Emma and the Minotaur (6 page)

The store was busy with shoppers. Emma and Jake walked through the produce department, past the bakery, and to the other end of it, where the deli was located.

“That’s my mom,” Jake said and pointed to a woman behind the glass counter. She was working in front of a meat slicer, using it to cut through a chunk of meat.

Emma watched as Jake’s mom took the slices and weighed them on a scale before she wrapped them up, put a sticker on them, and gave them to a woman on the other side of the counter. She then pressed a button and the digital display on the wall above the counter changed. The number on it was two hundred and twenty-six and it went up to two hundred and twenty-seven. One of the customers who milled about stepped to the counter and gave her a slip of paper as well as his order.

“I guess we’ll have to take a number,” Emma said and went to the side where a ticket dispenser stood. There was a paper tab sticking out and she took it. On it was the number two hundred and thirty-four.

While they waited, Emma watched Jake’s mother work away. The area behind the counter was a constant flurry of activity as the Agostino’s employees dashed here and there to slice the meats and cheeses that the customers asked for. Jake’s mom was so busy that she didn’t notice the two of them standing around next to a canned olive display.

It took almost five minutes for Emma’s number to come up. When the digital display changed to two hundred and thirty-four, she went up to the counter.

“Two-three-four!” Jake’s mom called out. “Two-three-four!”

“Down here!” Emma said and raised the hand holding the ticket.

Jake’s mom leaned over the counter and looked down at Emma’s beaming face.

“Hello down there,” she said. “What would you like?”

Jake walked up to the counter. “Hey, Mom,” he said. “This is the girl I told you about.”

“Emma!” she said.

“Hello, Mrs Milligan,” Emma said.

“Call me Vicky,” she said and smiled. She turned to one of her co-workers and told her that she was going to take her break. Mrs Milligan took off her hairnet and apron and put them on a chair. She came around the counter and then walked with the children to the front of store. In front of check-out lane number ten, there was a hallway that led to a lunch room. She took them in there and sat with them at a lunch table.

“So what’s up?” Mrs Milligan said. “It’s nice to meet you, Emma. Thank you for the backpack. I can’t believe you did that. I told Jake he shouldn’t have accepted it but the boy has no shame, really. Don’t worry, we’ll pay you back for it. Actually, since you’re here now I can get you the money right this minute if you’ll just wait in here.”

“Oh, no,” Emma said. “Please, don’t worry about it. It’s not a problem, Mrs Milligan.”

“Vicky,” she said. “Call me Vicky. But really, you must let me pay you back. We do appreciate it, of course.”

“Okay, maybe another time, Mrs Vicky,” Emma said. “Thank you. We’re here to ask you something though. Can Jake come over this weekend for dinner?”

“Sure he can,” she said. “You didn’t need to come all the way out here to ask me that, but I appreciate the visit. Come over to see me whenever you want, Emma. One of these days you’ll have to come over to our place too. We’ll be happy to have you.”

“Thank you, Mrs Milligan.”

“Vicky, Emma. Call me Vicky. What a nice, polite girl you are. I’m glad Jake finally made such a nice friend. He didn’t keep the best company back home. They were a bunch of trouble-makers, really. I was afraid they’d have a bad influence on him.”

“Mom!” Jake protested.

“Sorry, kid,” she said. “But it’s true.”

“They were my friends,” he said.

“Well,” she said. “Now you have Emma here and I’m glad for it.”

Emma blushed. “Thank you, Mrs Milligan,” she said.

“Vicky,” Mrs Milligan said.

Saturday night came around and Emma was sitting on the window sill waiting for Jake to come over.

It was close to six o’clock when she saw the boy walk down the street and up the driveway. She waved at him and ran to the front door and opened it.

“Hey,” he said when he walked in. As soon as he had his shoes off, Emma grabbed him and dragged him to the dining table.

“Hello, Jake,” Mr Wilkins said.

“Hello, sir,” said the boy.

“Did your mother drop you off? I didn’t hear a car.”

“No, sir,” Jake said. “My mom is at work. I took the bus.”

“I would’ve picked you up if I had known.”

Emma and Jake sat down at the table. Mr Wilkins went to Will’s room to tell him that dinner was ready.

“Hey,” Jake said. “After dinner I want to go look in the forest.”

“I can’t,” Emma said. “I’m not allowed.”

“I know. But I can go alone. I just need you to tell me which way to go, that’s all.”

Emma shook her head. “It’s going to be almost dark after dinner.”

“Don’t worry,” he said.

Mr Wilkins came back with Will. The older boy sat down at the table and waved hello to Jake. Emma’s father brought a lasagna from the kitchen and gave them each a portion to go along with steamed vegetables.

“What does your mother do, Jake?” Mr Wilkins said when they were all digging into their dinners.

“She works at grocery store,” Emma said.

“Let Jake answer, Emma,” he said. “Which store, Jake?”

“Agostino’s, sir.”

Dinner went on in that manner, with Mr Wilkins alternating between asking Jake questions and hushing Emma whenever she tried to speak for him. For Emma, it was a good time.

After dinner, Will went back to his room and Mr Wilkins locked himself in his office for violin practice. It was Emma’s turn to clear the table and Jake helped her. They talked as they carried plates and pots and utensils to the sink and put left over scraps of food into the compost bin, but the screeching from the violin kept interrupting. Nevertheless, they managed some semblance of a conversation that eventually got around to the subject of going into the forest.

“It’s going to be dark,” Emma said.

“I’ll take a flashlight. I’m not scared.”

“My dad is going to want to drive you home,” she said. “I don’t think he’ll let you take the bus.”

