Emma and the Minotaur, Page 2

running shoes out. He sat on the bench next to the closet and put them on. As he tied his shoelaces, he said, “Okay, go get your brother. He can help keep an eye on you.”

  “Okay!” Emma said and ran to fetch Will.

  Down at one end of Belle Street was Lockhart Road. It was a small road that ran alongside the edge of the forest, segregating it from Emma’s neighbourhood. Toward the west, the road led to The Hill, and toward the east, it terminated at the main entrance of the Paigely Builders construction site. Glenridge Forest straddled it from the north.

  It was at this intersection that Emma and her family gathered with half a dozen of their neighbours and a few strangers. Bill stood in front of the crowd with the other man who had been knocking on doors with him.

  “Last time we saw Andrew Milligan, it was at the construction site,” Bill said. “We think he’s in the forest because his car was still parked there next morning and he mentioned earlier that he’d heard something out there. I think he probably went to check it out.”

  “What did he hear?” someone said. Emma couldn’t see who it was but he sounded familiar. She made her way to the front of the crowd and saw that it was their next door neighbour, Mr Arnold Thornton. He was a biology professor and he worked at the University of Saint Martin like her father did.

  “He said he heard music in the forest,” Bill said. “I know, it sounds ridiculous so we didn’t pay it any mind. But it’s possible he went looking for it.”

  “So you think he just got lost?” Mr Thornton said.

  “I hope so,” said Bill’s companion. He was younger than Bill and he looked very worried. After he spoke, he patted his pockets down looking for something but he didn’t seem to find it.

  “Hello,” Emma said to him. “What is your name?”

  The man blinked down at her. “I’m Joel,” he said. “What’s yours?”

  “Emma.”

  She offered her hand and Joel shook it.

  Bill drew their attention again and explained his plan. They were going to spread out into the forest in pairs and circle back after two hours.

  “I know that four hours is a long time to take away from your Sunday, folks,” he said, “and I apologize but Andrew is a decent guy and his wife and son miss him very much. They moved to Saint Martin recently and they were only just getting settled in.”

  Emma’s father spoke up from the back of the group. “Don’t forget to call out his name from time to time,” he said. “Maybe he’s stuck or injured somewhere.”

  The assembly dispersed and they entered Glenridge Forest.

  Emma took the lead and walked on a few steps ahead of Will and her father. She took glances left and right as she went and saw the other searchers moving through the trees. The rustling of their footsteps on the forest floor mingled with the chirping of the birds in the trees. As time wore on, she saw the other groups move farther and farther away from her own until they were completely out of sight, though the calls of “Andrew!” continued to make their way to her for a while longer.

  Emma decided to take charge of her group’s yelling duties.

  “Andrew!” she called out as loudly as she could. She turned and waited for her family to catch up.

  “Come on, Will,” she said. “If you yell too then we’ll be twice as loud.”

  “It’s okay,” Mr Wilkins said. “One yeller is enough.”

  “Maybe just once?” Will said.

  Mr Wilkins adjusted his glasses as he considered it. “Okay,” he said. “Just once if it’ll get it out of your systems.”

  “Count down for us, Dad?” Emma said.

  “Ready? Three, two, one, now!”

  Together, Emma and Will screamed the missing man’s name.

  Mr Wilkins covered his ears and grimaced.

  They kept going for another hour, with Emma walking in front and doing the shouting, but there was no sign of Andrew Milligan or anyone else. Somewhere along the way they had reached a part of the forest that was unfamiliar to Emma. She thought that if she had been there alone she would have become lost. Even the type of chirping in this area sounded different from what she was used to. She looked up into the trees to see if she could spot one of the birds but she only saw the movement of the leaves in the wind.

  “I like that,” she said.

  “What’s that?” Will said as he came up beside her.

  “The leaves in the wind.”

  Will joined her and looked up. After a moment he shook his head. “I don’t—”

  “Hold on!” Emma said.

  “What?”

  “Don’t you hear that?”

  Mr Wilkins caught up with them and stopped to listen. “It’s just the wind in the trees,” he said.

