response, the leaves of the trees began to change colour, signalling the beginning of autumn.
By marking the forest with ribbons, as well as marking their progress on her map, Emma could keep track of where they had already been, and it would prevent them from becoming disoriented and searching places that they had already searched.
It worked well in the beginning, Emma found, but as they moved farther north, mysterious cracks began to appear in the system. There were, with increasing frequency, times when a mark on the map did not match a ribbon on a tree as though someone had gone around and rearranged some of them. Will questioned Emma’s ability to keep track of the endeavour but she checked and double-checked her map every night. Nevertheless, she let Will take charge of it for a couple of days and they found that the same inconsistencies continued to creep up.
At one point, Jake objected that maybe their map was out of date and Emma was forced to admit that it could be a possibility. She thought that she had been careful in her selection of it but just to make sure that they had current data she made another trip to the university’s Map Library and found the original map again. The date on the binder was from the previous year.
In two weeks, they ran out of ribbons and Emma had to find additional clothing from which to cut more. She was forced to go into the basement where they kept their storage boxes. These were stacked or strewn about and covered in dust. She stumbled across Christmas ornaments and winter clothing but she thought that she had better not cut into any of these or her father would be upset when winter time came around.
She found something that she could use in one of the boxes farthest back. There were dresses and skirts in it but they were much too big for Emma. They looked as though they belonged to a grown woman. They helped Emma replenish her ribbon supply and she was able to continue to decorate the forest in that manner.
Emma made sure to always be the one to wrap the ribbons. The boys were too careless and could never tie a nice bow. She, on the other hand, made sure the ribbons looked good, as though they really were for decoration.
Despite all their care, the troubling paradoxes continued to arise and Emma became increasingly frustrated with their difficulties. She considered asking her father for advice but she couldn’t think of a roundabout way of doing it that wouldn’t reveal the entire enterprise to him.
It was at the peak of Emma’s frustration when everything came unravelled.
6 Strike Three
It was Tuesday morning and the sky was angry.
Emma woke up in a gray mood. She could tell immediately upon waking that it was a cloudy day. With heavy feet, she got out of bed and prepared for the day ahead.
Everything started to go wrong when Jake wasn’t on his bus. Emma waited for him by the school’s main entrance. Jake’s bus came and all the children inside filed out. There was no sign of the boy.
Emma stood there for a few moments, not sure about what, if anything, she should do. She imagined that Jake wouldn’t just disappear again without letting her know. There was probably a reasonable explanation why he wasn’t there but, in the back of Emma’s mind, something of a small panic began to grow. It was the fear that whatever had happened to Mr Milligan had now happened to Jake.
When she finally went to her classroom, Miss Robins saw her walk in and took a pointed glance at her watch. Emma looked down at the floor and made her way to her desk.
The day’s math lesson was about reflections, translations, and rotations of different shapes. Emma knew all about it already but she tried her best to pay close attention and not to think about the empty chair near the door.
When it was time for recess, Emma stopped by the teacher’s desk to ask about Jake. If there was a reason for his absence then his mother might have called the school. Miss Robins told her that she hadn’t heard anything about the boy.
Emma went outside. The sky appeared as though it had every intention of pouring buckets of rain down on the school. She sat on her usual spot on the swing and wrapped one arm around its steel chain and leaned against it, hugging herself against the wind. She'd forgotten to bring a jacket.
Emma’s feet didn’t reach the ground so she swung them in the air in little circles as she glanced around at the drab morning. The chill wind and the darkening sky seemed to have absorbed the joy out of the playground. To Emma, it appeared as though everyone was moving more slowly than usual and without aim, like wandering ghosts lost in a graveyard. She was filled with an impulse to leave and race home or to the university to find her father.
She was in the same sullen mood when she found herself alone at Wizard Falls during lunch time. Emma had hoped that she would find Jake waiting there for her as she came up over the hill, that he had just slept in and missed the bus in the morning, but when she’d arrived at their secret hiding place, it had been empty. Now she sat alone on the big rock with her lunch lying untouched beside her. She had a strange feeling that she was waiting for something but she didn’t know what that something was.
