Emma and the Minotaur

by Jon Herrera

of the jackalopes was hopping alongside.

  “Well, hello there,” Emma said, but realized that the jackalope probably didn’t understand her. She stopped where she was and wondered what she should do. “Are you following me?”

  The jackalope stopped in front of her and sat on its hind legs. “Hello, Miss Emma,” it said happily. “Home. Let’s go home.”

  Emma frowned. She pointed back toward the forest but the jackalope shook its tiny head. “No. Home!”

  “You want to come to my house? I don’t know what Dad will say but at least you can help me practise, I suppose. Okay, come along.”

  She resumed walking and the jackalope hopped along all the way to her house. They went inside and found Will and Mr Wilkins sitting at the dinner table.

  “There you are,” said her father. “Who’s your friend?”

  “Are those antlers?” Will said.

  “Yep,” Emma said. “This is a jackalope. But I don’t know its name or if it’s a boy or girl.”

  Will stood up and then walked over to pet the animal. “This is unbelievable,” he said. “You didn’t glue these on, did you?”

  “No, that would be silly.”

  “Okay, kids,” Mr Wilkins said. “Come and sit down. Is your friend over for dinner?”

  “I suppose,” Emma said. “But I don’t know what it eats.”

  She went to the refrigerator and waved to the jackalope. It obliged and hopped over to her. She searched around the vegetable drawer and brought out a few things.

  “Do you like Brussels sprouts? Broccoli? Kale?”

  Emma put some of these on a plate and placed it on the floor for the jackalope.

  “Thank you, Miss Emma,” it said and started to eat.

  Emma sat down at the table in front of an empty plate and served herself dinner.

  “This is all crazy, you know,” Will said.

  “I know,” Emma said.

  Over dinner, she told the two of them what had happened during the day.

  When the meal was over, she went down to the basement and searched through their Christmas boxes. She dug through one of them until she found a small Santa hat that had belonged to her when she was younger. It was a little big for her purposes but she was able to make adjustments to it using a needle and thread that she took from her yellow lunchbox.

  When she was done, she tried the hat on the jackalope. There was a little bell on the end of the hat that jingled whenever the jackalope moved around. The hat would serve to conceal its antlers if ever any strangers happened to see the animal.

  “I think you’re a boy,” Emma said. “And I don’t know your name so I’ll call you Mr Jingles for now. We’ll pretend you’re my pet rabbit when anyone’s around.”

  Emma spent the rest of the evening in her bedroom, practising the meditation that Domino had taught her, the trick of finding her inner light. She practised speaking to Mr Jingles, who was very enthusiastic about helping out. Her progress was slow but she could tell that she was getting better at it already. It was a great motivation that the jackalope became extremely happy whenever she was able to say a simple “hello.” Emma wondered if this had been the real purpose behind Domino inviting the jackalopes into the clearing.

  At some point in the night, both Emma and Mr Jingles became tired and she lied down and hugged the jackalope close to her chest. The creature nestled himself against her and closed his eyes.

  Emma smiled, and then they both slept.

  11 Dinner and a Unicorn

  Emma woke up early the next day and went down to the kitchen with Mr Jingles. She put out some vegetables for the jackalope to eat and a bowl of water for him to drink before she fixed breakfast for herself and her family. For Will and her father she made eggs and bacon, while for herself she made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

  The smell of food brought first her father and then her brother out of their rooms. They sat and ate breakfast while Mr Wilkins read the morning paper.

  “What’s the occasion?” he asked of Emma.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “Well, okay, I do. Dad, my principal, Mr Clarence, he said I shouldn’t go to school for a few days. That I should take some time off. I’m not sure what he was talking about but I think it’s probably a good idea with all that’s going on and I need to practise—”

  “Absolutely not,” he said. “How could you even consider that? Why would he suggest it? What kind of principal is this man? There is no way you are missing school, young lady.”

  Emma blushed. “But, Dad, it’s like the end of the world or something!”

  Will opened his mouth to say something but before he could speak, Mr Wilkins cut him off.

  “No, Will, you can’t skip school either. You’re both going even if the world is burning.”

  Will closed his mouth and then continued eating.

