THE JOURNEY HOME

PEARL III (CONTINUED)

Mrs. Harry smiled mysteriously then gave an evasive answer,
'I'm the librarian, of course'

'That's not what I meant. I mean, what is your connection to all this? Why are you involved in this?'

'You will know, when the time is right' Came the librarian's answer, her wise eyes twinkled.

Pearl was worn out by the librarian's roundabout way of answering. She decided to give up on these kinds of questions for now and direct her attention to more pressing matters.

'What is your 'first joy'?' The librarian smiled, pleased at the question. It seemed she had gotten the hint.
The hint of course refers to the room where they had shared their first joy in Harry's letter to her. The baby's room.

'Our first joy, that was just his way of referring to our children.' Mrs Harry smiled fondly at the memory of her husband's mannerisms.

'So it's the baby's room then? I have been there and it didn't seem strange in any way'

'I'll explain. That room is the doorway to a portal' Her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to find the words to piece together the true meaning of a portal to one who had never seen one.
'A portal is like a station, you can get to wherever you're going from there. In your case, you can find the way to your true country from there'

'Like the big blue hall in my mirror?'

'You have been in the portal hall?' Mrs Harry was shocked for the first time.

'Yes, Mrs. Rose took me there.'

'The doorway through that room is different though, it takes you through the fastest way to the other country.'

'Legandanl' Pearl spoke the name in ancient tongue.

'Yes, your true home' Old Ann completed. 'But I must warn you, whenever you decide to go through, it is forbidden to take a human with you. Disobey this law and you will have to face the judgment of the portal Lords. I advise you to go when no one else is watching'

'Of course' Pearl responded, understanding her predicament a little better and mentally making up her mind to go as soon as possible.

'When you're ready to use the portal, close the door and reopen it, it should open to the portal hall. Goodluck'

Pearl left after that conversation and met Suzy outside the library trying to focus on the book before her but she was visibly shaking, now and again she would glance at the entrance. Poor thing, if only she knew the entire test thing was just a ruse.

Amber walked in at that moment and Suzy was so relieved to see her that she hugged Amber. This was because Amber had come with a chessboard at her request. Chess always calmed Suzy down so she wanted to play a game of chess to relax. Suzy was about to play against Amber when Benjamin walked up and bragged about Pearl's prowess in the game of chess. In reality, her chess feats included little more than winning against him, but as he thought of himself as a pretty good player, he couldn't help magnifying her skills so he wouldn't look bad for losing against her.
Suzy completely believed his exaggeration and ended up asking Pearl to play her instead of Amber  who was very disappointed at this turn of events.

Just moments into the game, beads of sweat were already beginning to form on Pearl's temples. Suzy's skills were no joke, and Pearl could feel the tension in the air. Suzy was seriously competing. Perhaps it was to compensate for how she felt after the test, to prove to herself that she was better. Whatever her reasons, she was putting in her all. The game was tense and everyone watched with bated breath.
Suzy had the upper hand and quickly cornered Pearl. Pearl saw herself in a tight spot and knew no way out, she was about to forfeit the game when all of a sudden, a light shone in her head and she had an idea. There was no way she could describe it, moment after moment, move after move, she kept getting ideas and seeing the chess board and pieces in ways she hadn't seen before, she could see the weak spots in Suzy's strategy and before ten minutes had passed, she checked Suzy.
Suzy, who thought the game was in the bag only moments ago went from elation and delight to fear, despondency and anger in the last minutes of the game. She flew in a rage and knocked all the pieces over with a loud screech, stunning everyone to silence. Then, recovering herself, apologized for her behaviour.