The wind picked up and howled through the trees. Along with the drip-drip-drip of the waterfall, it was like a lonely symphony just for Emma. She regretted again having forgotten her jacket and wrapped her arms around herself, watching the tops of the trees sway with the wind in front of the black rolling clouds.
The sudden boom of thunder made Emma jump. She glanced around into the woods until she realized what the sound had been. A moment or two after her heart settled back down, the first few drops of cold rain sputtered into the creek nearby. Emma looked up to the sky and felt a giant raindrop land on her cheek. The drop was followed by a downpour.
Emma grabbed her lunch bag and jumped off the rock. She ran up the hill and slipped when she was coming down the other side. Her lunch flew away and she watched it slide down into the creek. Emma stopped her own slide by grabbing onto a root that was sticking out of the ground.
She slipped again at the bottom of the hill on the mud by the water’s edge and, by the time she crossed over the creek, she was soaked through and covered in mud.
She made it back to school without rushing, figuring that she was already as miserable as she could be. She shrugged as she saw that the rain had washed off most of the mud. The only problem now was that she was soaking wet. She would have to explain what she had been doing outside.
“Maybe I’ll just go home,” she said to herself but Miss Robins was likely to have a fit if she disappeared again. She would probably call her father about it, or even the police.
Emma entered the school through one of the side entrances. She was looking down at the water that dripped off her clothes and onto the school’s floor so she didn’t notice the man that stood off to the side as she passed by him.
“Emma Wilkins,” said the man.
She stopped on her tracks and turned in place to face him. It was Mr Clarence, the school principal.
“Hello, Mr Clarence,” she said.
“You’re all wet, Emma. Whatever were you doing outside?”
“I don’t know, Mr Clarence,” she said.
The principal gave her a peculiar look and began to walk.
“Come with me, young lady,” he said.
“Yes, Mr Clarence,” Emma said dejectedly.
She followed him down the hallway that led to the part of the school where the teacher’s lounge and the principal’s office were situated.
“You’re in real trouble now, Emma,” she said softly to herself.
“Did you say something?” asked Mr Clarence.
“No, sir,” said Emma.
Inside his office, the principal told Emma to wait a moment and left the room. He came back with a heavy towel and handed it to her before he sat down behind his desk. He opened a binder and wrote some things in it while Emma did her best to dry off.
“Sit down,” he said when she’d finished. Emma put the towel down on one of the chairs in front of the desk and sat on it.
“How are things, Emma?” he asked.
?
??Fine.”
“So you don’t know why you were outside?”
“No, sir.”
The principal tapped his pen on his desk. Emma couldn’t help but fidget as she waited to hear how much trouble she was in.
“You’ve been playing with Jake Milligan, haven’t you?” he said. “Do you know about his recent misfortunes?”
Emma looked up, half hopeful and half fearful. “Yes, sir,” she said. “I know his dad went missing. Do you know where he is today, Mr Clarence? Jake, I mean.”
He frowned and took a clipboard from the corner of his desk. After flipping over a few pages he found what he was looking for. “Milligan, Jake,” he said, “absent.” He put the clipboard down and looked back at Emma. “No, I’m sorry, there was no reason given for his absence. Hopefully he will bring a note tomorrow.”
Emma nodded.
“Well, Emma,” Mr Clarence said. “The reason I brought you in here, aside from the fact that you were soaked, is that I wanted to let you know that if something is wrong, anything, my door is open to you.”
“Sir?”
“You’re a good student. I looked at your records. But this year hasn’t got off to a great start, has it?”
“No, sir.”
“Your grades are excellent but your behaviour has been upsetting Miss Robins.”
“Yes, sir.”
“In any case, don’t be afraid to come to me if you should need help with anything at all. That goes for Jake as well.”
“Yes, sir.”
He took