In this chapter we have three main elements - the disastrous episode with the boyfriend and the flowers (inspired by an advert from the 1980s), the Down's Syndrome boy on Facebook (note he will return again under a different identity) and the introduction of the malachite pendant, once owned by Olivia's great aunt Tamara. The idea of the looking at an ancestor in old photographs came to me when my friend Peter Cannon showed me some beautiful old family photos.
Tuesday 14th of February was of course Valentines Day. She was glad it wasn’t a school day otherwise she would have to put up with classmates teasing her about secret admirers. ‘Livvy has a boyfriend,’ they would sing, knowing she hadn’t. As far as she was concerned, Valentines day was just a day like any other.
Liz was in the village helping to organise a charity event in the evening and she asked Olivia to come along and help. They needed some paper plates and Liz asked Olivia to go and get some from the one of the two supermarkets. Olivia was worried in case Ben would be on duty and try to pester her again. She looked through the entrance towards the tills and was relieved to see that he wasn’t there.
She walked inside, found the paper plates and went to the checkout. Serving on the till was Ben’s colleague, the blond haired guy. He eyed her discreetly, took the money, handed her the plates and she left. Then he left the checkouts, went through to the staff area, and put his head out of the door which led to the back yard.
“Hey, your fancy girl was in just now.”
“What?” said Ben, stubbing out a cigarette.
“I just served her, she went out the door.”
Ben ran back into the supermarket, past the till and towards the front entrance. Stopping by the flower rack, pausing for only a second or two to choose, he grabbed a bunch of flowers and ran at high speed through the doors after her.
“Olivia! Olivia!” he said, out of breath. She had already turned the corner onto the main street.
Keeping the flowers behind his back, he caught up with her and she turned round, startled and embarassed to have had her name called out on the street.
“Olivia. I just wanted to say... Sorry! Sorry for what happened, you know, spilling the water over you, I’m really sorry. And I wanted to give you these.”
He held out the flowers to her, almost thrusting them into her face. She looked at the flowers, then him, but her reaction wasn’t what he expected.
“Get them away from me!” she said, pushing with her hand.
“What?” said Ben.
“Just don’t let them come near me!”
He pulled them back and looked at them to see if there was anything wrong with them. To him, they looked fine.
“I am not like all girls!” she said, “why doesn’t anyone understand?”
She took a moment to compose herself again.
“I’m sorry. I know, you chose them and spent a lot of money on them, I know but… I’m sure some other girl would like them... but not me.”
She took one last look at the flowers and at him. Her facial expression was a mixture of apologetic, angry and sad. She turned and walked on down the main street. He looked at the poor, unwanted flowers, threw them on the pavement and walked, dejectedly, back to the supermarket.
At the entrance, the manager was waiting.
“My office, Ben!” he shouted.
A few minutes later Olivia joined her mum and the other women, and put the incident out of her mind.
* * *
February continued and she thought she could sense some improvement in her abilities. But just when she thought she was making some progress, the subject would move on to something new and it all became difficult again.
She had been reading all about the power that stones and minerals were supposed to have from the library book she had brought home. As a scientist, she knew there could be no truth in this, and yet she was fascinated by it.
And then in Chemistry, the subject of minerals came up, particularly with reference to Alderley Edge. Tin and copper had been mined in past centuries. In fact, copper was first mined in both Alderley Edge and China around the same time.
As well as metals, people had dug out many different types of minerals and stones. Not diamonds or emeralds, but others that were valuable in their own way.
One of the students had suggested that some stones had special powers. The teacher had raised a disapproving eyebrow, pointing out that there was no scientific proof of the alleged power of precious stones. The conversation had moved on but the idea stuck in Olivia’s mind.
In the kitchen that evening after dinner, Olivia was looking at her phone, whilst Liz used Facebook on the laptop. She had over 1500 Facebook friends and spent a lot of time keeping up to date with them, making comments and posting her own news updates.
“Oh, look,” said Liz, “you know Spencer, the guy who does the internet stuff, married to an Italian woman? He’s just posted another photo of his little son. He’s very proud of him. Here, look Livvy.”
Olivia went over to the computer and looked at the photo.
“He seems a very happy little fellow, always smiling. Look, they’re on holiday in Italy, he’s with their relatives”
Olivia smiled too.
“He’s suffers from, well not suffers, he just, sort of like, has – you know – Down’s Syndrome.”
Again Olivia looked at her mum and at the picture and nodded.
“Of course in the old days, they had a different word for it. I’ll never forget, when I was only 10, our auntie had a baby. She was quite old actually. I knew there was something wrong when Mum showed me into the room to see the baby. He was in a cot, eyes closed, tiny, poor little thing. And then Mum leaned over and whispered into my ear ‘mongoloid’. Ooh, that word. It still sends shivers down my spine.”
Olivia closed and opened her eyes, and said nothing.
“Now they call it Down’s Syndrome, or just ‘Learning Difficulties’.”
They looked at more pictures of the boy on the screen.
“Well in that case,” said Olivia smiling, “if he’s got learning difficulties, judging from my last score in the Physics test, I must have it as well!” They both laughed.
“Oh, Olivia,” said Liz, “I’m glad you’ve got your fantastic brain!”
They both paused for a moment, looking at the photo of the boy on the screen.
“Mum” said Olivia, looking up, “there was something I wanted to ask you.”
