Stop!

            Malaspina Park didn’t look like much and was hard to get to. The park didn’t have any real open spaces and was pretty much just a bunch of trails that ran through the woods. Brett didn’t feel like walking to the trailheads so he went up some windy roads until he could pull off onto a dirt power line road that went by the trailheads. All the trees had been cut back to make room for the power lines so you had a thirty foot wide snake of space bordered on both sides by trees. On one side just a little past the trees was the North Vancouver suburbs and on the other was a vast never ending forest.

            “What is she doing?” Brett asked and not for the first time as he pulled onto the dirt road. “We’re almost there.”

            “Brett shhhh.” Adelaide said quietly. “Emily said she needed to concentrate for this to work.”

            Emily the weird had been sitting in a trance like state for the last ten minutes. It had been so frustrating to have her say ‘oh there is so much stuff I know Brett but your too dumb to understand it all, you’re just going to have to wait until I find my picture books, I’m not sure I can teach jock monkeys to read’ okay she hadn’t said it like that but that’s what it had felt like she had been saying. Telling them she knew about what was going on than saying she would explain it latter and then telling them they had to be quite so she could concentrate and hopefully get them all back alive.

            Emily started speaking under her breath in some language that Brett had never heard but that sent shivers down his spine and made his hair stand up. The quick glances that Brett had sneaked as they drove along showed Emily head bowed and eyes closed mumbling and moving her arms and hand in funny gestures. Adelaide looked on with a face of worry and concern. Suddenly Emily’s hand shot out and griped his arm “stop the car” she said in an urgent horse whisper.

            “Now what?” Brett sighed as he stopped the car.

            “There are too many of them. Even you would be overwhelmed.” She said with certainty. Again she didn’t tell them how she knew.

            “I’d like to see them try.” Brett growled and almost kept driving but the tightening of Emily’s hand on his arm stopped him.

            “Brett, please don’t be an idiot. We need to use the subtle approach here.”

            “I don’t know if Brett knows how to be subtle.” Adelaide said a little smile twitched on her lips.

“I know how to be subtle.” Brett said defensively. He was glad it was dark so the girls couldn’t see his face. It felt hot.

“Well you don’t show it very often.” Adelaide said with a giggle.

“I’ve been using magic and contemplating. And I think I now a way to get Levi out without getting any of us killed in the process.” Emily said with confidence. But Brett could see the worry lining her face.