The Map in the Storm Drain
After a huge rainstorm, Steve and Tank were biking through the neighborhood when they saw that the grate over the main storm drain had been knocked sideways. “Look,” Tank said, pointing into the dark hole. Something was glinting down there. Steve, being smaller, shimmied down and came back up holding a small, watertight metal tube.
Inside was a single piece of crinkled parchment. It was a map of their town, but it was all wrong. Their street ended at a forest that didn’t exist, and a large ‘X’ was marked in the middle of the school’s soccer field. “This is weird,” Steve muttered. As they held the map in the sunlight, new lines glowed to life in faint, silvery ink, creating a path right through Mrs. Gable’s overgrown backyard. They looked at each other and grinned. “We have to see where it leads,” Tank said.