Maddy was licking the peanut butter from her fingers when the doorbell rang. Sierra stood on the front step.
“Can you play?” asked Sierra. She held up her sidewalk chalk and jump rope.
Maddy ran toward the door.
“Wait!” called her mom. “You need to drink your milk.”
Maddy ran back to the table. Gulp, gulp. “Now can I play, Mom?”
“Take care of your dishes first,” said Maddy’s mom.
“I’ll wait for you outside,” called Sierra.
Maddy put her lunch dishes in the dishwasher and ran outside. Sierra was not there! She was not sitting on the front step as usual. She was not petting Haley Cat as usual. But there was a picture of Haley Cat on the front step. It was drawn in green chalk. Maddy tapped her chin. “Hmmm . . . a clue. It’s a mystery. Where is Sierra?”
Maddy looked at the driveway. Sierra’s jump rope looked like a squiggly snake, but Sierra was not squiggling it. “Another clue,” said Maddy.
She looked across the street to Sierra’s house. She could see someone jumping on Sierra’s trampoline. Maddy crossed the street to take a closer look. But it was not Sierra. It was Ardie, her other neighbor.
“Where is Sierra?” asked Maddy.
“She went to get you,” said Ardie.
“She did get me,” said Maddy. “I had to finish lunch. I thought she was going to wait for me. When I got outside, she was gone. There was a picture of a cat on my front step and her jump rope is a squiggly snake on my driveway. I have two clues, but I don’t know where Sierra is.”
“I’ll help you find her,” said Ardie. He hopped off the trampoline. “Let’s start at the beginning.”
Maddy and Ardie walked back across the street. Ardie inspected the cat drawing. “Pretty good,” he said. “It looks like Sierra’s handiwork.”
Maddy showed Ardie the jump rope. “See? It’s squiggly like a snake.”
“It is squiggly,” said Ardie, “but snakes do not have corners at the end like this jump rope. I think it is an arrow, pointing to the backyard.”
“Maybe you’re right,” said Maddy. They ran to the backyard. Maddy looked in the playhouse while Ardie looked under the slide. Sierra was not there.
“Where could she be?” asked Ardie.
“Let’s go back and look at the clues again,” said Maddy.
Maddy and Ardie went back to the front to check out the cat drawing. “Nothing new here,” said Ardie.
They looked at the jump rope. It still looked like a squiggly snake. “Nothing new here either,” said Ardie.
“Wait!” said Maddy. “Maybe it’s not pointing to the backyard. Maybe it’s pointing more this way.” She pointed in the direction of the evergreen tree. Sierra was not under the tree, but Haley Cat was snoozing there. Maddy and Ardie rubbed her soft, spotty fur.
“The clues helped us find the cat, but not Sierra,” said Maddy.
Just then, something green plopped on the grass beside them. “What was that?” said Maddy.
Something pink ploinked on Ardie’s head. “Ow! What was that?”
While they were inspecting the green and pink things, something blue bounced off Maddy’s arm.
It left a blue smudge. “Hey, this is chalk!” said Maddy.
“Sidewalk chalk!” said Ardie.
“And it’s falling from the tree,” said Maddy. They looked up. Between the prickly branches were two eyes and a smile. Sierra!
“Surprise!” said Sierra. “I told you I would wait for you outside.” Sierra climbed down the tree, brushing off pine needles. She was holding a bucket of sidewalk chalk.
“You didn’t tell me you’d be in the tree,” said Maddy.
“I didn’t have to,” said Sierra. “The clues did.”
~The End~
Illustration Copyright © 2009 Anna Repp
Copyright © 2009 by Wendy BoovdeGraaff