In the children's book 七色花, the girl 珍妮 (Jenny) instructs the magic flower as follows:
吩咐吧,叫我马上到北极!
Fēnfù ba, jiào wǒ mǎshàng dào běijí!
Command it, call me to the North Pole right away! [Google Translate]
(See DouBan for text.)
From context, the girl is asking the magic flower to teleport her to the North Pole. However, I'm perplexed as to why 叫 (jiào; "call", "cry") is used here. Google Translate also seems perplexed. I have never seen it used in this way before.
Question: Why is 叫 ("call") in 叫我马上到北极?
Searching for 叫 到
at YouDao gives sentences like
- 你最好叫他们到这儿来 ("you'd better ask them round here"), and
- 他把我叫到他的办公室 ("he called me into his room")
so it looks like 叫 has a meaning I'm not aware of, something between "instruct" and "invite", comparable to "called for dinner". But it seems strange for the girl to "call" herself to the North Pole.