20-Page Coloring Adventure

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. The purple flower was painted higher than her head, beside a blue bird and a yellow sun. At the bottom of the wall stood a low wooden fence. Between the fence and the wall was a narrow space filled with pebbles.

Maya bent down and looked through the fence.

There it was.

Her purple crayon rested on the far side, near the painted flower. It had rolled into the narrow space between the wall and the fence. The space was too small for her hand.

Maya tried anyway. She slipped her fingers through the gap and reached toward the crayon.

Almost.

Her fingertips brushed its smooth side, but the crayon rolled away and stopped beside a little metal drain cover.

Maya pulled her hand back. “I can see it, but I can’t reach it.”

Leo lay on his stomach and looked through the fence. “It is close to the drain.”

Maya tried from another spot. She reached between two fence boards and stretched her arm as far as it would go. Her sleeve caught on a rough edge, so she stopped at once.

The park was still sunny and friendly, but the fence would not move, and the crayon would not come closer.

Maya sat beside her coloring book. She felt disappointed. The first page was waiting. The purple flower was waiting. Even the mural seemed to be pointing right at the missing crayon.

“I found it,” she said, “but finding it is not the same as getting it.”

Leo nodded. “We need help.”

Maya looked toward the park office near the gate. A grown-up named Ms. Chen often helped care for the playground. Maya knew she could ask her, but she did not want to leave the crayon alone.

She placed her coloring book on the bench and slipped the paper flower between the pages. Then she and Leo stayed beside the fence, watching the purple crayon.

A breeze moved through the tree leaves. The mural’s painted birds seemed to flutter in the sunlight. Maya traced the blue path on her page with one finger.

The path on the paper began at the little house and curved toward a pond. The path on the mural began at the same house and curved toward the painted pond.

Maya’s lost crayon had led her to the wall. Now the wall had shown her that the coloring book belonged to the park.

She smiled, even though the crayon was still out of reach.

“I’m going to ask Ms. Chen,” Maya said. “Then we can get it safely.”

Leo stood up. “I’ll come with you.”

Maya glanced once more through the fence. The purple crayon lay beside the mural, bright and round in the sun. She had wanted to start coloring right away, but now she had something new to follow: a clue, a painted path, and a real adventure waiting in the pages.

Together, Maya and Leo walked toward the park office to find help, while the purple flower on the mural gleamed above them.

Maya learned that when a small problem feels hard, asking for help can open the way to a bigger adventure.

End of chapter one. 5 more chapters in the full book.