Emily's House: Book 1 of the Akasha Chronicles

Chapter 28: Madame Wong

Chapter 28: Madame Wong

“Are you going to stand there or come in?” she asked.

I told my feet to go in, but they didn’t want to move. With great effort I got my lead feet to walk through yet another door to the unknown.

I ducked as I walked through her tiny door. The little house was dark inside but clean and sparse. There was a wooden table under one window, large enough for two. Two rickety-looking wood chairs flanked the table. There was a simple hearth with a kettle over the fire. In another corner rested a small bed made of knobby pine with modest, white covers over the mattress. Beside the bed was a diminutive table with a washbowl and pitcher.

It was like I had stepped back in time. No phones. No television. No electricity. No technology of any kind.

“Madame Wong? Are you really the Madame Wong that Hindergog told me about? The Madame Wong who taught the girls in the Sacred Grove?”

“I am.”

“But how ... how can you be here? I thought the portal was closed.”

“It was.”

Apparently, not much of a talker.

“Then how can you be here if you were left behind when the portal closed?”

“Ah, Madame Wong starting from scratch here.” She shook her head, went to the fire and poured hot water from the kettle into a small, porcelain teapot.

“Tea, Youngling?”

“Sure, I guess that would be okay.”

“You guess, or you know? Tea or no tea. This is not a hard question,” she barked at me.

“Okay then, tea, yes.”

Another cup materialized on her table, seemingly plucked out of nowhere. I shouldn’t have been surprised. I had, after all, walked into another dimension. But I had a hard time believing what I’d just seen.

“How did you do that?”

“What?”

“Make that cup appear out of nowhere.”

“All of here is nowhere. Ask and it is given. So much to learn.” She shook her head again as she poured tea into two, small cups.

“Sit,” she commanded.

I did as she said and fast. After Hindergog’s story, I knew that I didn’t want to mess with Madame Wong.

We drank our tea in silence. Madame Wong watched me over her teacup with dark, brown eyes surrounded by copious wrinkles. She hadn’t answered my question so I pressed her again.

“You never answered my question. How is it that you are here?”

Madame Wong put her cup down and squinted her dark eyes at me.

“You know nothing? Hindergog said that I had my work cut out for me.” She wrapped her knobby fingers around her warm teacup and sipped again.

I knew she could pull and do me in before I could even scream. But I’d lost my patience. I couldn’t get a straight answer about anything from anybody and I’d had enough.

“Look, I don’t know anything. A few days ago I was worried about flunking math and dealing with the wrath of Muriel the Mean. Today I’m sitting in another dimension sipping tea with a woman that should have been dead over a thousand years ago. You’re supposed to be the teacher, so teach me at least this one thing. How can you be here?”