  “Well, this is curious,” Mr Wilkins said. “They are halting operations at the Paigely site. I wonder what caused it. Maybe they had more problems with disappearing workers.”

  “They won’t build anymore?” Will said.

  “Well, it’s temporary,” Mr Wilkins said. “Until they sort out ‘unforeseen complications,’ they say.”

  “It has to have to do with the minotaur,” Emma said. “I’ll ask Domino. He probably knows something.”

  “I’m sure he does,” Mr Wilkins said. “By the way, dear, though ‘the minotaur’ refers to any member of his species, this one is the proper ‘Minotaur.’ There are none quite like him.”

  “Dad, you seem to know a lot,” Emma said. “I think there are things you aren’t telling me.”

  “Maybe too many things,” he said.

  After breakfast, Emma took Jingles out into the backyard and tried to tell him that she had to go to school and that he couldn’t come. Because she wasn’t able to speak more than one word at a time to him, and because it took her a long time to even get into a state where she could say it, the entire process was laborious. She was able to get through to him eventually by pointing at herself and miming climbing into a bus and driving away. It seemed that Mr Jingles had been outside of the forest before and that he wanted nothing to do with motor vehicles. She assured him that she would be back by saying the word “return” and pointing around to the yard.

  When she arrived in her classroom later that morning, she saw that there was a substitute teacher sitting at Miss Robins’ desk. He was a thin, wiry man and he was wearing thin, wiry glasses.

  Emma spent the morning recess, as well as lunch time, with Jake. She told him everything she could about all that she was learning and all that Domino had told her. He was amazed and amused and couldn’t wait to meet the jackalope.

  During afternoon recess, Emma went down to the administrative area of the school. She was going to tell Mr Clarence that her father had forbidden her from staying home but his door was closed. She went to the main office to ask about him. The secretary was there and she was typing behind her counter.

  “Excuse me,” Emma said. “Could you tell when I could see Mr Clarence?”

  The woman stopped typing and looked down at Emma.

  “Who?” she said.

  “The principal,” Emma said. “Mr Clarence.”

  The secretary gave her a skeptical look. “Clarence? There’s never been a Mr Clarence here, little girl.”

  Emma’s eyes went wide with shock. Who had been the man that she had spoken to before? It was true that he had been very strange, but she hadn’t expected something like this.

  The woman behind the counter looked at her for a moment and then chuckled. “I’m just playing with you, little Miss Wilkins,” she said. “George— Uh, Mr Clarence, I mean, has gone away on a family emergency. Don’t you worry. He’ll be back before you know it.”

  “Oh,” Emma said. “Thank you, Missus.”

  “Call me Dory,” said the woman.

  “Okay, Mrs Dory,” said Emma.

  After school, Emma found the jackalope napping under the shade of
the tree in the backyard. She sat down beside him and he opened his eyes and jumped up when he saw her.

  Emma pointed toward the forest and the two of them set out to meet Domino. The jackalope didn’t say much but he seemed to be happy as he bounced on his way beside her.

  Halfway down the road, they came upon the little dog with the big ears that Emma had seen before. He was lying on the porch in front of his house but, when he saw the girl and the jackalope, he sauntered over to them and stood in their way.

  Jingles went ahead and said, “Good day to you, good sir.”

  The dog tilted his head at him. “Hi, Mister,” he said and got closer to the jackalope and sniffed him all over, walking right around him. When he was satisfied with his inspection, he licked Jingles’ antlers and then tried to chew on them in a bashful manner.

  “Mister, please don’t do that!” said the jackalope and the dog backed off.

  “Sorry,” he said. “Have you seen any squirrels? Or a cat maybe? There is a cat that comes from that house down yonder and lies under the car but I always chase him off.”

  “No,” Jingles said. “I haven’t seen any cats today.”

  “Okay, goodbye,” the dog said and walked back to his porch.

  Emma and Jingles resumed their walk toward the forest.

  “That’s funny,” Emma said.

  When they reached the clearing, Domino was not surprised to see that Jingles was accompanying Emma.

  “It appears that he has fallen in love with you,” he said.

  Domino made Emma show him the progress that she had made and he was impressed with it. They practised communicating using the music for a long while before he let her have a