Stargirl of the Edge

Ch 42 - A Very Special Friend

Plot summary: Olivia's father has been kidnapped for quite a few days now. She has had to complete her A level exams under stress, but now they are nearly finished. Her mum is working hard on the campaign to highlight the kidnapping of Olivia's dad and help secure his release. And then we get to meet a very special friend of Olivia's mum...

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On Wednesday, June the twentieth, the summer solstice, sunny weather continued with temperatures up to 20 degrees. It was a welcome change from the showers and storms of the previous week.
The occasion brought people onto Alderley Edge who liked to celebrate using strange rituals.  Olivia had often heard about them but had never seen them. 
After her encounter the previous night, she preferred not to go on the Edge and took Jessie for her walk down by the river Bollin.
The weather was still fairly sunny and warm for her Maths exam on Thursday 21st June.  Liz allowed her to take the jeep as she was busy at home with the campaign. It was Olivia’s last exam. After this, her primary and secondary education was complete. It was the end of an era. It had started in September 1998 when, as a shy four year old, she had entered the nursery.  Now, in June 2012, she had reached the end of a long period of growth and development, of ups and downs, of challenges, successes and failures. And it had all led to this, a three hour A level Mathematics paper.
Sitting in the exam room, with her pens, pencils, eraser and the all important green pendant lined up on the desk in front of her, she turned over the paper and again, it was a cry of “Yesssss!”
All the topics she had been revising for were on the paper. Alan’s friend had made a very accurate prediction of the questions that would be on the paper. She had concentrated only on those and not on others, and her investment in time and effort were about to pay off.
She worked steadily through the exam paper, dealing with all the questions confidently. There was plenty of time to spare in the latter part of the exam to go over each answer thoroughly.  There were changes to make here and there, but all in all, she couldn’t have wished for a better paper, and when the invigilator announced that it was the time was up, she put her pen down on the desk with a sense of satisfaction and achievement.
She looked around to the other students. They were already gathering their things. Rosie was not so happy, saying she didn’t think she had done very well. Olivia said nothing.
She walked out of the school, one challenge behind her, but with another one to deal with.  As she got into the jeep, started the engine and set off for the short drive home, many thoughts passed through her mind.
Up till now she had had the expectation that her dad would be released after a short time. It was now 16 days since he had disappeared. It seemed like an eternity. Sooner or later whoever had captured him would realise he was only there to do good, they would admit their mistake and let him go.
Previously her exams had acted as a distraction, an outside focus. Now she could only focus on grim reality. She should have been about to start a carefree summer, the last one before starting university. Instead, her life had been turned upside down. There was stress, uncertainty and the never-ending fear that there would be terrible news.
Looking at news websites, she had read that hostage taking was quite a common occurrence in that part of the world, and the vast majority of incidents were never reported. Perhaps the hostages were only held for a short time and then released. Or it could be that they were from non-Western countries, and so the Western news agencies were not interested in them. When a high profile Westerner, a British, French or maybe American man or woman, was taken and then held over a long period, it was usually publicised widely. The majority of hostages were released unharmed, but some… well, it was better not to think about it too much.
As her mum kept telling her, she needed to focus on the positive, keep hoping and, if all went well, he would soon be home and things could get back to normal.
She turned into the drive and parked near the back door.
Inside the kitchen, Liz was pacing up and down with the phone in her hand. The table was covered in sheets of paper as well as magazines and newspapers.
Immediately she lifted the phone to her ear and started on a conversation. Olivia put her bag down and bent down to stroke Jessie, whispering to her that she would take her for a walk later.
Finally Liz finished her phone call.
“Sorry darling, that was the accountant, you know the nice Scottish guy married to Samantha?”
Olivia nodded, although actually she had no idea who those people were.
“So darling, how did your last exam go?”
“Fine. Luckily I’d revised everything that came up on the paper over the past few days. Alan’s friend, the head of department at that school, he predicted what was going to be on the paper.”
“Ooh, that’s excellent. It just shows what can be achieved if you have good people to advise you. So how do you feel?”
“I feel okay but… oh Mum, is there any news? I can’t stop thinking about… the situation…”
“You mustn’t let it bother you, I’ve been chatting to lots of people and they reckon it won’t be long before he’s freed. It happens lots of times you know. We just need to get him back home and then we can pick up our lives and move on to the next bit. In the meantime, I’m going to continue with the campaign. I’ve got quite a few more people on board.”
She picked up her list of names from the table, checking each one. “Oh, I must phone Lyndsey, hang on a minute.  Livvy, there’s some food there if you’re hungry?”
“No mum, I’ll just go up to my room.”
Now she was free. Now it was all over. But what next? Wait for the results. Decide what she was going to study. Take up her place, or maybe take a year off?
She walked to the window and looked up at the Edge. It had been a magical experience, seeing the bright star. She still felt deeply affected by it. She decided she would read about the subject on the internet. But first, she needed to take Jessie for a walk. She drove down to the River Bollin and they spent over an hour walking along the footpaths, but had to return when raindrops started to fall.
And the soon the rain came lashing down and lasted into the next day, Friday the twenty-second. There was flooding in some parts of the UK, with gusts of wind of up to 30 and 40 miles per hour.
The unsettled weather seemed to reflect their general state of mind. Olivia sat indoors, sitting in the living room or up in her room, whilst her mum continued to organise the publicity campaign, constantly on the phone or checking e-mail messages, making notes on countless bits of paper scattered across the kitchen table.
