The Emerald Talisman by Brenda Pandos Page A

if you’re
listening, Dad.”
    Normally, Dad or Luke would make dinner and
I’d clean up. It became an unspoken rule since all I could cook was
cookies out of a pre-made package and scrambled eggs. But tonight,
someone else would need to do the dishes because of my injury. That
made me kind of happy.
    “How was dinner last night? Is there anything
new going on with Auntie Jo or John ?” I tried to hide my
disdain while saying his name.
    “Dinner was nice. John got a new job and
likes it. But Jo said she misses you and would like you to come
over soon. Says you’re always so busy. Are you avoiding her for
some reason?”
    I knew eventually someone would notice that
I’d completely stopped spending time with Aunt Jo and John. The
reason I avoided them happened to be that I couldn’t stand to be
around John. If I had an unsafe list, John would be the
first one on it. He made it impossible to spend quality alone time with her.
    The last time I tried, he inadvertently
invited himself along and turned it into a “let’s analyze Julia”
nightmare. I secretly hoped his new job insisted that he travel
like my dad.
    “No. I’m not,” I half fibbed. “I just don’t
want to intrude since she’s married now.”
    “I don’t think John minds if you come over
every once in a while and spend time with them. He understood when
he married her you and your brother are practically her
children.”
    “I mind,” I muttered under my breath so he
couldn’t hear me.
    After the let’s analyze Julia session,
I refused to let John know anything further about my life. But what
bothered me the most was Jo seemed oblivious to the intrusiveness
of John’s inappropriate questions. On top of that, it hurt that she
hadn’t come to find out why I’d distanced myself or even seemed to
miss me. It felt good to know she actually did.
    “Okay. I’ll try to make it over there this
weekend,” I said, figuring it was time to at least make an
appearance.
    Dinner came and went and I’d completely lost
track of time until I noticed it was a little after eight. My heart
sank when I realized Nicholas was unlikely to show up tonight.
Where was he? Did I misunderstand? Maybe he was running late?
    I needed to find something to do. There was a
slim possibility he may come within the next few minutes but I
couldn’t wait and watch the clock.
    I limped into Dad’s office and sat behind his
large desk, moving the mouse to activate the screen. From the
desktop, I opened the browser and typed in ‘mountain lion’ and
clicked ‘search’. A few menacing images of lions popped up with
over a million links to choose from.
    I scanned the list and then clicked
“ mountain lion attacks on people in the US and Canada. ” On
that page, I clicked, “ statistics of attacks, ”. The new page
loaded and I looked for the details in California. To my surprise,
there had only been one attack last year and no deaths.
    Interesting.
    I clicked another link and jumped as the
sound of a cougar cry came through the speakers.
    “Geez!” I exclaimed.
    “What’s that?” Dad asked, calling from the
other room.
    “Oh, nothing. I’m just researching something
for school,” I said and quickly turned down the sound.
    On the screen was a list of Do’s and
Don’ts.
    Do’s and Don’ts… Never turn your back on a
lion. Never ever run from a lion. Do look at them in the eyes.
Don’t go out in lion territory alone. Don’t go out from dusk
to dawn. Act aggressively towards the lion. Make menacing noises.
Smile and show your teeth. Use a stick and thrust it towards its
face….
    Then I scrolled to the bottom and my eye
caught a peculiar sentence.
    It’s important to keep in mind that lion
attacks are still extremely rare in California and nationally.
    Rare?
    I clicked to read some first hand stories and
noticed a common thread. All of the attacks happened during the day
and most of the victims survived. Still the stories were creepy and
I shivered.
    Maybe it was