Free April Adventure by Ron Roy Page A

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 finishedhis 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 called 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 crackme 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