Katelyn and Will's Great Adventure

2010 3rd-4th Grade Prose Winner

One time in Brooklyn, New York there lived a girl named Katelyn. She had a brother named Will. Katelyn was 11 years old and Will was 9 years old. They were living a very happy, normal life up until the day they found a mysterious map (which I am going to tell you about). Let's begin our story...

One afternoon Katelyn and Will were walking home from school on a very windy day. So windy, it looked like every tree in the park was going to fall down. "I have so much homework!" exclaimed Katelyn. "Sixth grade gives out waaay too much!" "That's why I'm lucky," said Will. "Fourth grade gives out very little homework. It's easy too!" "You are a bit lucky," replied Katelyn. "When you're in sixth grade, you'll wish you were back in fourth." Suddenly, the wind picked up even more. Leaves and papers started flying all over the place. "OMG! It's so windy today!" screamed Will. "I concur!" said Katelyn. "What's concur mean, Katelyn?" asked Will. "You'll learn it in sixth grade," replied Katelyn.

After Katelyn and Will had dinner, they went up to their room to chat. "It is bizarrely windy today," remarked Katelyn. Suddenly their window flew open! In flew a piece of paper with strange writing on it. "Hey Katelyn, what's this paper?" asked Will. "Let me see it," Katelyn said as she closed the window tight. "It looks like a treasure map of some sort," she said again. "From the looks of it I think it leads to a spot in Prospect Park," remarked Will. The map looked very windblown and wrinkly.

It had many pathways and twists and turns on it that looked hard to follow. "Maybe it leads to treasure!" yelled Katelyn with excitement. Katelyn yelled so loud that her mother called up and said, "Katelyn, Will, are you guys OK?" "We're fine, Ma!" replied Will. "All right, here's the plan," whispered Will so their parents couldn't hear. "Tomorrow we'll go to Prospect Park after school just after the bell rings and find that treasure!" "I'm in," said Katelyn. "Let's do it!"

As planned, the next day after school Katelyn and Will went to Prospect Park to find the (socalled) treasure they were longing for. "So, wh... if we find the treasure, what should we do with it?" asked Katelyn. "We'll put it in the bank and be rich, duh!" replied Will. He looked at Katelyn as if she were stupid. "Don't give me that look, mister, I was just wondering," said Katelyn. Katelyn and Will had been following the complicated map for one hour already when they finally came to a part that was easy to follow. "According to the map we should walk 35 steps north, then 20 steps east, then another 20 steps south," said Will looking very closely at the map. "I can't wait to see what we'll find!" screamed Katelyn in utter excitement. "That is if we find anything."

When Katelyn and Will finally reached the destination, they were so excited! So completely excited that I can't even describe it! "So sis, you ready to dig up our treasure?" asked Will. "I've been ready all day," Katelyn said. "Lets go!" So all afternoon Katelyn and Will dug and dug and dug, until they finally hit something. They were so happy! "Come on Will, help me drag it out, it's heavy you know!" said Katelyn in pain. "Coming, Kate," said Will. They dug the box out and opened it up. Inside they saw all kinds of different things. From a music box, to a Nintendo DS, candy wrappers, an iPod, 5 sets of newspapers and magazines, and a cell phone. The phone was blinking that it had a message on it. Katelyn carefully opened the cell phone and listened to the message. It said, ëdear people of the future, we, the people of the past, present to you these artifacts from our time of 2010'. "Huh?" said Katelyn. "What an unusual message. And it's from the current year? That doesn't make any sense?" Katelyn and Will held the box up so people could see how cool they were. But instead of passersby going ëWOW, THEY FOUND TREASURE, COOL!!!', a park ranger came over to Will and Katelyn. "Why did you kids dig up the Prospect Park time capsule?" the park ranger asked. "We didn't know it was a time capsule, sir" said Katelyn. "Yeah, we thought it was treasure, honest," said Will in shock. "How did you two find it?" asked the park ranger in confusion. "We followed this map right here," replied Katelyn. "Oh, we've been looking for that map all day!" exclaimed the park ranger. "The mayor made a speech in the park yesterday when the time capsule was buried. It must have blown off the podium. Thanks for returning it. " Katelyn and Will exchanged the same look of embarrassment. They were both very embarrassed that they dug something up that was buried only 24 hours before. Also, something that was probably meant to be opened 300 years in the future. "You're welcome, sir," they both said at the same time.

That night at dinner Katelyn and Will's parents asked what they did in the park today. They just smiled and said, "Oh, nothing." Then they happily continued to eat their meal.