didn’t feel like going to it. She would tell her parents she was taking Jessie for a walk.
She still needed to find the book that Esther had requested. As usual she had left things to the last minute. She took out her phone and looked at the characters she had copied. The first one was clear and the second was incomplete. She had tried to write the third one from memory but she couldn’t be sure if it was correct. She opened her laptop and started to search online for old Chinese books and to see if there was anywhere she could borrow or even buy one. Soon she found to the website of a library in the city centre that had an extensive collection of old Chinese books.
She looked through all the titles of the books they had, comparing the characters in the listing with those she had written on her phone. Many were listed in English, with no Chinese characters in the title. They were transcribed into English, which made it difficult to recognise if the title was correct. And then she found a partial match.  The first character was definitely the same, the second was similar and so was the third. It was a Chinese book, 42 pages long, printed during an ancient Chinese dynasty. It was entitled ‘The Sutra of Chung Wei’. Could this be the one that Esther wanted? There wasn’t very much information about the contents. Finding out more about the library she noticed that it had close connections with the University.
Immediately she went downstairs to the kitchen where Liz was making preparations for the evening meal.
“Mum,” said Olivia with a tone of voice used by children when they want something from their parents.
“Yes, darling,” she said, putting something into the oven, and turning the knobs on the cooker, “continue, I’m listening.”
“I need to borrow a book. It’s a Chinese book.”
Liz closed the oven door and took off her apron.
“Oh, that sounds interesting.” She stared into Olivia’s eyes.
“It’s…” Olivia looked to one side, “it’s for a project. You can borrow books can’t you?”
“Oh yes, as I’m an adult student at the University, I’ve joined the library, and I can borrow any books. Is it in the main library?”
“No, It’s… that other one, called…” she looked at her laptop again, “The John Williamson Sneed Memorial Library.”
“Oh yes, the JWS, it’s connected to the University. They’ve got lots of old books there, wonderful building, it looks like a cathedral.”
“Mum, are you going in to town? Can you get the book out for me?”
“When dear?”
“Tomorrow, or Friday?”
“Sorry, I can’t, I’m helping Janice out all day tomorrow and on Friday I’m visiting Beryl. It’ll have to be Saturday. We can go in together.”
“Oh, all right then.”
Olivia’s mind went into top gear. Would it be possible to take the book out of the library? And if so, would she be able to get to the meeting place on time.
“What time does the library close?” asked Liz, still fixing Olivia with her probing stare.  Sometimes Olivia wondered if she could read her mind.
“I’m not sure, I’ll take a look on the website, hold on. Yes, it’s 1pm on Saturdays.”
“OK, then darling, we’ll go on Saturday. We can drive in and park in the city centre. I need to get a few things to wear, Dad put some money in my account, and we can go to that clothes shop. It’s right next to the library. We’ll go into the library and enquire about the book, then do some shopping together afterwards. How does that sound?”
“Fine,” said Olivia.
“Oh, and I just remembered, Dad’s been invited to a ‘do’ at the Golf Club. I think it’s a dinner to celebrate some occasion, I’m not sure. I’m not looking forward to it. It starts at 7.30pm so we need to get back at a reasonable time.”
“Very good,” said Olivia looking at her laptop screen. It was clear from the photos that the John Williamson Sneed Memorial Library was a very impressive building. There was a magnificent main hall with a stained glass window at the end. On the outside and inside there were many intricate stone carvings.
But for Olivia, the most important thing was to obtain the book. She looked again at the web page with information about it. Liz had brought home a few very old books from the University library, some were several hundred years old, and there hadn’t been a problem.
Thursday and Friday passed quickly, Olivia spent the time catching up with her revision. On Saturday morning she woke up early and made herself some breakfast at 9.30. Her dad had already gone out playing golf. She’d done a printout of the page with details of the book and was ready to set off into town. But then Liz came down and said something which made Olivia very worried:
“I’m just popping down to Dorothy’s to buy some bread and milk, I won’t be long.”
“Okay, well get back soon, Mum,” Olivia said, checking the time on the kitchen clock.
Olivia sat at the table, trying to occupy herself by surfing the internet on her iPhone but there was no sign of Liz. She remembered another thing Esther had asked for: A wind chime. She knew there as one in a drawer in the living room. They had brought it back from China and it was still in its wrapping. She put it in the outer pocket of her bag.
It was after ten, so she sent a text message.
‘Mum, where are you?’
She waited and eventually a reply came:
‘Sorry few more mins’
Olivia quickly checked the train times. There was one at 11.13.
At ten to eleven Olivia heard the sound of tyres on the gravel, and Liz stepped out of the jeep carrying a white plastic bag with groceries.
“Ooh, Dorothy, she never stops chattering!”
“Can we go now?” said Olivia.
“Yes, of course, darling, sorry.”
“Mum, there won’t be time to drive in now, and find a parking space, why don’t we take the train?”
“Good idea!”
A few minutes later Liz parked the jeep at Alderley Edge railway station. They rushed over the bridge, walked onto the platform and got into the train, which was about to leave. At 11.13 it departed and was soon moving at speed along the long straight railway line into the city, first passing rows and rows of red brick semi-detached houses and later the quaint roofs and chimneys of the inner city suburbs, before arriving at Manchester’s Piccadilly Station.
They hurried along the platform through the crowded main concourse, and out of the front entrance. They could have taken the tram or free bus, but Liz thought it would be quicker to walk. It would take them about fifteen minutes, and the route led them through Chinatown, past the Chinese arch.
After walking down more streets, past buildings new and old, including the beautiful old Victorian town hall with its tall clock tower, they reached the library.  Just as in the photographs on the website, it looked like a large church, with pointed windows and decorations, but there was no bell tower and there were no religious symbols. It looked like a cathedral to books.

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