by Jon Herrera
beginning when she had only been able to say one word.
“Don’t be sad, Miss Emma,” said Jingles. “There is hope.”
Emma was about to meditate again so she could respond but Will called her from the house.
“Emma! Dad says to come see this!” he said and ran back inside. Emma and the jackalope followed.
They went into her father’s office where he was watching something on his computer.
“Come look,” he said and moved aside to let them see. There was a video on the screen from the local news. Mr Wilkins clicked a button and the video filled the screen.
“For this reason I called an emergency meeting this morning,” the man on the screen was saying. Underneath him a caption identified him as Mayor Phillip Matthews. Emma had never seen him before. Beneath his name, written in big letters, were the words: “State of Emergency.”
“Last night,” the mayor went on, “the City of Saint Martin suffered an unexplained and horrible tragedy. Emergency lines were overloaded and this has continued throughout the day. We ask that you refrain from calling about missing persons. Instructions about what to do will be given shortly.
“There have been reports of strange occurrences and disappearances everywhere throughout the city. There are, early counts show, hundreds of residents missing. The nexus of this activity appears to be Glenridge Forest.
“It is due to these conditions that I am now declaring a State of Emergency. Citizens are advised to stay home. Schools and public areas will be closed while we deal with this crisis.
“Please do not panic. You will be safe as long as you remain indoors. As we speak, there is a plan being put into motion to find the missing persons and to get to the bottom of this.”
The mayor went on to instruct those who knew of anyone missing to fill out a form at a page on the city’s website that had been set up specifically for this emergency.
When he was finished, he introduced the Chief of Police Doug Peterson. He moved off the screen as the new speaker took his place.
“What can they do?” Will said.
As if in response, Doug Peterson outlined a plan for a search of Glenridge Forest.
“We have put together a massive search party comprised of police, firefighters, army, and civilians. They are all armed and they are gathering at the Paigely construction site as we speak.”
“What do you think will happen, Dad?” Emma said.
“I don’t know,” he said. “We are close to the end, it seems. Emma, call Lucy and Jake then we’ll get in the car and pick them up. His mother too. We’ll be safer together. At least here we’ll have Domino to help us, if he will.”
“Won’t he help?” Emma said.
“I don’t know,” Mr Wilkins said. “He might have his own troubles. Soon we all will. Maybe we’ll have to leave town, though that would only delay the inevitable. Still, it would buy us time.”
He shook his head and sighed.
“But at some point we’ll probably find ourselves under siege,” he said. “That’s inevitable now, I think. This town will be overrun, starting with that search party, and then the next and the next. Then maybe the world.”
13 The Lost
The streets of Saint Martin were nearly abandoned.
Emma and her family were in the car on their way to pick up Jake. Will was riding in the front passenger’s seat while Emma was sitting in the back with Jingles.
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 wanted to thank them for taking care of Jake. 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 the forest 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 who were 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 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.”
“Cool,” Lucy said.
Doug Peterson finished his speech and the crowd started to disperse.
“What’s happening now?” Jake said.
“We’re moving into the forest,” said Professor Thornton. “Well, the rest of us are. But what are the two of you doing here?”
“We’re coming with you,” Jake said. “We have information.”
“Oh, you do? Well, we must speak to Chief Peterson immediately.”
He led them through the crowd until they reached the security office.
“Doug,” said Professor Thornton. “I found these kids here. They say they want to come help search and that they have some information.”
Lucy knew that the tone that Professor Thornton was using meant that he didn’t take them seriously. She rolled her eyes.
“Well,” Chief Peterson said. “What is this information?” He looked at Jake. The boy stood up straighter. It seemed that he was impressed by the uniform.
“It’s about the monsters in the forest,” Jake said. “There is a minotaur and he’s taking people and he’s got my dad and her mom and dad too.”
The two men exchanged glances.
“You two are both missing your parents? Who’s looking after you?”
“My mom is working,” Jake said. “And no one is looking after Lucy.”
“Okay, Jake,” Lucy said. “I think we should go. This was a bad idea.”
“But Lucy,” said the boy, “someone is finally listening and doing something.”
“Indeed we are, my boy,” said Doug Peterson. “Please, step here into my office and you can give us more details.”
He opened the door to the portable office and waved them in. Jake didn’t hesitate. Lucy rolled her eyes again but followed after the boy. She couldn’t leave him alone now.
As soon as she was inside, Chief of Police Doug Peterson slammed the door closed and Lucy heard it being locked. She looked at the door and saw that the lock could only be operated using a key.
“These things are used to detain people,” Doug Peterson said through the door. “They roll them out at demonstrations and the like. Nothing permanent, just until they can be taken away. It should hold you kids in there for a bit. Hang tight. Someone will be here soon to pick you up.”
They heard the two men walk away.
“It’s for the best,” Professor Thornton said. “We can’t have them following us into the forest…”
Their voices faded away.
“Well,” Lucy said, turning to Jake. “So much for that.”
She frowned. Jake was laughing.
“What?” she said.
“Look up there, Lucy. The windows.”
It took her a moment to think it through