“But I like the bus,” he said. “What if I tell him I like to ride it?”

“Really? No one likes the bus,” she said. “Well, except me.”

“What if I just leave?”

“That wouldn’t be polite.”

Emma leaned against the kitchen counter and stared out the window. There was still a little bit of daylight out but night was quickly approaching. Though she was sure that the thing she had seen in the forest the other night had only been in her imagination, the thought of Jake walking around alone in the dark still scared her. Two people now had disappeared into the forest and she didn’t want Jake to join them.

“I’ll go with you,” she said. “But tomorrow. Can you come back tomorrow? Why don’t you sleep over? Then we’ll go to the forest in the morning.”

“Really?” Jake said. Emma nodded.

“I’ll call my mom,” he said. “Thanks, Emma!”

Jake woke up in the middle of the night. He was disoriented at first, and he was a little frightened because he didn’t know where he was.

He was lying on a couch and there was a thin blanket on top of him. He pulled the blanket off and stood up. His evaporating sweat cooled him off. A clock that ticked on the wall showed that it was a little past midnight. It took him a moment to remember that he was in the Wilkinses’ living room.

He spotted the kitchen on the other side of a counter and he walked there and poured himself a glass of water. The kitchen window was open and Jake could hear the night noises that drifted in from the darkness.

He drank his water and put his glass down but, as he was turning to go back to the couch, he heard hushed voices speaking outside. The first voice belonged to William Wilkins. The other voice was deeper and strangely musical.

“Does it have to be her?” Mr Wilkins said.

“You know it does,” said the other voice.

“She’s only eleven.”

“I know,” said the voice. “It’s early but he is moving already.”

From where Jake was standing he couldn’t see either of the speakers. He stood on his toes and tried to look out the window but they were just out of his field of vision.

“I was hoping it wouldn’t happen,” Mr Wilkins said. “I was hoping to be long dead by the time he returned.”

“I understand.”

Jake climbed up on the kitchen counter to get a better look. He could see that there was a veranda just outside and Mr Wilkins was standing at the edge of it, leaning on the railing. Beyond the veranda, to his right, there stood a tree. Under the tree there was a strange figure cloaked in shadow.

“I want you to leave her alone. Don’t get her involved in this. Don’t go near her.”

The shadow shifted. “You know that I won’t. She has to come willingly but when she does, I will help her.”

“Then I’ll make sure she doesn’t come,” Mr Wilkins said.

“I think you’ll find that there is nothing you can do about it, William,” said the shadow. “Just like before.”

The shadow shifted, there was a rustle of leaves, and then it simply wasn’t there anymore. With a frown, Jake got down from the counter as quietly as he could. He went back to the couch, lied down, and pretended to be asleep. He heard the back door open, and then heard Mr Wilkins’ footfalls as he moved through the house.

Jake stayed up a long time, unable to forget the shape of the shadow under the tree. It had looked like a man with horns.

5

The Forbidden Forest

Sunday morning came and Emma rose early. She thought that Jake would be eager to get going and she was excited to return to Glenridge Forest. There was a lingering hope that the singing tree had been real.

When Emma went to the living room, she saw that Jake was still sound asleep. He was sprawled on the couch with his arms pointing out at odd angles. She shook the boy awake and he opened his eyes and blinked in the sunlight.

“Hey, Emma,” he said groggily. “Am I at your house?”

“Yeah, come on,” she said. “We have to leave before my dad wakes up.”

Jake nodded. He stood up, still in his clothing from the day before. He went to the kitchen and drank a glass of water before they both left quietly out the front door.

On the way to the forest, Jake told Emma what he had overheard the night before.

“They were talking about me?”

“Of course,” Jake said. “You’re eleven, right? Who else could it be?”

“But who could he have been talking to?”

“I have no idea. I didn’t get a good look at him.”

Emma frowned. A Blue Jay was watching her from a branch on the side of the road.

“Are you sure?” she said. “Maybe you were dreaming.”

“I’m pretty sure,” he said. “Didn’t seem like a dream. Hey, don’t tell your dad about it, okay? I don’t want him to think I was eavesdropping.”

“You were eavesdropping,” she said.

“Well, yeah, but I don’t want him to think it.”

They arrived at the edge of the forest and Emma paused in front of it. She took a deep breath and then stepped forward.

“I’m officially breaking the rules now,” she said.

“It’s for a good cause.”

That early in the morning, the forest was welcoming. Birds sang their hellos. Soft rays of sunlight brushed the moist leaves on the trees and on the ground.

They walked on without aim for a little while.

“Do you play here a lot?” Jake said.

“Yeah,” Emma said. “Me and Will used to come here all the time. More in the summer when there’s no school.”

“What can you play in a forest?”

“Lots of stuff. Hide and seek.”

A squirrel scurried in front of them and stopped for a moment to stare at Emma before it ran off into a bush.

“What’s going on today?” Emma said.

“What do you mean?”

“That squirrel was staring at me. And there was a bird doing it back there too.”

“You’re so weird,” he said. “Which way do we go now? Do you want to ask one of your friends?”

“Maybe if we see an owl,” she said.

She took the lead and tried to recall the way they had gone when she had found the singing tree. As she picked her way through the forest, Emma hoped that she would be able to hear the music of the tree again and that it would show her the way.

It was almost half an hour later when Emma saw movement through the trees. Someone was coming.

“Hey! What are you kids doing here?”

A man in uniform ran up to them. There was a German Shepherd with him and it sat down and stared at Emma.

“What are you doing in the forest?” the man demanded. “Don’t you know it’s dangerous? Where are your parents?”