THE JOURNEY HOME

CHAPTER 7: PEARL III

When Pearl got home, Ophelia was still out with Mrs. Rose, for another 'scholarly assignment', she had a lot of those nowadays. Pearl picked up the book and decided to give it a try, it was a journal alright. Grocery lists, personal appointments, those sorts of things. Did this belong to another librarian? What was she supposed to learn here?
As she read with disinterest, she stumbled upon a section describing a strange event in the author's life. His description and shock reminded Pearl of her first encounter with Mrs. Rose. Realization clicked. Could this be the reason why she was told to volunteer for the library? Did Mrs. Harry know something about people like Mrs. Rose? People like her?

Ophelia walked in, putting an abrupt end to her stream of thoughts. She was so happy that Pearl was a bit jealous. Pearl had to read a long, boring library book, prepare for tests, clean out catacombs and fight a 'healer' which only meant fighting someone who could beat her up as much as she wanted to, justifying her actions by her ability to fix her up immediately afterwards and Ophelia was busy having the time of her life.

'Where did you go today?' Pearl asked.

'The other side of the woods' Ophelia replied.

That meant the forest on the other side of the clear river that ran alongside the road they usually trekked. Ophelia loved strolls, but it had been a while since any of them had gone that way.

'That's nice' Pearl was distant again, she had to be. She avoided Ophelia the rest of the day, not like Ophelia even cared and went to bed early. She was tired enough.

Amber came later, and knocked on their door, stirring Pearl who had just started sleeping. Ophelia answered while Pearl struggled to get back to sleep.

'Do you know where we kept the chessboard?' Amber asked. Suzy, who was an avid chess fan had convinced Amber to get theirs for her.

'Sure' Ophelia led the way and they both left Pearl in the room.

Alone, in the fading light of dusk, Pearl could finally get some much-needed sleep.
The night passed without incident. Mrs. Rose didn't come, and it was a good thing too. Pearl now had only days till her big test. She was, however, unable to continue reading her book or even go back to the library.
Pearl had other appointments that kept her very busy, namely the yearly drawing lessons that she had saved up and paid for much before the entire affair she now had to endure had even started.
For this reason, she took an excuse from Benjamin.

'I'm sorry, I won't be able to work the rest of this week'

'Why?' He had asked, looking quite disturbed.

'I have those drawing lessons'

'Oh' he knew about them, then he looked around, as though deep in thought. Finally, he said what disturbed him.

'Will Amber be coming?' He blushed, realizing how he sounded 'I mean, in your place' then gave a small self-satisfied nod, as though internally justifying the question.

'No, I'm sorry' Pearl smiled sadly.

'Of course' he stuttered.

Suzy wasn't around when she informed Benjamin so he would have to tell her. Pearl ended up spending most of her time that week drawing and hardly any reading. On the eve of the test, she finally got out the blue-backed journal and rushed over it. Its contents stunned her, the realization Mrs. Harry was Mr. Guilever's wife left a lot of questions buzzing in her head and these materialized themselves in her dreams.
The dreams were not altogether pleasant, so she was relieved to find they had just been dreams when she was shaken awake by Mrs. Rose, who had finally come after days of absence.

'Have you read all the books?' Was her whispered question to a groggy Pearl.

'No' Pearl's first reply was honest. Then she recovered herself. 'Yes,' she quickly lied.