Stargirl of the Edge

Ch 31 - Goodbye Ben

After a while, the rays of the sun began to appear ahead of them through clouds, lighting up the leaves of the trees and glinting off the river. After a few more minutes they reached the far footbridge not far from Quarry Bank Mill. Through the trees above they heard the roar of planes taking off from Manchester Airport. Even in this secluded valley, there was no escaping the outside world. They turned round and made their way back along the footpath the way they had come, now with the sun behind them. They arrived back at the car park feeling refreshed and with a sharpened appetite. 

Back in the kitchen after the 15 minute drive home, Liz took the casserole out of the oven and set the table. Though sometimes they would have a Chinese banquet, this Sunday the family would enjoy a traditional English roast dinner and dessert. Jessie would have her favourite dog food and biscuits. Needless to say it was all delicious. Mother, father, daughter and dog enjoyed the food almost without speaking. For dessert they had apple crumble and custard. Though it was Olivia’s favourite, she only ate a small amount, and quickly got up from the table and went up the spiral staircase to her room. 

This time she scrolled through the images of the pages of the book on her laptop, one by one, zooming in to see the characters and diagrams more clearly. She discovered she hadn’t held the iPhone as steady as she should and some pages were a little blurry, making the characters even more difficult to understand.

Many pages had Chinese characters in vertical columns. Although she recognised quite a few of them, many were unknown to her and she could not make any sense of them.

On other pages there were strange charts and drawings, and on one page, what looked like a constellation of stars, though she didn’t recognise it. It was impossible to make sense of them and yet they had a beauty that appealed to Olivia. In the middle of the constellation was a circle made of lines radiating outwards. There were other patterns and symbols. She started to copy some of them into a sketch book.

The following morning it was the twenty-third of April, the first Monday of the new term. Though she had no classes now, Olivia needed to visit the school as there were some matters she needed to attend to. Liz was going to have a word with the headmistress, Mrs Portree, about the theft of the gemstone.

With Olivia at the wheel, they drove to school in the jeep, and went straight to the reception area. After a short wait in the corridor, they were told to go into Mrs Portree’s office. 

Mrs Portree listened with a sympathetic smile, rolling her eyes and shaking her head when Liz told her about discovering that the pendant had been swapped. Olivia looked down when Mrs Portree said she should not have gone against the school rules. 

“I’m soooooo disappointed with you Olivia, I’m sooooo disappointed,” she said in her north east England accent, which sounded quite like a Scottish accent. The pupils often liked to imitate her.

The headmistress said she would take it upon herself personally to find the thief.

The next day, Mrs Portree sent an announcement that a certain student had brought an item of jewellery into school. It had been swapped with a fake item. She asked for anyone with any information to come forward, but no one did. The rest of the week passed and there was no news. It looked as though they would never see the pendant again. 

The following Monday Olivia was in school again. Liz needed the car and dropped her off. When she was finished, around lunchtime, she headed into the village, and decided that she needed to visit to the Co-op supermarket. She saw that Ben was in. She bought an apple and a bottle of fruit juice and made her way to the till.

“Hello,” he said, not looking at her.

“Look,” whispered Olivia, “I’m really sorry about what happened, on the Edge with the dogs. I was rude to you.”