Saving a Superhero

11: Map+Stones

"What do you know about Grace?" Kennedy asked with eyes narrowed as if she suspected Bertha of kidnapping our friend.

"The little girl came in a few days ago asking if I'd give this to her friend. Said you'd be an odd group and that one of you, Juliet, would eat her weight in pie." She eyed me up and down. "I just didn't think she was serious about the pie thing."

"You said she gave you something?" Rory asked from the edge of her seat. Here was the mystery she had been waiting for this entire trip.

Bertha searched around in her apron before pulling out a grease splattered, folded map. "It was in better condition when she gave it to me, but that's what you get for working at a restaurant. After she handed it to me, she bought a slice to go and hurried on her way, like she had important places to be."

"Was she with anyone? Maybe a few bulky guys with identical scars on their faces? Or a criminal mastermind?"

"Glory, no. She was on her own as far as I could tell." Bertha leaned closer toward us so the other table couldn't hear what she was saying, "That girl isn't in any sort of trouble, is she?"

Rory nodded vigorously without taking a moment to think. Luckily Kennedy cut off any more of her farfetched stories about Grace's kidnapping. "No, she's just a bit lost right now.

The concern melted from Bertha's face, replaced with relief.

"I better check on my other table. You ladies have a lovely day, and good luck findin' that little friend of yours."

Before Bertha got too far away I called her back. I got three separate glares that promised death if I asked for more pie. Pie death threats had a very specific look.

"Why didn't you give it to us earlier? What gave us away?" I shot back a look at my friends. Pie wasn't always my top priority, just very high on the list.

Bertha was wiping her hands on her apron. "Y'all are late. Little Miss said you'd be in three days ago at the latest. I was gonna throw that map out pretty soon if you didn't show up."

Then she actually did leave to check on the teenagers.

Three days. That meant we were three days behind schedule, whatever schedule that was.

We left our money on the table in the checkbooks along with the best tip I have ever given.

No one dared open the map until we were safely inside another store had come far enough from Crystal's Diner that Rory conceded that we weren't being watched. No need to let pesky thugs in on our deliberations. And the outside was not a place to study a paper map, not with the rain still weeping from the sky. Huddled in the frozen meat section of a bustling grocery store we unfolded the map of Nova City.

It wasn't much to look at. I had lived in the city my whole life I knew my home district, Sky Terrace, better than I knew the test kitchen at school. The other four districts--New Star, Old Stone, Queen Plaza, and Castle Heights--weren't nearly as familiar, but I could navigate them without a map. Not to mention Rory, Harper, and Kennedy each lived in a different district. Rory in Stones. Harper in the Heights. Kennedy in New Star. Grace knew that.

There was no new key that gave further insight and no directions to a secret district that none of us had ever heard of. In fact, had it not been for Rory, we wouldn't have found the clue Grace left for us.

At the heart of Stones, the oldest and poorest district, was a minuscule dot at the corner of 18th South and Raven Street.

"I know that place!" Rory exclaimed loud enough to turn the heads of our fellow shoppers. "It's two blocks from my house. Grace and I always ran into each other there!"