The book Pobby and Dingan is all about love and dreams. From my perspective, the quote saying "The secret of an opal's color lies not in its substance but in its absences" means something which is missing is more important than something that is already shown in front of our eyes.
The main character Ashmol Williamson is a boy living in Lightning Ridge in Australia. The Williamson family is struggling with opals all day long. Everyone in this family has their own problems. In the book, Dad is considered as a "ratter" by others in the town because of the accusation of Old Sid, who claims that Dad is stealing his opals in his claim; Mom is homesick and feels less hope and also angry about finding opals, and she also winders she might did a wrong decision for coming to Australia; Kellyanne is sick and is dying because of unknown reasons. As the only one who has no problems in the family, Ashmol has to do something to change the situation of his family. He tries to get into his Dad's claim at night in order to help Kellyanne to find her imaginary friends. Instead of finding their corpses, he finds a beautiful opal under the rocks. He decides to sell the opal for a funeral for Pobby and Dingan, although at first he wants to sell it for a holiday for his mom. He does so because he knows what is more important than money and those practical things.
For Mr. Dan, the opal means money because of its beautiful colors; for Kellyanne, it means the corpses of Pobby and Dingan; for mom, maybe it values a holiday back to England; for Ashmol himself, the opal he found means hope. He thinks the opal is the only way to save his dying sister. After a series of changes happened to their family, Ashmal thinks he can only get his family out of such undurable situation by making Kellyanne feels better. Ashmol invites everyone in the town to attend the funeral holding for Pobby and Dingan, and the successful funeral makes everyone in the Williamson family feels better. The relationship between them has been warmed up again. Although there is a sad ending for Kellyanne, the rest of her life is covered by warmth from her family and even the whole town.
Pobby and Dingan are invisible, but they are real. Because "perception creates reality", and Kellyanne perceives them, then they do exist in the world. The "absences" are actually the previous warmth in Ashmol's family. He finds it through the funeral and thus his family gets better again. Only when people feel warmth can they have hope and dream. So the Williamson family is able to dreaming about their future again. It's the "absence" which makes the whole family look wonderful and as shiny as the mysterious opal.
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