  “No,” Emma said. “Don’t you hear music?”

  “I don’t hear anything,” he said. “How about you, Will?”

  Will shook his head. “Nothing. Just birds.”

  “Come on,” Emma said. “It’s over there!”

  Emma ran. Around trees and over branches and brambles she ran. The forest became a blur of green and brown. She tripped and tumbled forward but just managed to keep herself from falling. She giggled at the feeling that it gave her. She felt like she did when she went on a roller coaster and her heart became big and jumpy.

  A little more running brought her to a clearing. There was a big tree in the middle. It was tall and wide and looked like it was very old. There was a music playing and it sounded like the symphonies that her father listened to. Emma was certain that it was coming from the tree. She walked up to it and stretched out her hand to touch it. Just as she was about to make contact, she heard her father’s voice behind her. He sounded agitated.

  “Emma,” he said. “What do you think you’re doing running off like that?”

  Emma turned in time to see Will and Mr Wilkins emerge from the forest.

  “Sorry, dad,” she said. “But the music, it—” she paused to listen and realized that the music was no longer there. “It stopped.”

  Mr Wilkins pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “I’m telling you, Emma,” he said. “It’s just the wind in the trees.”

  “No,” she said. “It was coming from the tree.”

  Emma approached the oak once again and put her hand on it. “You were singing, weren’t you?” she whispered. “You were singing and you’re alive.”

  “Of course it’s alive,” Will said. “Learn some biology.”

  “Funny,” she said and pushed him as hard as she could but he barely moved. He grabbed her hands and turned her around and restrained her in a tight hug. Emma squirmed and punched and kicked at him.

  “Kids,” Mr Wilkins said. “Come on, we have to keep moving.”

  Will released her and she gave him another shove.

  From under the shadows of a thick coppice on the edge of the clearing, a horned creature watched the scene. Within the boundaries of the forest, the creature could remain unseen whenever he wanted to, and he had remained in hiding as he’d followed the man, the boy, and the girl.

  He had heard them call for the one named “Andrew,” the one who was lost, and he had followed them through the forest. It was out of idle interest at first but then the girl had heard the music.

  The creature had stood close behind her when the music had called to her in the clearing. He had almost reached out a hand to touch her, but then the others had come, and so the creature had gone back into hiding.

  And so he was watching and waiting. The girl was so young and so small and fragile.

  He watched the humans leave the clearing, completely unaware of him, and then he walked up to the ancient tree. He looked quizzically at the great oak for a moment.

  “So you are sure,” he said at last. “Emma is ready.”

  2 The Disappearing Boy

  Early into the new school year, Emma became obsessed with a boy who disappeared.

  It all began on the first day of school during morning recess. Emma was sitting on a swi
ng in the playground swinging her feet and reading the book that she had smuggled out of class. She was keeping half an eye on a few boys who were bouncing a tennis ball off the side of the building. She was wary of them because she had been the victim of a stray ball or two before.

  It was during one of her glances up from the book that she noticed the disappearing boy quite by accident. He was a plain-looking boy and he was walking around the playground with his hands in his pockets. There was something about him that made Emma believe she had seen him somewhere. His face looked familiar but she couldn’t remember if she had ever met the boy.

  She watched him for the remainder of recess and noticed that he was avoiding the other kids. Whenever someone looked at him, he would look down at the ground and walk away.

  Emma decided that she would try to become his friend.

  The bell signalling the end of recess went off and the teachers who were in charge of supervising the playground herded the children back inside. Emma tried to keep an eye on the boy as she walked toward the school doors but she lost him in the crowd. She stopped to look around for him but then she saw Will approach from the other side of the school, where the basketball courts were located.

  “Hey, what are you doing?” he said.

  “Nothing,” Emma said, still looking through the crowd.

  “You better get to class, Emma. Don’t want to get in trouble on your first day.”

  They entered the school together but Will went straight down the hall to his classroom on the first floor. Emma’s class was on the second floor. She went to the stairs but stood at the bottom and watched as the remaining children walked or ran past her on their