𝐂𝐑𝐔𝐄𝐋 𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐑 percy jackson

005. aunty em's killer food

on the other side was a closed-down gas station, a tattered billboard for a 1990s movie, and one open business, which was the source of the neon light and the good smell.

the neon sign above the gate was impossible for skylar to read, because if there's anything worse for her dyslexia than regular english, it was any cursive neon english.

to her, it looked like: AINYU MES DERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM.

"what the fuck is that supposed to say?" she mumbled.

"i don't know," annabeth said. percy shrugged as well.

grover translated: "aunty em's garden gnome emporium."

flanking the entrance, as advertised, were two cement garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts, smiling and waving, as if they were about to get their picture taken.

percy crossed the street, following the smell of the hamburgers.

"hey..." grover warned.

annabeth and skylar made eye contact, shrugged, then followed percy, disregarding grover's protests.

the front lot was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes, which gave grover the creeps.

"bla-ba-ha!" he bleated. "looks like my uncle ferdinand!"

they stopped at the warehouse door.

"don't knock," grover pleaded. "i smell monsters."

"c'mon, your nose is clogged up from the furies," skylar assured him. "all i smell is burgers and i'm super food deprived."

grover shivered as he looked around. "these statues are..."

the door suddenly creaked open, and standing in front of them was a tall middle eastern woman. she wore an interesting outfit—by interesting, skylar meant something her and silena would totally have made fun of—it was a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled.

her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, but that was about all they could make out. skylar assumed this was the famous aunty em.

"children, it is too late to be out all alone. where are your parents?" her accent sounded vaguely middle-eastern.

"they're um..." annabeth started to say.

"we're orphans," percy interrupted.

"orphans?" skylar and the woman questioned in unison.

the daughter of apollo knew they hadn't came up with a plan, but the excuse of being orphans was the stupidest thing she'd ever heard come out of percy's mouth (and that's saying something!)

the woman continued, "but, my dears! surely not!"

"we got separated from our caravan," percy said. "our circus caravan. the ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got lost, but he may have forgotten, or maybe he meant a different gas station. anyway, we're lost. is that food i smell?"

"oh, my dears," the woman said. "you must come in, poor children. i am aunty em. go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. there is a dining area."

they all thanked her and went inside.

skylar murmured over to percy "circus caravan?"

"always have a strategy, right annabeth?"

"your head is full of kelp." she offered.

the warehouse was filled with more statues people in all different poses, wearing all different outfits and with different expressions on their faces. skylar thought about how large of a garden you would need to fit the life-size statues—but mostly, she just thought about food.