The Missing Flags
Mia, Noor, and Bea were three friends. They were four years old. They liked to play and to solve small puzzles. Today the garden had bright flags on sticks. The flags had been for the picnic. Now some flags were missing.
"Oh no," said Mia. "Where did the flags go?"
"Let's make a map," said Noor. "We can find all the places."
Bea smiled. Bea used a little wheelchair. She pushed close and listened. She had a tiny lamp-clip on her jacket. The lamp-clip could light small places. It was warm and helpful.
"Can you help us?" asked Mia. "Can you look with us?"
The friends sat on a soft patch of grass. They had a paper and three crayons. They wanted to draw where the flags had been. They wanted to map every spot. Mapping was like making a picture of where things were.
Following the Clues
First, they looked at the table. One flag was on the plate. It was red. The friends drew a small red dot on the paper. "Here is the red dot," said Noor. "Good job."
Next, they looked by the big tree. There was a little ribbon tied to a root. The ribbon was blue. "Aha!" said Mia. "That could be a clue."
They used the lamp-clip. Bea clipped it to the edge of the paper. The tiny light made a soft circle. The light found a faint mark on the bark. It was a small scratch. "Look," said Bea. "A mark where someone tied a flag."
They walked slowly. They looked for small things. They looked for footprints. They looked for crumbs. They looked for bits of paper. They looked for tiny tire marks from a toy car. Each time they found something, they marked it on the paper.
"Follow the crumbs," said Noor. She pointed to a line of tiny cake crumbs on the ground. The crumbs went near the sandbox. The friends followed the crumbs. At the sandbox they found a yellow flag. They drew a yellow circle on the map.
"Good seeing," Mia said. "You found the yellow flag."
They kept going. They found a pink ribbon by the bench. They saw small paw prints near the flower bed. A little dog had sniffed a flag and left a soft nose print on a ribbon. The friends giggled. They drew the bench and the flowers. They wrote small X marks for each clue.
Sometimes the clues were quiet. The lamp-clip helped. It showed small prints on the stone that the eye might miss. It showed a faint smear on the picnic bench. It showed a tiny knot of string under a leaf. The friends were patient. They looked again and again. They drew again and again. They did not give up.
"Look here," Bea said. "Three marks together. Maybe the flags were taken one by one."
Mia, Noor, and Bea hummed like tiny bees. They moved from place to place. They checked every corner. They asked soft questions. "Who touched the flag?" "Where did the wind go?" "Who picked up a ribbon?" Little ideas popped up. The friends tested each idea like a clue in a game.
The Map and the Page
At the end, their paper had many dots and lines. It showed the table, the tree, the sandbox, the bench, and the flower bed. The map looked like a small picture of the garden. The friends looked at it with happy eyes.
"One last place," said Noor. "Check under the picnic blanket." They gently lifted the blanket. Under it was the last flag. It was green. It had a tiny note tied to it. The note said, "For the game. Keep looking. Love, Mrs. Lee." The friends laughed. Mrs. Lee had moved the flags for fun to make a treasure game.
They added the green flag to their map. They drew a happy face near the blanket. They put a big dot where they started. They turned the page of their notebook. The lamp-clip winked. The girls looked at the new blank page.
"Now we can make a new map," said Mia.
"Now we can play again," said Noor.
Bea tapped her lamp-clip and smiled. The sun was warm. Their map was done. The friends felt proud. They had looked carefully. They had worked together. They had not given up. They had turned the page and were ready for a new kind, gentle adventure.
