April Adventure
Authors: Ron Roy
Brian sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Hey, what’s this?” he asked. He held up a blue plastic egg. “It was on my pillow!”
“I found one, too,” Bradley said, showing his egg. “My egg had a note inside.”
Brian yanked his egg apart. A folded paper fell out. “Mine does, too!” he said.
Nate and Lucy soon found plastic eggs in their sleeping bags.
“We all have notes!” Lucy said. “Mine says,
GO WHERE A ROSE GROWS. SIGNED, THE SHADOW
.
“Mine says,
GET DRESSED
,” Brian said. Nate crawled out of his sleeping bag. “Mine says,
THERE YOU WILL FIND DIRECTIONS TO THE TREASURE
. It’s signed
THE SHADOW
, too.
“Cool, it’s a treasure hunt!” Lucy said. “I love treasure hunts! But who’s the Shadow?”
This book is dedicated to Judy Taylor
.
—
R.R
.
To Central Elementary School in Sidney, Ohio
—
J.S.G
.
Bradley Pinto was having a dream. In his dream, he was following a trail of jelly beans. The jelly beans led him into a meadow. The flowers in the meadow were made of lollipops. The trees were sticks of licorice. There was a stream of chocolate milk under whipped-cream clouds. Little butterflies made of cotton candy flew by. One landed on Bradley’s ear.
Just as Bradley was about to drink from the chocolate stream, he woke up.
Something
had
touched his ear. Something real!
Bradley opened his eyes in his dark bedroom. He saw a shadowy figure tiptoe toward the door. Then the figure was gone.
Bradley put his hand on his pillow, near his ear. Something was there! It was hard and smooth and sort of round. He turned on his lamp and grabbed the object. It was a plastic Easter egg!
Bradley’s twin brother, Brian, sat up and squawked from the next bed, “Hey, what’re you doing? It’s the middle of the night!”
Bradley looked at the clock. “No it’s not,” he said. “It’s six in the morning the day before Easter!”
“Happy Easter, Bradley,” Brian said. Then he went back to sleep.
Bradley sat up and pulled open the two halves of the plastic egg. Inside, he
found a folded note with these words:
DON’T WAKE THE GROWN-UPS. SIGNED, THE SHADOW.
“What’s going on?” came another voice.
“Morning, Nate,” Bradley said, looking down from his bed.
Bradley and Brian’s two best friends had slept over. Nate Hathaway and Lucy Armstrong were in sleeping bags on the floor.
Lucy sat up in her sleeping bag. “What time is it?” she asked as she blinked at the light. Lucy’s parents were helping build a school on a Native American reservation in Arizona. She was staying with her older cousin, Dink Duncan, while they were gone. Dink was best friends with Nate’s big sister, Ruth Rose, and the twins’ older brother, Josh. In fact, Dink and Ruth Rose were having a sleepover, too. They
were down the hall in Josh’s bedroom.
Brian sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Hey, what’s this?” he asked. He held up a blue plastic egg. “It was on my pillow!”
“I found one, too,” Bradley said, showing his egg. “My egg had a note inside.”
Brian yanked his egg apart. A folded paper fell out. “Mine does, too!” he said.
Nate and Lucy soon found plastic eggs on their pillows.
“We all have notes!” Lucy said. “Mine says,
GO WHERE A ROSE GROWS
.
SIGNED, THE SHADOW
.”
“Mine says,
GET DRESSED
,” Brian said.
Nate crawled out of his sleeping bag. Mine says,
THERE YOU WILL FIND DIRECTIONS TO THE TREASURE
. It’s signed
THE SHADOW
, too.”
“Cool, it’s a treasure hunt!” Lucy said. “I love treasure hunts! But who’s the Shadow?”
“Whoever it is, he used a computer,” Nate said. “These notes have been printed out.”
“Josh has a computer in his room,” Brian said.
“Is your brother Josh the Shadow?” Lucy asked.
Brian shrugged. “Maybe. Dink and Ruth Rose slept over last night. I’ll bet the three of them cooked up this idea.”
“But why put the messages inside Easter eggs?” Nate asked.
“Because tomorrow is Easter, silly!” Bradley said.
“Oh yeah, it is,” Nate said. “Happy Easter, guys!”
“I think we should do what the notes say and find the treasure!” Lucy said.
The four kids read their notes again.
“Mine tells us to find the directions,” Nate said. “How do we find them?”
“
GO WHERE A ROSE GROWS
,” Lucy said,
reading from her paper. “But where’s that?”
“I know!” Nate said. “Over in Center Park there’s a rose garden. That’s where roses grow!”
Five minutes later, the kids were in the kitchen, pulling on their sneakers.
Lucy saw a basket on the kitchen table. A paper napkin covered something lumpy in the basket. There was a folded paper on top of the napkin. Brian read the note to the other kids:
Bradley lifted off the napkin. Under it were four jelly doughnuts.
“Yum! I’m beginning to like the Shadow!” Nate said.
Bradley found a pencil and wrote another message on the paper. It said:
MOM—WE’RE AT THE PARK. BRADLEY
.
The kids hiked down the driveway, toward Center Park. Sunlight was peeking over the barn. The leaves on the tall trees were bright green. The three boys munched on their doughnuts as they walked. Lucy carried the basket holding the fourth doughnut.
“Aren’t you gonna eat your doughnut?” Brian asked Lucy. He had finished
his and was licking his fingers.
“I’m saving mine for later,” Lucy said. “So stop staring at it.”
“I wonder what the treasure will be,” Nate said.