Liz made sure that the roses in the vase were replaced before they became tired and faded. Now they had an important symbolic value. They seemed to offer solace, they seemed to provide comfort and cheerfulness in difficult times.
On the weekend of Saturday the twenty-third of June there were continuous rain showers. They spent most of it indoors. More of Liz’s friends and contacts visited the house at regular intervals. She introduced each one to Olivia. There were warm smiles, handshakes and comments about how much she had grown. Olivia couldn’t keep up with the names and how her mum had come to know them. She just smiled and then went back to her laptop or continued to watch television.
But on the morning of Monday 25th someone arrived on their doorstep who stood out among Liz’s friends. Sitting on the couch with her laptop in front of her, Olivia looked out the living room windows to see a shiny black Range Rover coming up the drive. It was clear that it was brand new as it had 12 in the number plate.
Olivia couldn’t quite see who was driving, as the side windows were dark, but whoever it was brought it quickly to a halt next to Liz’s jeep, making it look rather small and scruffy.
The visitor was a woman, in her forties perhaps, with perfectly styled shoulder length hair turned up at the bottom, not especially tall but quite big. She wore sunglasses on her head, a stylish jacket and skirt, and carried a clipboard and iPad in her left hand and the latest and most expensive iPhone in her right.
Accompanying her were two rather tall boys, who looked to be in their late teens. One of them carried her briefcase, the other walked behind. They both had very short blond hair and wore black suits with open necked white shirts.
Liz had already looked up and was already on her way to the kitchen door.  Jessie got up in her basket and started barking frantically.
Liz opened the door, opened her arms wide and let forth an overwhelming “Darling!”
“Oh Liz, wonderful to see you!” said the woman.
The two hugged for a couple of moments and Liz invited her in.
Jessie continued to bark frantically.
“Oh Jessie! Quiet now!”
The woman and the two boys looked down at the dog and smiled.
Jessie barked a few more times until she decided that she had barked enough, and then lay down in the basket again. One of the boys bent down to stroke her head. She became calm, and looked up at him, enjoying the attention.
“Livvy! Come and meet a very special friend of mine, Marianne!”
Olivia walked to the kitchen, feeling a little overwhelmed by the visitors. That name was familiar. In fact that was one of the few names she remembered. Marianne Smythe-Jensen. Liz often talked about her, though she couldn’t remember a face or any more details, apart from the fact that she was extremely rich.
“Oh darling!” said Marianne beaming, “Liz has told me all about you! My you’ve grown so much, I remember you when you were a little girl!”
Olivia nodded, hoping she could get back to the couch as soon as possible.
“Nice little place you’ve got here,” said Marianne, looking around at the kitchen and the large living room.
“Come and sit down,” said Liz, smiling, “let me make something for you? Tea? Coffee?”
“Just mineral water for me if you’ve got it,” said Marianne, sitting down and checking her phone. There was a message.
“Hold on,” she said, pressing a button. Liz walked to the fridge and poured Marianne her drink.
“Okay,” said Marianne to the person on the other end of the phone, “can we knock them down by a few more grand, please, yes, at least three thousand. I think for a company of that size, it’s seriously over-priced.”
Liz placed a glass of sparkling mineral water on the table in front of her.
“Tell them that’s our final offer,” Marianne continued, “and I want this sorted by close of play so we can start looking at what assets we can strip out.”
Liz sat down with a mug of tea and Marianne ended the call.
“Sorry about that, darling. Now then, can you bring me up to date please with the situation so we can draw up a game plan.”
Olivia sat on the couch, tapping on the laptop but she was disappointed by what her mum said next.
“James, Julian, why don’t you go and chat to Olivia, she’s just finished her exams, I’m sure she’d love to tell you all about it!”
The two boys came over and sat each on one of the armchairs.
Olivia clicked on the laptop without looking up. The boys looked around the room, then one of them reached for the remote control. “May I?”
“Sure,” said Olivia, continuing to stare at the laptop screen.
The television came on, he pressed the number of a channel, and a football match came on. Olivia looked up momentarily and continued reading what was on the laptop screen. Then he changed to golf, then cricket and then a tennis match. He put the remote down and they both watched.
“Been watching the tennis?” one of them asked.
“No,” she said.
They continued to watch, then he switched it back to the football match. The two brothers conversed about the match and players.
“Looking forward to the Olympics?” he asked.
“Not particularly.”
“Not into sport then?”
“Nope,” she said, clicking on a link to view a larger picture.
“So what are you into?”
She looked carefully at the picture, dragging the image into a folder on her desktop and then went back to the main article.
“Supernovas,” she said, looking up briefly.
“What? Are they a band? Off one of those TV talent shows?”
“No!” said Olivia impatiently, “A supernova is a star that grows very big, shines brightly then dies after a few months, leaving only debris.”
“Aha, so it is one of those singers off a TV talent show!” and they both laughed. 
Olivia shook her head and continued to read whilst they watched the football. Once in a while, one or the other would keep glancing over at Olivia and then back at the television.
“OK boys, time to go,” their mother shouted from the kitchen.
They both stood up and joined her. Olivia was becoming more and more fascinated by the web page she was looking at. Then she heard her mother shouting at her.
“Olivia! Don’t be rude! Come here and say goodbye to Marianne and the boys!”
As calmly as she could, she lifted the laptop up and onto the table, resisting the temptation to slam it down and smash it to pieces, and then she marched to the kitchen.
“Ooh, it was lovely to see you Marianne and thanks ever so much!”
Olivia stood to attention and smiled just at the right time, and gave a limp handshake to all three of them. When it came to Marianne, she was tempted to curtsey, but she didn’t.
The visitors made their way out and through the rain to the Range Rover, got in and after a gravel-crunching three point turn, Marianne accelerated down the drive, waving as she went past.

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Comment: When I re-read this chapter, I really like it. Marianne Smythe-Jensen is named after a friend  of mine - she is the exact opposite in character. The character is inspired by a mixture of people I know. She will play a decisive role in the story.