when her sister would learn to run and hide which seemed to be a favorite pastime of her brothers Hi Lucy Leander called out Eliza and I were about to play a new game it’s too bad James and Noah aren’t here to join us A nearby mulberry bush rustled The two Abbott boys scrambled out from under it insisting they wanted to play too The children gathered around Leander as he explained the rules to the new game As usual he made it up with ease and Eliza added an occasional imaginative detail Today’s game was simple as far as the twins games went For each round someone would choose a color then skip a rock across the creek The number of times the rock bounced on the water before sinking would decide the number of items that the players had to find in the chosen color Then the players would race back to the oak tree with 11
the first person back getting five points the next four points and so on Since the creek was not very far across the rock almost always skipped two or three times before sinking or reaching the opposite bank Francis Bishop the postman’s son swore that he was able to get a rock to skip four times last June but no one was there to see it When it was Lucy’s turn to throw it did not skip at all leaving them to only find one item James and Noah being the youngest and the most easily distracted of the bunch did not do as well as the others Lucy was good at finding things but not a very fast runner so she tended to be in the middle of the pack most rounds Eliza and Leander were in fierce competition for first place when Leander added a twist and requested an item of two different colors For this round you have to find something 12
that is both pink and green Leander said Eliza thought of the wildflowers that she picked on her way home from church on Sundays and took off running Leander had the same thought and was half a step behind her in an instant The Abbott boys sick of losing each round followed the twins Lucy seemed to have another idea and set off toward the road that led to the marketplace where farmers carpenters and other artisans met each month to trade goods Though Leander reached the wildflowers first Eliza managed to catch then pass him She reached the oak tree in record time adding her flowers to the colorful pile of items they’d collected during the game so far then used a stick to add five lines beneath her name in the dirt patch they were using to keep score After Leander James and Noah added their scores they saw Lucy walking back 13
Hurry up slowpoke You only get one toward them along the bank of the creek staring down at something in her palm point Noah shouted Lucy didn’t speed up She didn’t even look up It was like she was watching a story unfold in her hand Curiosity traveled through Eliza’s whole body it felt like a bubble formed at her toes and grew inside of her until it reached her head She felt floaty and sure that if she didn’t find out what her friend was holding right away she would pop Her imagination raced as fast as her legs did as she ran over to Lucy What in the world did her friend find When she was a few steps away the mystery item looked like nothing more than a rock But when she got closer it was unlike any stone she'd ever seen It was about the size of Lucy’s palm and 14
