Stargirl of the Edge

Ch 41 - A Guiding Light

Plot summary: Olivia's father has been kidnapped in a dangerous country. She has started her exams. But now the new moon has arrived and Olivia goes up onto the Edge with her dog Jessie to meet up with her mentor Esther, the Chinese princess from an ancient dynasty.

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Around 15 minutes later they were at the fallen tree.

It was two months - two lunar months - since she had done this. The first time she had met Esther was in the middle of winter in late afternoon. Now it was close to midsummer in late evening. Would she still be there? Would the magic still allow Esther to appear in front of her?

As she waited she looked around. There were empty beer cans on the ground, and the blackened remains of a fire that someone had lit. The wind chime was still there, though it was tangled up on the branch. She untangled it and the metal tubes made their gentle tinkling sound again.

She sat for a while, but nothing happened. The wind blew through the trees, and the wind chime rang gently. But then Jessie growled a little and got up on all fours. She barked and then made that high pitched whining sound from the back of her throat. 

In front of them both, dressed in a long white Chinese gown, was Esther.

“Oh Esther, I’m so glad to see you!” said Olivia, with a sad look on her face.

“Livvy, I was waiting for you, and you didn’t come! It was your birthday, I wanted to greet you!”

“Oh I’m so sorry, but, well it’s a long story but… I had a birthday party and I thought of you.”

“I thought of you too.”

“But Esther, something terrible has happened. I came two weeks ago to tell you about it! I thought you might be here. I thought maybe I might be able to speak to you, via the wind chime? I was speaking to you? Didn’t you hear me?”

She looked puzzled. “Oh no, I was not here! I think you were talking to the wind chime, not me!”

“And then I saw a squirrel and I thought maybe you were looking through his eyes at me?”

“Oh no,” she said, “I cannot look through the eyes of a squirrel, it is not possible.”

“Oh, okay then. But Esther, I have terrible news. My father, he has been, what’s the word? I don’t know how to say it in Chinese. Some bad men have taken him. He is working in a very dangerous country. My parents kept it a secret from me. He was on his way to the airport. Some men with guns, they took him. Now I don’t know if I will see him again.”

“Oh no,” she said, her eyes opening wide, with a look of shock and horror: “the men that took your father, they are like, pirates, they take someone, like a prisoner?”

“Yes, we call it kidnapping. ” Then Esther said the Chinese word

“Oh right.”

“When he was kidnapped?”

“It was fourteen days ago. Oh Esther, I’m so worried!”

“Worrying will make no difference. My father is also missing, but I know I am going to see him again.”

“But how?”

“By looking into the past. I know what happened and now I know.”

“Esther, please can you tell me if my father is going to be safe, oh please!”

“I don’t know enough about this situation, I don’t understand it fully, so I can’t say.”

And then she smiled but in a strange way, as if she was trying to stop herself from smiling. Olivia looked at her, puzzled, and then she realised.