The Girl with the Paper Crane

Running Mazes

The air is always cold even in the supposed beginning of spring and the ground was covered with white powdery snow. Our family lived far enough outside of the city that we had a little plot of land with pine trees surrounding the back. They were caked in the fluffy dust, and Noah was bound and determined to knock it all off.

"Elin, come here," he called when he had knocked off as much as he could reach.

"Why?"

"I'm gonna lift you up so you can get more."

"No way," I screamed, taking off down the tree line. He chased me on his much longer legs and almost caught me. In desperation, I turned on him and slung a snowball at his face. He grunted when my ball of ice collided with his head and fell dramatically. I knew this game sadly: he'd come back to life and chase me as a zombie or some other nonsense. Before he "rose from the dead" a bright red cardinal swooped down and sat on him.

"Elin, wake up." I opened my bright blue eyes to see a corn maze and a mischievous glint in my brother's eye.

"What are we doing?"

"Something fun, I promise," he said eagerly, jumping from his truck and heading to the maze. I've never seen this maze before, it must be part of the new theme park going up. Noah stood at the entrance to the maze, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited for me to be next to him.

"This my dear sister is the uncrossable maze," he said dramatically walking in slightly. "And I have a challenge for you. Bum. Bum. Bummmmmmmm." I couldn't help but roll my eyes, he always had some of the craziest games, and they were always rigged. I tried one of these things once but God did I fail miserably. He noticed the tape, the glue, even those little party popper things, and I got nowhere but in a whole lot of pain from his revenge.

"What's the challenge," I smirked. No, matter how hard they were even figuring out one of his puzzles made me feel like a goddess. I may or may not also like when my brother congratulates me for figuring it out... just a little.

"Make it through the maze before midnight, without GPS or your phone to track where you've been," he exclaimed, pulling a whistle from his pocket. "If you give up or lose, blow this," he finished, handing over a bright blue plastic whistle.

"What's the prize if I win?"

"You won't," he claimed smugly, pushing me into the cornfield. "I'll be waiting on the other side." I started to move through the maze keeping track of where I've been with arrows in the dirt. I hit my first dead end and found that my arrows were gone when I turned around.

"What the." I turned down the right I came from and noticed all of those arrows were gone as well, covered by fresh dirt. How did he manage this? I started to make a less noticeable trail, pulling something off the dry corn stalks and every time I turned. If I didn't know it was there I wouldn't find it and hopefully neither would whoever was covering my arrows. I hit another dead end and turned back following my little stalk leaves when I noticed there was one down but no turn. I moved another way then realized I started coming on more dead ends. I'm being cornered. So I did the unexpected, outside of the box, totally against the flow. I walked through the freaking corn. I tried not to move the stalks too much then came across another path with an exit! I looked at my phone-- 30minutes till twelve. I smirked as I sprinted towards the exit, finding my brother and his friend talking. They didn't notice me so I took some time to hide behind a tree and listen. Crap I need proof I got out. I pulled my phone and took a picture of them, with the timestamp. Thank god the flash was off because I forgot to check.

"So should we go and reset the maze?"

"Nah, she'll catch on too quickly."

"I think you give her too much credit Noah if she hasn't figured it out by now she won't," Jason said bitterly. Jason Cruz is one of Noah's best friends and his goalie since they could play. He was ok. Reclusive, but he kept Noah out of a lot of bad stuff so I couldn't hate the guy.