The Mapmaker and the Ghost(9)

The morning went along quietly enough, and by late afternoon, Goldenrod had made a sizable amount of progress measuring distances and documenting a few insects as she came across them. She was just about to try and draw a rather large, purplish one when she heard something. It wasn’t a buzzing or a chirping or a croaking; in fact, it didn’t sound like a noise any bug or animal would make at all. What it sounded like … was a laugh.

She looked up from her work and listened more intently. This time, after a few moments, she heard a rustling. It sounded like it was coming from a southeasterly direction and like it was getting farther away.

Goldenrod sprang up to investigate. She followed the rustling sound as best she could until, after a couple of minutes, she found herself entering a small, almost perfectly circular clearing. She listened for the rustling noise again to see where to go next. She waited. But after about ten minutes, when all she could make out were the normal chirping and cawing sounds she had grown used to over the past few hours, she realized she had lost the trail.

She took a look around the little clearing and figured she would make her way back there—methodically speaking—in a couple of days’ time to map it. She waited just a few more minutes to make sure that the noise wouldn’t start up again, thinking that it might be a small animal and hoping that she would come across it later. Perhaps a small animal with an unusual call, Goldenrod thought, as she once again heard what sounded like a very far-off giggle.

Too bad she didn’t have more time to investigate today, she realized as she looked at her watch and saw that it was almost 5:20 p.m. already. She found her way back out of the forest again, gave the old lady a wave as she passed her by, and headed home—feeling confident about her chances of a great forest discovery after all.





6

THE TRANSPARENT MAN


When Goldenrod went downstairs at precisely 9:00 a.m. the next day to set out for the forest, Birch was waiting for her at the front door. He eyed her green backpack curiously.

“Morning,” Goldenrod said.

“Hi,” Birch said and then hesitated. “Where are you going?”

“Oh … just around town.”

“Why?”

Goldenrod shrugged. “Exercise, fresh air, that sort of thing.”

“You sound like a grown-up,” Birch said.

“Do I?” Goldenrod asked. She was feeling a little bit taller these days.

Birch shrugged and then finally asked, “Can I come?”

Goldenrod sighed. It was one of those questions she had been dreading because she knew how much Birch looked up to her. In all honesty, most of the time, she really liked having him around, but this was just one thing she felt she had to do on her own. She was genuinely sorry when she told him no.

Birch didn’t cause a scene but quietly walked away. It didn’t feel so great to make her little brother sad.

She felt better when she was closer to the forest, though, and especially as she gave a jaunty wave to the old lady before heading in.

She picked up where she had left off the day before and soon finished another small section on her grid. Now she had to decide which way to go. Since she had gone southeast toward the little clearing the day before, she decided that maybe she would give northeast a try. She picked up her backpack and was heading in that direction when she heard a tiny cough.

She stopped and turned around. The forest was making its usual forest sounds, but she didn’t see a single creature in sight that she thought could cough in that way.

After another minute of making sure the coast was totally clear, she walked a little farther northeast.

Ahem.

There it was again. And this time it was much louder and unmistakably the sound of someone clearing their throat.

Goldenrod looked all around her once more, but absolutely no one was there. If Birch’s “grown-up” comment hadn’t been still fresh in her mind, she might have felt a tiny bit nervous. Explorers don’t get scared though, she thought. They figure out what’s going on.

She stayed put for one minute, two. When she was certain that there really was no one else besides herself, she put her foot one step in the direction she was going.

“Well, really. You are going the wrong way, you know,” a polite voice said from behind her.

Goldenrod whipped around.

Standing there was a tall, elegant man. He was dressed in very old-fashioned clothing: a maroon coat with tails, a beige scarf around his neck, tan pants, and high brown boots, and he leaned on a thin, elegant cane. He had gray hair, though his face looked pretty young and unlined with its long nose and small blue eyes. But perhaps the most extraordinary thing about him was that he was rather transparent.

To her surprise, and probably the man’s, Goldenrod actually found herself quite calm. In fact, the first words out of her mouth were, “Wrong way for what?”

“Your quest, of course,” the tall, transparent man said with a smile.

The two stared at each other. Finally, after another few moments of study, Goldenrod spoke again. “Do I know you?”

“You might. Or you might not. It’s hard for me to keep up with the state of the education system these days,” the man said.

Goldenrod continued to stare. She was certain that the man’s face was familiar.

“I must say,” he went on, “I am rather impressed with how splendidly you are handling my appearance. Then again, I supposed you would handle it that way if you were the right man—excuse me, the right girl—for the job.”