“Yes, darling?”
“Do you think stones have special powers? We were talking about it in Chemistry today.”
Liz looked up surprised.
“Special powers? I didn’t think you’d be learning about that in Chemistry?”
“It’s just that someone suggested it. Do you believe in it?”
Liz gazed into the distance with her big eyes for a few moments.
“Yes, I do think that they can help. Different stones can do different things. Yes, I know it’s all a bit weird, but it’s just one of those things. They certainly believe it in China. After all there are many things we don’t understand, like acupuncture, but it seems to work.”
“Has it ever worked for you?”
“Well, I can’t say for certain. There have been times when I’ve worn a piece of jewellery with a particular stone and I felt it had some kind of power, but it’s not something you can prove. There are lots of websites about the power of stones.”
“Yes, I was looking at one or two of them before.”
“But I do know someone who really believed in the power of stones,” said Liz, smiling.
“Who is it mum?”
“Well, she’s not here now, but your gran told me all about her. I’ve told you about Tamara, haven’t I, your great aunt?”
“Yes, you’ve mentioned her, but it was a long time ago.”
“She used to swear that a green pendant helped her,” Liz explained. “It was malachite. She said that while she was at university, she kept it with her at all times, including the exams of course. Would you like to see the old photographs?”
“Oh yes, please, Mum.”
Liz went into the downstairs study and came back with a box full of photo albums. She placed it on the table.
“Oh, and one other thing…”
She got up bounded up the spiral staircase with heavy footsteps and came down again with something concealed in her hand.
“This is the pendant,” she said, holding it out on her palm.
Olivia looked at the smooth green stone set in shiny silver. The chain dangled onto the table.
Olivia took it in her hand and held it under one of the spotlights above the table. The light glinted off the silver. It felt cold and heavy. She turned it over, there were a couple of marks on the back, and she turned over again, studying the green patterns beneath its shiny surface.
“Look at these old photos.” said Liz.
Liz opened the box and took out lots of black and white photographs of varying sizes, some almost as small as a postage stamp, some larger. In the photographs was a stylish woman dressed in the fashion of the time, standing next to a big, long car, another on the deck of a ship. One larger photograph was taken at a university graduation ceremony. She was wearing her cap and gown along with other women.
“She went to Cambridge in the 1920s,” said Liz, excitedly. “They had only just begun to allow women to do degrees, and they weren’t proper degrees. There had been demonstrations by men protesting against women studying.”
Olivia opened her mouth in surprise.“Really? Why shouldn’t they study?”
“They thought women weren’t intelligent enough to go to university, or maybe they should just stay at home and be good wives. They weren’t allowed to study at Cambridge until 1921. Tamara was one of the first. She graduated in 1925.”
“What did she study?”
“English Literature.”
“Wow, she looks very stylish!” Livvy commented, looking at one photograph then the next.
And then Liz took out some more old black and white prints. Tamara was at the wheel of a very big and long car with a shiny radiator and wheels like an old motorcycle.
“She was quite a character. She drove big cars. Went out with many rich men, married one in the end. She even flew a plane.”
Liz took out another photograph with Great Aunt Tamara in an aviator’s cap and goggles, standing in front of a biplane.
“Wow,” said Olivia.
“Mum said she always swore the pendant helped her, especially in her studies. She got the top grade from Cambridge, a First.”
“Really?”
“Yes. And look at this photograph.”
Liz opened a larger photo, mounted in a display folder. It was taken in a studio. She was dressed in a stylish dress and wide brimmed hat. The lighting was beautiful. Liz pointed to the pendant she was wearing.
“Goodness!”
She picked up the pendant and compared it with the one in the photograph. They were quite clearly the same.
“And do you know what happened one time? She was flying in a plane, a seaplane. The only other person on the plane was the pilot. It was in Australia, around 1936. They were coming into land on the water, but something happened, it came down at a bad angle and spun around out of control. The pilot was killed, but Tamara survived. She swore the pendant protected her.”
“Really?”
“Who knows whether it’s true or not? People believe these things. Some call it superstition others say it’s a load of rubbish.”
“But what do you think Mum, do you believe in them?”
“I’m not sure, but I know I’ve seen some very strange things…”
She gazed into the distance for a long time with her big eyes.
“Mum, can I borrow the pendant?”
“Yes, of course darling, but whatever you do, take extra special care of it and don’t take it into school!”
“No, of course not,” said Olivia, closing her fingers around it.
“Just keep it in your room, in a safe place.”
“I’ll take good care of it,” said Olivia. She clasped it firmly in her palm and pressed it to her body.
Later, in her room, Olivia gazed at the pendant in the light of her bedside lamp, thinking about all the adventures its former owner had had. If all those experiences could have been recorded in the stone, what a tale they would tell.
There were patterns in the mineral that looked like clouds. They were of course, formed by layers built up over thousands of years. As she looked more closely, she thought she could see the patterns and shapes moving, but maybe it was her tiredness that was making her see things.
She placed it under her pillow before getting ready to go to bed. She felt comforted and protected, and soon slipped into a deep and satisfying sleep.
I've decided to upload more frequently so that the entire book will be fully published on Wattpad by early to mid December. If you have read this, please vote, just to let me know you have read it. And if you could comment, that would be wonderful, in fact it would make my day!