April Adventure Read online

  April Adventure

  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.

  1. The Silent Visitor

  2. An Egg Hunt

  3. Hissing and Buzzing

  4. What’s in Mr. Pocket’s Pocket?

  5. Raccoon Clues

  6. Snakes Eat Eggs, Too

  7. Swan Surprise

  8. Lucy’s Brilliant Idea

  9. Happy Swans, Hungry Kids

  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.

  Bradley laughed. “Knowing Josh, it’ll be something to eat.”

  “But maybe it wasn’t Josh who put the notes inside the eggs,” Lucy said.

  “Then who did?” Brian asked. “Our parents wouldn’t do it.”

  “When I first woke up this morning, I saw someone in our room,” Bradley said, “sneaking away from my bed.”

  “Who was it?” Brian asked.

  Bradley shrugged. “It was too dark, and he left the room real fast.”

  “Did he hop out of the room like a bunny?” Lucy asked. She had a smile on her lips.

  Bradley giggled. “No, he glided out like a shadow!” he said.

  The kids crossed Pleasant Street and entered Center Park. The rose garden was inside a white picket fence. Most of the rosebushes had small buds on them. Some had early blossoms. The bushes were planted in a big circle around a fountain. A statue of a fish stood on its tail in the fountain. The fish’s open mouth spouted water.

  On the other side of the rose garden was a pond surrounded by bushes and tall grass. In the middle of the pond was a small island, with a tree in its center.

  “Hey, guys, look!” Lucy was pointing at a fat raccoon walking out of some bushes near the pond. Three baby raccoons followed her. They all waddled past the kids and entered a grove of trees.

  “They are so cute!” Lucy said.

  Just then they heard barking. A man was walking a small white dog through the park. He carried a paper bag in one hand. He stooped over and picked up something from the ground and put it in his bag.

  Bradley recognized the man. “Hi, Mr. Pocket!” he called out.

  Mr. Pocket waved. “Happy Easter!” he shouted.

  “You too!” they all c
alled back.

  The kids walked through the gate into the rose garden.

  “Well, this is where a rose grows,” Bradley said.

  “Where do we look?” Brian asked. There were at least a hundred rosebushes growing in rows. Between the rows was green grass.

  “Let’s split up,” Bradley said. “Each take a row, and check out all the bushes.”

  “We don’t have to do that,” Nate said. “Look!” He was pointing at the fountain. A yellow plastic egg floated in the water. He raced toward the fountain with the others right behind him.

  Nate got there first. He plucked the egg out of the water.

  “Open it!” Brian said.

  “It’s all wet,” Nate said. He wiped the egg on his sweatshirt, then pulled apart the halves.

  “There’s another note!” Lucy cried.

  Nate unfolded the note and read it to the other kids:

  THERE ARE ELEVEN MORE PLASTIC EGGS. YOU MUST FIND THE FOUR REAL EGGS TO GET THE TREASURE.

  SIGNED, THE SHADOW

  Bradley took the note from Nate’s fingers. “What does he mean, the real eggs?” he asked.

  “Real must mean not plastic, like this one,” Nate said. He held up the two halves of the one they’d found in the fountain. He put them back together and set the egg in Lucy’s basket.

  Brian grinned. “Like fried eggs?” he asked. “Gee, I hope the Shadow hid some ketchup. I like ketchup on my eggs!”

  Nate laughed out loud. “You crack me up!” he said. “Get it? Crack me up?”

  “Let’s look for the rest of the eggs,” Bradley said.

  Center Park covered a wide area. Inside the park were the rose garden, the pond, and a band shell. The band shell was a little platform with a roof over it. In the summertime, musicians played music on the platform. People would gather on the lawn to listen.

  A grove of trees grew near the rose garden. Wooden benches had been placed around so people could sit and enjoy the roses.

  On one side of the park were the high school playing fields. Next to the high school was a meadow. And next to the meadow was the lawn surrounding Green Lawn Elementary School.

  “How do we find Easter eggs in all this?” Brian asked.

  “These plastic eggs are bright colors,” Lucy said. “We should be able to see them from far away.” She had begun eating her jelly doughnut.

  Nate climbed onto one of the benches. He looked around. “I don’t see any,” he said.

  “Let’s just start,” Bradley said. “We should each look in a different place. I’ll go check out the pond.”

  “I’ll search around those trees,” Lucy said.

  “I’ll stay here and look around all the roses,” Brian said.

  “Okay, I’ll snoop around the band shell,” Nate said. He wiggled his eyebrows up and down. “Sometimes people drop money there!”

  “If you find any, you have to share,” Brian said.

  “Ha!” Nate said as he raced away.

  Carrying her basket, Lucy took off for the grove of trees.

  Bradley headed toward the pond. He walked through the tall grass and reeds. He read a sign that said: PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE SWANS.

  Bradley stepped carefully up to the water’s edge. Last summer, he had seen a long black snake there, lying in the sun. Josh had told him that snapping turtles lived in the pond, too. They came out of the water to lay their eggs.

  Bradley placed his feet carefully. He didn’t want to step on a snake or a turtle!

  At the edge of the pond, Bradley parted a clump of grass. He peered down at the ground. He saw only rocks and mud and weeds, no bright plastic Easter eggs.

  Suddenly Bradley froze. He held his breath.

  Something was hissing at him!

  Bradley felt goose bumps tickle the hairs on his arms. He stood still, like the fish statue in the fountain. He didn’t dare to look down. Do snapping turtles hiss? he wondered. Could there be a snake near his feet?

