Somehow Peter coerced me to join them as they were going out for the second time to look for the poison ivy related clue.
The thing is, it was only Tanya who knew very well how a poison ivy plant looked like so we were all depending on her to find them. She found a few of them that she said she was certain was poison ivy. We all searched around them, very carefully, but we didn't find any piece of paper.
I looked very closely at the leaves of the plants just so I could know exactly how they look. It would help in discovering more for the clues and of course for my safety, I thought.
But as I inspected the leaves, I saw something. A number and a letter was scrawled on the surface of one of the leaves so faintly that if it wasn't one inch from my face, I wouldn't have noticed. The number 14 and the letter ‘t’.
“Hey guys look at this!”
They all scrambled over.
“There's a letter and a number inscribed on this single leaf."
“Oh my God, I'm so stupid!” Tanya suddenly blurted, placing her hand on her forehead. “I saw another leaf with a line drawn across it. I didn't even–"
“You saw a leaf with ink marks on the surface and didn't even suspect anything?” Peter asked her with bulging eyes.
“I know, I'm sorry. My mind was somewhere else. We should go back and check.”
“Hold up,” Peter said, drawing her back. “We need to copy this thing first."
“How did someone even write on the leaf?” Michelle wondered. “Wouldn't they get poisoned or something?"
“They probably used gloves,” Peter reasoned. "And were really careful."
The fact that there could be a someone that was doing all this was an uneasy thought. But then it was even worse if there was no one responsible. I mean, someone had to set the clues. Someone had to be responsible for all of this. Someone we've never seen.
“You're welcome,” I murmured, slinging off my backpack to get a piece of paper and Louie's pencil.
“You see what I said about you helping ou–"
“Yeah, yeah, let's just go on.” I dropped the contents in my bag after I was done copying and lead the way.
“Do you know where you're going?” Tanya said.
I kept moving forward. Peter ran up to catch up with me.
“Know where the next stop is?”
“Well we saw some on our way here right?”
“Hey, guys I thought we were going the other way? Following my lead?” Tanya shouted from behind.
“I know a place with lots of ivy that's very close here,” Michelle sped past both of us. “Catch up quickly!”
“Okay, so now everyone is ignoring me.”
She ran to catch up with us.
That was how it was the whole time. I tried my best to ignore her existence. And I was successful, somehow.
After walking round the forest for hours and searching for the lucky leaf in each of the stops, we'd gotten numbers ranging from one to fifteen and corresponding letters. After we arranged them in order we got this:
1.B
2.U
3.R
4.Y
5.T
6.H
7.E
8.H
9.A
10.T
11.C
12.H
13.E
14.T
15.3
We were confused about the last one. Michelle suggested that it might mean ‘E’ but we weren't sure.
YOU ARE READING
Fall in San Diego
AdventureHaunted by the death of his family that he caused, Larry cuts himself off from the world and relapses into depression, subconsciously craving anything that would make him happy. He finds himself lost in the woods after his swirling emotions forces h...
