Fool's Gold

~Three~

 Lily woke up early the next day, barely taking a moment to yawn before hopping out of bed and dashing outside. Sure enough, there it was: pebbles, blue this time, were arranged in a pattern underneath that same pine tree. Today they were arranged in an arrow, pointing down the street. Lily gazed off in the direction that the arrow pointed, frowning. She couldn't see anything, but maybe it was pointing at something small or really far away. There was only really one way to find out for sure.

Quickly stopping back inside the house, Lily pulled on her socks and tied her sneakers more securely before heading out in the direction of the arrow. In her hurry earlier, she'd only had time to shove her feet inside an old pair of flip flops.

Carefully she walked along the invisible line that the arrow drew out, making sure not to diverge from the path too much.

A car came into her path, and she hesitated. If she went around, then she might veer off course. Biting her lip, she studied the situation, and a sly grin slid onto her face as she realized what her only option was. Epic parkour time! She walked up to the door of the car and firmly planted her foot into the door handle. With a grunt, she grabbed onto the roof of the car and pulled herself up, then clambered onto the top and sat there, catching her breath. She could totally be a ninja with this agility.

She scooted over to the opposite end of the car roof, gently jumping down onto the street, knees bent to absorb some of the impact. Pleased with herself, she dusted off the nonexistent dirt from her pants before resuming her quest to follow the arrow's directions.

She crossed the street and walked straight across the sidewalk, coming directly up to a large oak tree sitting in someone else's front yard. "What now?" she muttered to herself, scanning the area for a while before realizing that she hadn't looked in the most obvious place yet—the tree. And there it was, a little arrow carved into the trunk, pointing to a little passage behind the house that she knew led down to a small river.

Curious, she ventured down the narrow path, steadying herself with tree branches so as not to slip on the rather steep ground.

She stopped at the bottom of the pathway where it met the river, looking around for another pebble arrangement. She saw nothing in the river, nor on the other side, nor on the riverbank to her left or to her right. She sighed, ready to give up and head back to her house.

And then she saw it—a note pinned to a tree by a thumbtack through each corner of the page. She walked over to get a closer look.

"Meet me at the park by Johnson Ave. on Monday at 10 AM," she read aloud to herself. Monday was three days from now, and nobody ever went to that park. It was run down and the slides weren't very good at all.