  When he didn’t hear any more hissing, Bradley looked down. No snapping turtle. No snake that he could see.

  Then he noticed something out on the pond. Two swans were floating on the water. They were big and white, with orange bills. The swans watched Bradley. One of them flapped its wide wings and hissed again.

  Bradley grinned. He waved at the swans. “Happy Easter, swans!”

  The swan kept hissing. The other one let out a loud snort.

  “Okay, I’ll leave,” Bradley said. He stepped away from the pond, watching the ground. Keeping an eye on the swans, he walked all the way around the pond. He saw three caterpillars and a frog, but no eggs. No turtles or snakes, either.

  Bradley noticed something dark sticking up from the reeds near the pond. He stepped closer. It was a tree stump that was black and dead.

  But on top of the stump was a red plastic Easter egg.

  Bradley grabbed the egg. “I found one!” he yelled.

  He ran back toward the rose garden with the egg. The other three kids were standing near the fountain.

  “We did, too!” Nate said. He and Brian each held a plastic egg.

  “Now we have four,” Bradley said. He held his egg near his ear and shook it. Something inside it rattled. When Bradley pulled the two halves apart, he found jelly beans. “Just like in my dream!” he said.

  “What dream?” Lucy asked.

  Bradley told his brother and friends about the candy meadow with chocolate milk in the stream.

  “Cool!” Nate said. He found a candy kiss inside the egg he was holding. Brian’s egg held a small cookie.

  They ate their prizes and put the eggs into Lucy’s basket.

  “No one has found the real eggs, though,” Lucy said.

  “Let’s keep looking,” Bradley said.

  They were standing under a tall oak tree. “Maybe if I climb up high, I’ll be able to see eggs down on the ground,” Lucy said. “Here, hold this.”

  Lucy handed the basket to Bradley, then started climbing the oak tree. The boys watched her use her hands, feet, and arms as she moved higher.

  “She’s like a monkey!” Nate said.

  “See any eggs?” Bradley called up to Lucy.

  “Not yet,” she called back. “But I can see our houses!”

  Lucy started climbing down. She was on a lower branch when she yelled, “There’s one egg up here!”

  “Where? Can you get it?” Nate called up to her.

  “I think so.” Lucy wrapped her legs and one arm around the branch. With her free hand, she reached into a hollow place in the branch. She pulled out a plastic egg. “Here’s number five!” she cried.

  Bradley held up the basket, and Lucy placed the egg in among the others. Then she swung down to the ground.

  “Open it!” Bradley said.

  Lucy did, and she found a shiny dime.

  “No fair, she gets money!” Brian said.

  The others laughed.

  “If you’d climbed the tree, you’d have gotten the dime,” Lucy said, grinning.

  “Okay, what’s next?” Nate asked. “We checked the whole park.”

  “The notes didn’t say all the eggs would be in the park,” Bradley said. He glanced around. “Maybe some are hidden over by the high school or the elementary school.”

  “Nate and I will check the high school grounds,” Brian said. He and Nate took off running.

  “Come on, Lucy,” Bradley said. They headed past the band shell toward Silver Circle. They walked onto the lawn that surrounded their school. They both kept their eyes down but saw no eggs in the grass.

  “If you were the Shadow, where would you hide the eggs?” Lucy asked Bradley.

  Bradley headed toward some playground equipment. “Over there,” he said.

  They jogged to the swing set. There was also a jungle gym, a seesaw, and a merry-go-round. Bradley put the basket on the ground and sat on a swing. “But I don’t see any eggs,” he said.

  Lucy was on her knees, peering under the merry-go-round. “Well, I do
!” she said. She reached under and pulled out a blue egg.

  “Way to go!” Bradley yelled. “That’s the sixth egg!”

  Lucy opened the egg. “Yum, pink jelly beans!” She offered one to Bradley and ate the other one.

  Bradley jumped off the swing and helped Lucy search. They didn’t discover any more eggs there.

  Then Lucy noticed something. “What’s that little house?” she asked.

  She was pointing toward a playhouse. It was behind some hedges, next to the school building.

  “That’s for the kindergarten kids,” Bradley said. “They play in it at recess time.”

  “Let’s go check it out,” Lucy said.

  Bradley grabbed the basket and they ran over. The playhouse had a small door and two windows. There were flower boxes in front of the windows, holding plastic flowers.

  Lucy crawled inside the playhouse. “Brad, this is cool!” she said. “Come on in!”

  Bradley got down on his knees and followed Lucy. Inside, he saw some tiny furniture. There was a play stove, a little round table, and four miniature chairs. Bradley pulled open the stove’s oven door. “Look!” he yelled. A green plastic egg sat in the oven. “Number seven!”

  Bradley found a dime inside the egg. “Ha, my brother is going to be so jealous!” He put the dime in his pocket and the egg in Lucy’s basket.

  Lucy found egg number eight in one of the window flower boxes. Inside was a small roll of stickers. They searched everywhere else but didn’t find any more eggs.

  Outside the playhouse, they heard someone yelling. Brian and Nate were running toward them from the high school. They were both shouting and waving their arms.

  “Can you hear what they’re saying?” Bradley asked Lucy.

  “I think Nate is yelling please,” Lucy said.

  “I thought I heard my brother say knees,” Bradley said.

  By then Brian and Nate were almost at the playhouse. Their faces were red and their eyes were big.

  “BEES!” they both screamed.

  “What happened?” Bradley asked.

  “Brian poked a bees’ nest!” Nate yelled. He and Brian flopped on the ground, out of breath.