Hidden Treasure

"Imagine finding a treasure in the fields!" Lisa said, looking through her binoculars. "I bet rich people lived in this house before us."

"That's silly," Jonathan said. "What makes you think that?" He looked at their plain, country house.

"I don't know. Wouldn't it be cool, though? We could buy a bigger, more beautifuller house, and lots of video games, and all the gum we want, and..."

"Huh! Keep looking, but you'll never find a treasure." Jonathan left his seven-year-old sister alone with her thoughts and a few mosquitoes.

Lisa took her shovel and started digging a hole behind the barn. After a few minutes, she hit something hard. She dug faster, her heart pounding. It was only a big rock. Lisa wiped her forehead with her muddy hand.

"Whatcha doing?" Leslie said.

Lisa turned to face her teenage sister. "None of your business! Besides, it's a secret."

"Jonathan told me you were looking for treasure. Found anything yet?" Leslie said, smirking.

"I'm not telling you. If I get rich, I won't give you anything."

Leslie chuckled as she left. "I wouldn't want any of your fake treasure anyway," she said.

Lisa frowned. "I'll show them," she mumbled.

She found a new place to dig and got to work. "It would be easier if I had a treasure map," she said out loud, not knowing that two hidden spies were listening.

"Let's trick her!" Leslie whispered to Jonathan.

Leslie loved to trick her naïve little sister. Jonathan, who was the middle child, usually ended up being Leslie's accomplice. They found a quiet spot behind the garage and made a plan.

Leslie saddled her horse and rode across the field to the edge of the forest where an abandoned old car had been rusting for the last decade. She hopped down from her horse, gathered pieces of broken windshield, and placed them carefully in a jeans pouch she had made in her high school sewing class. The pieces were almost cubic in shape and glittered in the sun, like diamonds.

Meanwhile, Jonathan went in the garage and looked around. There were all kinds of interesting things: paint cans, screw drivers, nuts and bolts in baby food jars, extension cords, a snowmobile, a lawnmower, and… pieces of wood - lots of them, piled up in a crate. Jonathan chose two identical blocks and smiled. Whistling, he looked through all the paint cans and finally found the one he had used to build his latest car model: metallic gold. There was enough paint left to cover both pieces of wood. He peeked out to make sure Lisa wasn't around, and went to work.

Jonathan was just about finished sanding and painting the second piece when he heard footsteps outside. He nervously looked by the side window, and - to his relief - saw Leslie coming with her old briefcase. He opened the door to let his sister in, then closed it quickly behind her.

"Look what I have!" Leslie said, opening the briefcase.

She waited for Jonathan's reaction. He looked at the bundles of fake money, sprinkled with "diamonds" and laced in pearl necklaces, then finally looked at Leslie and said, "That's awesome! Where did you get that?"

"Diamonds are from the old car's windshield, and I bought the necklaces at the flea market last month. I wanted to keep them for my next Halloween costume, but this is certainly worth it," she said, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "As for the money, it was part of an old board game we no longer play with. Doesn't it look real?"

"Well…" Jonathan said, picking up one bundle, "it kind of does look real. Lisa doesn't know much about money anyway." He laughed at the thought of her little sister finding so much money. "I sure wish this was real cash!" he said, flipping through the bundle with his thumb.

Jonathan tested the painted blocks with his pinky to see if they were dry. Luckily, the paint he had chosen was fast drying. He picked up the gold bricks and added them to Leslie's treasure. He placed a few necklaces on top to make them look even more attractive, winked at Leslie, and closed the briefcase.

Now they had to find a place to hide their "treasure." Leslie headed for the field, carrying the briefcase. At each step she took, the diamonds made a tinkling noise. Jonathan followed close behind with a small digging shovel. Once in the middle of the field, they looked all around.

"We have to find a good burying place," Leslie said, shielding her eyes from the bright sunlight. "The treasure shouldn't be too easy to find, but not too hard either."

She soon spotted a rocky mound surrounded with tall grass. She looked at Jonathan, and he gave her the thumbs up. That was a perfect spot for a buried treasure. They dug a hole in front of the mound and placed the briefcase in it. They left half of the briefcase sticking out to make it easier to find.

