THE JOURNEY HOME

CHAPTER 3: PORTALS

The wind rushed past her ears, her mind was blank. Her screams pierced the night air but seemed miles away to her. The wind carried her tears. It was exactly as she had feared. Ophelia knew Pearl’s teaching technique would boil down to something like this. Growing up, Pearl had always been fascinated with the way young eaglets learn to fly, today, Ophelia was her eaglet. Ophelia felt her heart beating, the cold wind running past her, and knew the ground was racing up to meet her, she looked up in her moment of desperation, saw Pearl’s proud ‘mother-eagle’ smile, and in that moment, resented her.

Pearl dived down and caught her but before the breath could get into the lungs of a panting Ophelia, she was pushing it out again, screaming, crying, falling, wishing the nightmare would end. And again, before she could reach the ground, Pearl swooped down, picked her up, and dropped her again, all before she knew what was happening. This time as she fell, she knew she would not hit the ground, she looked up and saw Pearl’s confident smirk. She trusted her captor. She understood that she was safe, that ‘mama eagle’ wouldn’t let her fall to the ground. She closed her eyes tightly and felt herself in Pearl’s arms again, then in the arms of the winds again. This time she opened her eyes, looking upwards, her eyes caught sight of something golden against the moonlight, just behind Pearl, and as she was caught in Pearl’s arms, she reached out and touched her wings. Pearl knew she had done enough. Odd as it may seem, given all the psychological trauma she had just put Ophelia through, Pearl actually cared about Ophlelia’s mental well-being and knew she was very nearly reaching her limits. This time, instead of letting Ophelia fall, she carried a quiet and tired Ophelia back to her room and laid her to rest on her bed. Ophelia fell asleep as soon as she touched the bed and Pearl left.

Ophelia woke up the next day to the sound of knocking. Her thoughts of the events of the previous day were a mess but she couldn’t remember bolting her door. She struggled half-asleep, trying to get up until something met her groggy gaze, forcing her to sit up in an instant. It was the blueback journal. She had to hide it, for all she knew Mrs. Julia could be at the door. She quickly buried the journal underneath her clothes and rushed to open the door. Amber came through the door and Ophelia subconsciously heaved a sign of relief, it was a false alarm. Amber sat on the bed and tried to fix her eyes on a spot in the wall. She didn’t want to look around. The room was still as it had always been, all Pearl’s personal effects, down to her clothes were still there but she, Pearl was gone. To Amber, the room felt so empty although, in physical content, it was much the same as before. Amber was entering the room for the first time since Pearl left.

‘I’m sorry for how I acted earlier’, Amber’s apology immediately softened Ophelia’s heart. Amber had always been good-natured. Her character was much better than Pearl’s, in Ophelia’s opinion. It may be worthy of note, however, that Ophelia’s opinions were currently being influenced by Pearl’s most recent manhandling. 

‘I forgive you. It wasn’t your fault’, Ophelia immediately accepted the apology.

‘That day, you caught me off guard’, Amber continued, going on to explain the implication of the dreams to the best of her knowledge. The conclusion was exactly as Ophelia had surmised, the ‘dreams’ weren’t dreams, Pearl had come to see her.

‘And I see she has come to see you again, just yesterday too’, Amber concluded, leaving Ophelia dazed.

‘How did you know?’ she asked surprised.

‘Pearl is my sister, I can tell’, Amber answered, there was also the fact that Pearl had locked the door, Ophelia would never lock her door. ‘Also, your reply confirmed my hypothesis’, she added with a smirk. Ophelia remembered what a smart-ass Amber could be sometimes, she hadn’t seen her coy side in a while. ‘So, that day, when you went out, where did you go?’ Amber was referring to the day she had spent the night in the library. What was the right course of action for Ophelia to take in this situation? Was she to withhold this vital information from Pearl’s sister? Wrinkles formed on her forehead as she contemplated this. Amber who was always best at reading the room, understood the difficulty and dropped the question.

  ‘It’s alright if you don’t want to tell me’, she suddenly said, much to Ophelia’s relief. ‘Well, I just wanted to let you know how sorry I am. I will be on my way now’, With that, Amber left the room.

Ophelia collapsed on her bed again with a thud. Was it right to keep all this from Amber too? What was Pearl’s plan for her sister? She said she would take her family with her, so why hadn’t she visited Amber and explained things to her? Why had Pearl left her with this burden? Ophelia grunted as the gravity of these questions crushed her. She took a deep breath and decided to just play her part, there was no point bothering about stuff she couldn’t change. She got up, freshened up, and got ready in front of the dressing mirror that was across the bed. A faint golden glow caught her eye as she looked to ensure she was presentable, the same hue the mirror had as she spoke with Amber. She grabbed the blue back and stalked out of the house without telling anyone.

In the sunlight, the path to the library looked very different. Ophelia was so clear-headed now that she saw and noticed every detail of her trek. Nature looked so beautiful today, as though she had come alive and smiled directly at Ophelia. There was also a feeling of lightness in her heart that she could not describe or understand. As Ophelia walked, she saw a single green leaf fall into a river beside the path she walked on and turned aside to look at it.The river glowed golden in the sunlight and it was so clear that she could see the smooth stones at the bottom, clean and clear, smoothed by nature’s soft but steady flow. A stone gleamed in the midst of the blue and gold and Ophelia bent over to have a closer look. Just then, something very unexpected happened. Although the water was so clear that Ophelia could see its bottom, and there was no one in the river, a hand came out of the water's surface and pulled her under. In the last moments before she plunged, she had the sense to toss the blueback to prevent getting it soaked in the water. It landed a few meters away, at the feet of someone who unknown to Ophelia, had been tailing her.

Amber was shocked to see a book land at her feet. She recognized it as the book that Ophelia had with her when she sneaked out of the house. She quickly ran forward to see what had befallen Ophelia that caused her to fling the book she had taken pains to hide but when she ran forward, instead of seeing Ophelia, she saw no one. She glanced down at the water and saw nothing. Cool and clear, its gentle ripples betrayed not a trace of what had transpired there only moments ago. Puzzled, Amber went back, picked up the book and began to read.