like a dream. Hey, don’t tell your dad about it, okay? I don’t want him to think I was eavesdropping.”
“You were eavesdropping,” she said.
“Well, yeah, but I don’t want him to think it.”
They arrived at the edge of the forest and Emma paused in front of it. She took a deep breath and then stepped forward.
“I’m officially breaking the rules now,” she said.
“It’s for a good cause.”
That early in the morning, the forest was welcoming. Birds sang their hellos. Soft rays of sunlight brushed the moist leaves on the trees and on the ground.
They walked on without aim for a little while.
“Do you play here a lot?” Jake said.
“Yeah,” Emma said. “Me and Will used to come here all the time. More in the summer when there’s no school.”
“What can you play in a forest?”
“Lots of stuff. Hide and seek.”
A squirrel scurried in front of them and stopped for a moment to stare at Emma before running off into a bush.
“What’s going on today?” Emma said.
“What do you mean?”
“That squirrel was staring at me. And there was a bird doing it back there too.”
“You’re so weird,” he said. “Which way do we go now? Do you want to ask one of your friends?”
“Maybe if we see an owl,” she said.
She took the lead and tried to recall the way they had gone when she had found the singing tree. As she picked her way through the forest, Emma hoped that she would be able to hear the music of the tree again and that it would show her the way.
It was almost half an hour later when Emma saw movement through the trees. Someone was coming.
“Hey! What are you kids doing here?”
A man in uniform ran up to them. There was a German Shepherd with him and it sat down and stared at Emma.
“What are you doing in the forest?” the man demanded. “Don’t you know it’s dangerous? Where are your parents?”
“We’re just playing, sir,” Emma said. She peeked behind him and beyond the trees she could see a bulldozer and the beginnings of the Paigely Builders construction site. “But I think we got lost.”
“Do your parents know you’re here?”
“No, sir,” Emma said.
“You kids better come with me,” he said.
They were taken through the construction site, past the parked bulldozer and in between newly built houses and construction equipment. The entire time the German Shepherd walked along beside Emma.
They ended up at a portable office. There was a sign next to the door and it said “Security” on it. When they entered, the German Shepherd sat down in front of the door, just inside, and from there he watched Emma.
Inside the room, there was a desk, some filing cabinets, and three chairs. The walls were bare and the place looked more like a prison cell than an office. The security guard sat them down before leaning against his desk. He reached into a drawer and pulled out a pack of gum. He started to chew a piece loudly and then crossed his arms.
“I’m going to have to call your parents. What are your names?” the guard said. Emma read the man’s name off his chest. His name tag said, “Aaron Humphries.”
“Emma Wilkins and Jake Milligan,” she said.
“Milligan? Are you related to Andrew Milligan?”
Jake looked up at the man and nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said. “He’s my dad.”
Emma couldn’t think of anything else to do but come out with the truth. She told him that they were in the forest looking for Jake’s father. She told him also about how her own father had forbidden her from doing so and that she would be in a lot of trouble if he found out.
“Alright, listen,” Aaron said when she finished. “I won’t call your parents. But you have to stay out of that forest. The police are doing everything they can to find the missing persons.”
“It’s been almost a month,” Jake said.
Aaron nodded and spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness.
He led them back outside, out the front gate of the construction site, and onto Lockhart Road. The German Shepherd followed.
“Now go straight home and don’t go back in the forest again,” Aaron said. “Stay out of trouble.”
They walked back up the road with the trees of the forest looking down on them from their right.
“How did we end up there?” Jake said as they went.
“I have no idea,” Emma said. “It wasn’t on purpose.”
“Also, I didn’t think you’d tell him everything!”
“He asked! What was I supposed to do?”
They walked on in silence until they turned down Belle Street. The Blue Jay, the one from before, Emma thought, was still there, though on a different branch. It watched them walk by.
“So what do we do now?” Jake said.
“You still want to do this?”
He nodded.
