Emma and the Minotaur by Jon Herrera Read Free Book Online

guess we won’t be doing that for a while.”
    “What do you mean?” Jake said.
    “Oh, my dad won’t let me go into the forest now,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t help you find the singing tree. I just have to figure a way to do it.”
    “I don’t want you to get in trouble,” he said.
    “Nah, I won’t, probably. My dad is a physicist. He’ll probably forget all about the forbidden forest pretty soon.”
    “What does your dad do?” Jake asked.
    “Oh,” she said, “he thinks a lot and writes stuff down. Mathy stuff, you know. At the University.”
    “Sounds complicated,” Jake said. “My mom works at a grocery store.”
    When Emma had relayed Jake’s story to her father, the physics professor had taken an interest in him. He’d suggested to Emma that she invite him over for dinner. She was only too happy to comply.
    It took some convincing to get Jake to agree.
    “Come on,” Emma said. “They don’t bite. We’re not vampires.”
    “I don’t know…”
    “Why not? They really want to meet you.”
    “I… My mom won’t let me.”
    “Really?” Emma said. “Well, why don’t I go ask her? I bet I could convince her to let you. We can go after school.”
    “She’ll be at work,” he said.
    “That’s okay,” she said. “We can go to her work.”
     
    Across the street from the Penhurst Mall there was a shopping plaza. It was dominated by a grocery store but there were a number of smaller stores that huddled around it.
    Emma and Jake arrived on a public bus. They made their way across the busy parking lot to the automatic doors of the grocery store. As they entered, Emma looked almost straight up and saw, written in big, colourful letters: “Agostino’s Food Market.”
    The store was busy with shoppers. Emma and Jake walked through the produce department, past the bakery, and to the other end of it, where the deli was located.
    “That’s my mom,” Jake said and pointed to a woman behind the glass counter. She was working in front of a meat slicer, using it to cut through a chunk of meat.
    Emma watched as Jake’s mom took the slices and weighed them on a scale before she wrapped them up, put a sticker on them, and gave them to a woman on the other side of the counter. She then pressed a button and the digital display on the wall above the counter changed. The number on it was two hundred and twenty-six and it went up to two hundred and twenty-seven. One of the customers who milled about stepped to the counter and gave her a slip of paper as well as his order.
    “I guess we’ll have to take a number,” Emma said and went to the side where a ticket dispenser stood. There was a paper tab sticking out and she took it. On it was the number two hundred and thirty-four.
    While they waited, Emma watched Jake’s mother work away. The area behind the counter was a constant flurry of activity as the Agostino’s employees dashed here and there to slice the meats and cheeses that the customers asked for. Jake’s mom was so busy that she didn’t notice the two of them standing around next to a canned olive display.
    It took almost five minutes for Emma’s number to come up. When the digital display changed to two hundred and thirty-four, she went up to the counter.
    “Two-three-four!” Jake’s mom called out. “Two-three-four!”
    “Down here!” Emma said and raised the hand holding the ticket.
    Jake’s mom leaned over the counter and looked down at Emma’s beaming face.
    “Hello down there,” she said. “What would you like?”
    Jake walked up to the counter. “Hey, Mom,” he said. “This is the girl I told you about.”
    “Emma!” she said.
    “Hello, Mrs Milligan,” Emma said.
    “Call me Vicky,” she said and smiled. She turned to one of her co-workers and told her that she was going to take her break. Mrs Milligan took off her hairnet and apron and put them on a chair. She came around the counter and then walked with the children to the front of store. In