"Now for the map!" Leslie said as they came back to the house. She gathered some white paper and a set of markers, while Jonathan put the shovel back in the garage. A few minutes later, Jonathan joined her in his bedroom and they set to work.

The first map they made was out of scale. The garage seemed too close to the house, and the field didn't fit on the rest of the paper. It also looked too new. For Lisa to believe it was real, it would have to look wrinkled and old, and lead her exactly to the treasure.

"I'll let you figure out how to age the paper," Leslie said. "I'll take care of the sketching part. I'll be back in a little while."

She left him alone with his task, and went back outside with her notepad and a pen.

Jonathan took a second sheet and crumpled it. He flattened it again, looked at it carefully, and crumpled it again. He did the same process several times, until the paper looked worn out. He ripped up each corner unevenly, and some parts of the sides. Not bad, but it's too white to look old, he thought. He pondered on it for a while, then got an idea.

Jonathan carefully opened the bedroom door and looked down the hall. The coast was clear. He tiptoed to the basement, into Lisa's club house. Lisa liked to play school with her friends, and this was their classroom. There was a blackboard on the wall, some upside down buckets for chairs, and two old file cabinets topped with a broken door as the teacher's desk. Jonathan soon found some yellow chalk near the blackboard. He took a few pieces and turned to go back upstairs.

"Hey, what are you doing in my clubhouse?" Lisa said, startling him. She was looking at him, with her hands on her hips, tapping her foot. Jonathan froze.

"Didn't you read the sign that says, 'No siblings allowed'?" She looked at her big brother's hand, and added, "And what are you doing with my chalk?"

Jonathan had to think fast. "I need it for a project," he said. "I'll give you some of my gum if you let me use your chalk."

Lisa thought about it, her hands still on her hips. "Okay, but you have to give me three pieces of gum."

Lisa just loved to have control over her older brother. It was usually the opposite, so she would seize any opportunity that came her way to assume her controlling position as often as possible. Jonathan rolled his eyes. Three pieces was all he had left!

"All right, smartie!" he said, reaching in his pocket. "But no questions asked!"

Lisa looked at him, puzzled. "Why would I ask questions? I don't really care about your silly projects!"

She took the gum from his hands. She let him go upstairs first, following close behind to make sure he wouldn't take any more of her precious school supply. Then she headed for the family room.

Back in his room, Jonathan closed the door and let out a big sigh. That was close! he thought. He took his map in progress and colored it with yellow chalk. He rubbed it with a tissue to spread the chalk evenly and remove any excess. He admired his masterpiece. Now it looked like an old, wrinkled, yellowish map.

Meanwhile, Leslie walked around the house, looking for a spot to hide the map. She found a crack next to the basement entrance that was big enough to hold a piece of folded paper. That's perfect! she thought. Lisa always plays around here, so she will find the treasure map easily.

She marked the spot with an "X" on her notebook. Then she drew a path to the treasure, counting her steps as she walked from one place to the other. She also sketched the buildings on their property, making sure to only include the ones that were already there when they moved in: the garage, the house, and the barn.

In a little while, Leslie came back to the house to help Jonathan complete the map with her findings. They worked all afternoon on making the perfect map for their sister to find. Once they finished, they looked at it once again, and smiled at each other. They had done it! They could already picture Lisa's excitement when she found the map, and then the treasure she had hoped to find for the last two years. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it. They hid the map and waited. One day… Two days…

On the third day, Lisa decided to go play in the fields. She was pushing her red and green wheelbarrow, loaded with some of her favorite things - a butterfly net, binoculars, a book about wild flowers, and a jar to gather wild strawberries. While she was looking for a good spot to pick strawberries, something caught her eye. After peering through her binoculars, Lisa hurried to the spot, where she dug out her sister's half buried old briefcase and opened it at once.

"Mommy, I found something in the field!" she called when she arrived at the house, carrying an old and muddy briefcase. Leslie and Jonathan were watching TV and quickly came to see. They had to control themselves not to laugh.

"Look what I found," Lisa continued, opening the briefcase. "Painted wood blocks, fake money, and pieces of glass! There are even some of Leslie's necklaces in here."

Leslie and Jonathan looked at each other. "Didn't you find the treasure map?" Leslie asked, sounding disappointed.

"What treasure map?" Lisa asked, looking in turn at Leslie and Jonathan.