Emma sighed. She had already broken the rules anyway.
“Okay,” she said. “I have a plan.”
The Blue Jay chirped and flew away.
The following day after school, Jake rode the bus with Emma and Will on the pretense that he was coming over to visit again. When the three of them were walking from the bus stop to their house, Emma grabbed Will by the arm.
“I have to tell you,” she said.
“What is it now, Emma?”
“We’re going to go to the forest,” she said. “To look for Jake’s dad.”
“You’re crazy,” he said. “Dad will kill you.”
She nodded. “Yeah, I know. That’s why I need you to promise me you won’t snitch. I’ll be back before he comes home from work.”
Will shook his head and walked around her. Jake looked at Emma questioningly, but she could only shrug her shoulders. The older boy didn’t speak at all until they were back inside their house. They put their bags down on the floor, just inside, and Will turned to Emma.
“Okay,” he said.
“You won’t tell?”
“No,” he said. “I’m coming with you. Someone has to take care of you.”
Emma was happy to add Will to their search party. The three children went to the forest. Because of what had happened the day before, with their getting turned around and ending up at the construction site, Emma made sure this time that they were headed in a northerly direction.
“We keep the sun to our left,” she said, “and it’ll keep us going north.”
“So you think we can do better than we did with all those other people that one time?” Will said. “In only an hour and a half?”
“No,” Emma said. “We’re going to do this every day.”
“That’s the plan then? Come to the forest every day straight from the bus and then try to get back home before dad gets there and kills you?”
“Yup.”
“Alright,” Will said. He turned to Jake. “She’s crazy, you know?”
Jake nodded. “I know.”
The boys laughed together. Emma punched Will in the shoulder.
They continued on toward the north for a while, with Will keeping track of the time on his watch. Though Emma made sure that they did not deviate from their intended direction, eventually the Paigely Builders construction site appeared in front of them.
“Look,” she said. “It’s the construction site.”
“How is that possible?” Jake said.
“I don’t know. It’s to the east of where we started. There is no way we could’ve ended up here.”
“Maybe you were distracted,” Will said.
“Me? You were the ones not paying attention!”
“Well,” said Will. “We have to go back anyway. Time’s up. We’ll just have to pay better attention tomorrow.”
They went back home and Jake picked up his backpack before he left on his way to the bus stop.
They repeated their search the next day but this time, b
efore they left the house, Emma went to the lunchbox under bed and took out an old compass. It was a clunky, metal thing on a yellow and black lanyard.
She pulled it over her neck and ran outside to where Jake and Will were waiting.
“I got this thing,” she said. “We won’t get lost with it.”
Once they were in the forest, Emma looked at the compass every so often to make sure that they were following the needle. The two boys kept quiet for the most part but they jostled with each other now and again.
“Are you sure you can handle the compass?” said Will. “Big responsibility.”
Emma ignored him.
They came across an enormous log that lay across their path. Jake and Will climbed on top of it and pushed at each other. Emma rolled her eyes but soon she climbed up as well.
She stood at the end of log and tried to get a better look at her surroundings in order to memorize any landmarks that she could see. A few metres ahead, a small rabbit was sitting up on its haunches. It was staring her and, presently, it cocked its head to the side before it ran off into the forest.
“Hey, I have an idea,” Emma said.
“What?” Jake asked.
“Well,” Emma said. “This is weird. I’m sure we’re going north but something’s off. This area doesn’t look familiar. But what if we mark the places where we’ve been?”
Will jumped off the log. “Let’s bring a knife and carve arrows into the trees next time,” he said.
“No,” Emma said. “Don’t hurt the trees. I have a better idea.”
They continued to search and, as they went, Emma began to look at the compass more often. Eventually, she ended up holding it in front of her as she walked.
A while later, she stopped them. “Oh no,” she said.
“Are you sure you can use that thing?” Will said.
“We’ve been following the arrow the entire time!”
There was a soccer field ahead of them beyond the trees. Past it, there