20-Page Coloring Adventure

Maya Rivera skipped through the sunny park gate with her coloring book tucked under one arm. The book had twenty blank pages, each with a tiny picture waiting to be filled. In her other hand, she carried a neat row of crayons.

“Today is the first page,” Maya said.

Warm sunlight rested on her cheeks. The swings creaked softly in the breeze, and the rubber playground floor felt springy beneath her sneakers. Nearby, a tall wall shone with a bright community mural. It showed flowers, birds, clouds, and a winding blue path.

Maya settled at a picnic table beneath a leafy tree. She opened her coloring book to page one. The picture showed a small house with a round window and a garden of flowers.

She lined up her crayons. Red. Yellow. Green. Blue.

Then she frowned.

“Where is purple?”

Maya checked the table. She checked inside her book. She looked beneath the bench and shook her little crayon pouch. The crayons inside made a soft rattling sound, but no purple crayon appeared.

She remembered holding it near the park gate. She had used purple to color a tiny flower on the corner of her first page. Then she must have set it down.

Maya looked across the playground. “I’ll find you,” she said to the missing crayon.

She began with the swings. She peered under the seats and brushed away a few dry leaves. Nothing purple waited there. A small yellow ball rolled near her shoe, but it was not her crayon.

Next, Maya checked the slide. She climbed the steps, looked behind the rails, and crouched at the bottom. The slide was warm and smooth under her hand. A faint smell of fresh grass floated through the air.

“Not here,” she whispered.

She walked around the sandbox. The sand tickled her fingers as she searched near the wooden edge. She found a smooth pebble, a blue button, and one tiny feather.

The feather reminded Maya of the bird on her coloring page. She placed it beside the book, then kept looking.

A boy named Leo was drawing with sidewalk chalk near the mural wall. He had made a long green snake that curled around a yellow sun. Maya knew Leo from school, so she waved.

“Did you see a purple crayon?” she asked.

Leo lifted his chalky hands. “I saw something purple roll past the hopscotch squares.”

Maya hurried over. The hopscotch squares were painted in bright colors, but no crayon sat between them.

“Which way did it go?” she asked.

Leo pointed toward the mural. “That way. It rolled under the little bridge.”

Maya thanked him and followed the path. The playground had a small wooden bridge over a shallow bed of smooth stones. Children could walk across it to reach the climbing wall. Maya knelt and looked beneath the bridge.

The space was dark, but not scary. Sunlight made bright stripes between the wooden boards. She could see a red leaf, a green bottle cap, and a long piece of grass.

She reached in with one hand.

Her fingers touched the grass. They touched the bottle cap. They did not touch the crayon.

Maya stretched farther, but the crayon was not there.

She sat back on her heels. “I thought I was close.”

Leo came over and crouched beside her. “Maybe it rolled farther.”

Maya followed the line of stones with her eyes. The stones led toward the mural wall. A painted blue river curved along the bottom of the mural, and a row of purple flowers grew beside it.

One purple flower looked just like the flower on Maya’s coloring page.

Maya opened her book. The little flower on the page had three round petals and a green stem. The painted flower on the wall had the same three petals.

She blinked.

“Leo,” she said, “look at this.”

He leaned closer. “Your page and the wall look alike.”

Maya turned to the next page, then the next. Page two showed a bird with a yellow wing. The mural had a yellow-winged bird near the top. Page three showed a blue pond. The mural had a blue pond beneath the flowers.

The coloring book pictures were not just pictures. They were pieces of the park.

Maya felt a bright fizz of wonder in her chest. She had come to color a page, but the park seemed to be coloring with her.

“Maybe the purple crayon went to the purple flower,” she said.

Leo pointed at the bottom of the wall. “There are purple marks on the stones.”

Maya moved closer. A thin purple line ran from the bridge, across the smooth stones, and toward the mural. It was faint, like a crayon had rubbed against the ground.

Maya followed it carefully. She stepped over a stone, then another. The line curved around a wooden post and stopped near the wall.

At the end of the mark sat a small paper shape. It was tucked beneath a flat stone.

Maya lifted the stone and pulled out the paper. It showed a purple flower with three round petals.

“That is the flower from my page!” she cried.

Leo smiled. “The mural gave you a clue.”

Maya held the paper beside her coloring book. The lines matched exactly. A little corner of the paper had a purple smudge.

She looked up at the mural....