Emma and the Minotaur (18 page)

As they drove, Emma counted the cars that she saw on the street. There were no pedestrians.

“I still don’t understand anything, Dad,” she said. “Why did the tree sing to me if this was going to happen? Doesn’t it all seem like a waste?”

“I don’t know, Emma,” he said. “Maybe he had the best intentions but it didn’t work out. Maybe it was for some other reason.”

“Something seems very wrong, Dad,” she said. “Another thing I don’t understand is why did you only want me to learn to defend myself? Domino said only I could stop Minotaur for some reason so, I mean, what was your plan if I wasn’t supposed to do anything?”

Emma’s father did not say anything for a long time. They arrived at Jake’s driveway before he spoke.

“You know, my dear. I don’t know very much of anything. I know that it seems that adults know what they’re doing but we get confused as well and we make mistakes. Sometimes we do things for no good reason. Sometimes logic takes a backseat to feelings.”

He sighed like an old, tired man.

“I want to say,” he said. “I want to say that I’m very sorry.”

Emma knew, of course, that adults made lots of mistakes, but she didn’t think that this applied to her own father. He was the smartest person she knew.

William Wilkins smiled suddenly. He turned and looked at Emma.

“Maybe I traded the world for my little girl,” he said.

Emma couldn’t tell what was behind the smile. Perhaps it was regret.

When Jake came out of his house, Mr Wilkins inquired about his mother but he said that she was at work. Her workplace was still open despite the State of Emergency and she couldn’t get the day off but she thanked them for taking care of him. He also said that she planned to pick him up after work and take him to Toronto to be with his ailing grandfather and the rest of their family.

They drove on to Lucy’s house.

When the girl got into the car she was holding Sprinkles in her arms.

“I can’t leave him, right?” she said. “I have no idea how long I’ll be gone.”

“That’s good thinking, Lucy,” Mr Wilkins said.

Sprinkles didn’t seem happy about sitting on Lucy’s lap the entire ride back. The cat ignored Jingles and the jackalope didn’t pay him any mind either.

Halfway home, Sprinkles began a monologue about life aboard a moving prison. No one could understand, of course, except Jingles and Emma. She closed her eyes. In a moment, she was able speak to the cat.

“Shut up!” Emma said.

Jingles laughed his jackalope laughter and the cat did indeed shut up, but he glared at Emma for the remainder of the trip.

When they arrived back home, Mr Wilkins turned on the radio and they sat around in the living room to listen for news. He fixed some iced tea for everyone and offered to make snacks but no one felt like eating.

“I wish there was something I could do,” Emma said.

“Like what?” Lucy said.

“I don’t know. I’ve been learning these things for a reason, I think. I’m getting better. I think I’ve almost got it so I think I should go practise. Maybe I’ll try calling for Domino. See if he will tell us what to do.”

“Maybe that’s a good idea,” Mr Wilkins said.

Emma went outside with Mr Jingles. She sat down on the grass to practise her meditation. The jackalope was happy to assist her.

“We’ll warm up with a little conversation,” Emma said and closed her eyes.

“Hello, Mr Jingles,” she said.

“Hello, Miss Emma!” said the jackalope.

A moment passed while she emptied her mind again.

“How are you?”

“Fine, Miss Emma. And you?”

A pause.

“I’m okay, Mr Jingles. A little sad.”

“Why?”

Another pause.

“Well,” Emma said, “I think I’m pretty useless.”

And so they went on conversing in that manner. Mr Jingles did his best to comfort the girl but she couldn’t get rid of her feelings of confusion and helplessness.

After a while, she went inside and got her flute. When she passed the living room, she saw that Lucy was reading one of her books while Jake and Will were talking to each other. Her father was sitting there drinking iced tea and listening to the news.

She went back outside and sat down again with Jingles. She tried to use the flute to send her voice to the forest, to Domino.

“Music is light,” Emma said, recalling the faun’s words. “Light is music.”

“So you don’t think it’s going to go back to normal?” Jake said.

“It can’t, can it?” Will said. “How could it?”

Lucy looked up from the book and watched them as they spoke. She had many questions herself and she hadn’t been able to pay attention to the book that she was trying to read. She was looking at the words but they weren’t being absorbed at all. She had no idea what was going to happen from then on or if she would ever see her parents again.

“So what actually will happen?” Jake said, as if reading her mind.

“Well,” Will said. “Dad says that there is a guy called the Lord of Light and he’s going to come and take over the world.”

“But what happens to us? And to my dad?” Jake said.

“I don’t know if anyone knows,” Will said. “Maybe he’ll give back the prisoners.”

“The ones that survive,” Mr Wilkins said suddenly. He looked at the children as if he hadn’t realized that they had been there. He shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he said and then went back to listening to the radio. He seemed as though he was far away.

“I want to see what Emma’s doing,” Jake said. He stood up and went to the back of the house. Will and Lucy followed. They walked onto the veranda and saw that Emma was sitting on the grass holding her flute in her lap. The instrument was aglow. Her eyes were closed.

“What is she doing?” Jake said.

“I’m not sure,” Will said. “She sits there sometimes and that’s how she practises talking to animals.”

“Emma!” Jake called out but she didn’t respond. They watched her in silence for a few minutes. The jackalope eventually nestled himself in her lap and closed his eyes.

“I wish we could do something,” Jake said.

“Well,” Lucy said, “they’re searching the forest today, right? Maybe they’ll find something, you know.”

“My dad thinks it’s going to go really bad,” Will said.

“Hey, you know,” Jake said. “Maybe we should go help them. We know all this stuff they don’t.”

“That’s crazy,” Will said. “My dad will never let us.”

Jake sat down where he was and looked at the ground. “I just feel so… bad, you know? There is so much going on and we’re just kids. I wish I had my dad back. I just want him back, that’s all.”

Lucy looked down at the boy. She knew what he was going through, having lost her parents herself, and she wasn’t sure that Emma or Will understood. Maybe she and Jake were the only ones in the group who had that same emptiness all the time. The feelings of hurt and abandonment. She sat on the ground next to the boy and put her arm around him.

“I’m really sorry, Jake,” Will said.

“Yeah, Jake,” Lucy said. “Everything will turn out okay.”

“Everyone always says that,” said the boy.

“Listen,” Will said. “My dad will figure something out, don’t worry, okay?”

Jake stood up. “Really?” he said. “It looks to me like he’s given up.” There were tears in his eyes. “And Emma’s just sitting there.” He went inside.

“Poor kid,” Lucy said and stood up.

“You too,” Will said. “You’re missing both your parents.”

“But I’m older. I don’t know if that means anything though.”

“I don’t know,” Will said. “I miss my mom as much as always.”

“I’m sorry, Will,” she said and realized that they all had their own losses and sorrows. She looked out toward Emma again and wondered what her loss was. The little girl did somehow seem different from all of them but Lucy couldn’t figure out how. She had liked her from the beginning and she believed in her.

Nevertheless, maybe there was something to what Jake had said. They did know more than the people who were searching did. It was possible that their information would be helpful if they could find a way to make anyone believe them.

Lucy realized that it was also true that Mr Wilkins would never allow them to go into the forest.

Emma lost track of time.

She had no idea how long she had been sitting there calling for Domino. When she opened her eyes, her vision was swimming. She was dizzy. Mr Jingles was fast asleep in her lap.

She looked to the sky and saw that the sun was well on its way to setting. It was probably close to dinner time and, soon, nightfall. She didn’t know what the night would bring.

Emma took Mr Jingles in her arms, careful not to wake him. The jackalope nestled himself into her and resumed his snoring. She walked to the door, almost stumbling once or twice, and entered a quiet, dark house. The radio was still on and it was playing light jazz music.

Mr Wilkins was nowhere to be seen but she found Will sleeping on the couch in the living room. He was leaning on the armrest as though he’d fallen asleep without intending to.

Emma checked her watch and it showed that it was almost six o’clock. She went to her father’s office and saw him sitting in front of his computer, clicking his mouse to refresh the news.

“Dad?” she said, but he didn’t seem to hear. She approached him and touched his shoulder and he trembled slightly, startled.

“Oh, hey,” he said and rubbed his eyes. “Lost track of time.”

“It’s almost six, Dad. Where are Jake and Lucy?”

“What? Aren’t they in the living room? I guess I should get about making dinner. Why don’t you go look for them?”

Emma went through all the rooms in the main floor and even checked the bathroom. She went downstairs into the basement and turned on the lights but there was nothing there but boxes, old furniture, and spiders.

When she came back upstairs she reported that they were nowhere to be found.

“Do you think they went home?” she said.

“I don’t think they would,” he said. “Maybe Will knows what happened.”

Emma put Mr Jingles down on the couch next to where Sprinkles was sleeping and then went to Will. She sat down beside him and shook him gently and whispered his name.

“Oh,” he said. “Hey. I fell asleep.”

“I know you did, silly,” Emma said. “Did you see where Lucy and Jake went? They’re not anywhere here.”

Will sat up straight, suddenly very awake.

“What? Are you sure?”

“I looked everywhere,” Emma said and she became very worried because of his reaction.

“They wouldn’t sneak out, would they?” Will said.

“I don’t know,” she said. “What do you think happened, Will?”

“Jake was talking about going to the forest,” Will said. “I think Lucy probably wanted to also.”

William Wilkins came over to them and sat down heavily with his two children. He looked out the window into the darkening sky for a long while before hugging them both to him.

“I’m so sorry,” he said. “But now we’ve lost them too.”

Emma felt like crying. Everything had gone so very wrong. She looked around her dark house and felt as though the shadows were closing in on them and the night was coming for them.

“No,” she said. “They can’t be lost, Dad.”

Mr Wilkins held her closer.

“Please no,” she said.

When Lucy and Jake arrived at the Paigely Builders construction site, they followed the sound of chatter until they came upon a throng of people gathered around the portable security office there. The crowd was separated roughly into three groups. Off to one side, there was a group of men from the army. At the front of the crowd, there were uniformed police officers. Behind them, arrayed in a loose fashion, there were people dressed in plain clothes. Everyone was armed.

They were all watching a tall, gray-haired man who was standing just outside the security office.

“…spread out but be sure to keep visual contact with the men on your flanks,” he was saying. There was a big map taped to the side of the portable office and he was pointing to it and drawing on it with a marker.

“Who’s that?” Jake said to Lucy.

She shrugged but a man from the back of the crowd turned to toward them. Lucy recognized him as the Wilkinses’ next door neighbour.

“He’s Doug Peterson,” he said. “Chief of Police.”

“Thank you,” Lucy said. “Mister…”

“Thornton,” he said. “I live next door to Professor Wilkins. I saw the both of you there a couple of days ago when the horse ran through the neighbourhood.”

“I remember,” Lucy said.

“Hang on a second, haven’t I seen you around the biology department?”

Lucy nodded. “Biology student. First year though, and I’m thinking of maybe switching to physics.”

He laughed. “Wilkins is getting to you, eh? Well, I teach biology at Saint Martin. You’ll certainly be in one of my classes in your upper years if you stick with the program.”