3. Hissing and Buzzing

Chapter 3 Hissing and Buzzing Bradley felt goose bumps tickle the hairs on his arms. He stood still, like the fish statue in the fountain. He didn't dare to look down. Do snapping turtles hiss? he wondered. Could there be a snake near his feet? When he didn't hear any more hissing, Bradley looked down. No snapping turtle. No snake that he could see. Then he noticed something out on the pond. Two swans were floating on the water. They were

big and white, with orange bills. The swans watched Bradley. One of them flapped its wide wings and hissed again. Bradley grinned. He waved at the swans. "Happy Easter, swans!" The swan kept hissing. The other one let out a loud snort. "Okay, I'll leave," Bradley said. He stepped away from the pond, watching the ground. Keeping an eye on the swans, he walked all the way around the pond. He saw three caterpillars and a frog, but no eggs. No turtles or snakes, either. Bradley noticed something dark sticking up from the reeds near the pond. He stepped closer. It was a tree stump that was black and dead. But on top of the stump was a red plastic Easter egg. Bradley grabbed the egg. "I found one!" he yelled. He ran back toward the rose garden with the egg. The other three kids were standing near the

fountain. "We did, too!" Nate said. He and Brian each held a plastic egg. "Now we have four," Bradley said. He held his egg near his ear and shook it. Something inside it rattled. When Bradley pulled the two halves apart, he found jelly beans. "Just like in my dream!" he said. "What dream?" Lucy asked. Bradley told his brother and friends about the candy meadow with chocolate milk in the stream. "Cool!" Nate said. He found a candy kiss inside the egg he was holding. Brian's egg held a small cookie. They ate their prizes and put the eggs into Lucy's basket. "No one has found the real eggs, though," Lucy said. "Let's keep looking," Bradley said. They were standing under a tall oak tree. "Maybe if I climb up high, I'll be able to see eggs

down on the ground," Lucy said. "Here, hold this." Lucy handed the basket to Bradley, then started climbing the oak tree. The boys watched her use her hands, feet, and arms as she moved higher. "She's like a monkey!" Nate said. "See any eggs?" Bradley called up to Lucy. "Not yet," she called back. "But I can see our houses!" Lucy started climbing down. She was on a lower branch when she yelled, "There's one egg up here!" "Where? Can you get it?" Nate called up to her. "I think so." Lucy wrapped her legs and one arm around the branch. With her free hand, she reached into a hollow place in the branch. She pulled out a plastic egg. "Here's number five!" she cried. Bradley held up the basket, and Lucy placed the egg in among the others. Then she swung down to the ground.

"Open it!" Bradley said. Lucy did, and she found a shiny dime. "No fair, she gets money!" Brian said. The others laughed. "If you'd climbed the tree, you'd have gotten the dime," Lucy said, grinning. "Okay, what's next?" Nate asked. "We checked the whole park." "The notes didn't say all the eggs would be in the park," Bradley said. He glanced around. "Maybe some are hidden over by the high school or the elementary school." "Nate and I will check the high school grounds," Brian said. He and Nate took off running. "Come on, Lucy," Bradley said. They headed past the band shell toward Silver Circle. They walked onto the lawn that surrounded their school. They both kept their eyes down but saw no eggs in the grass.

"If you were the Shadow, where would you hide the eggs?" Lucy asked Bradley. Bradley headed toward some playground equipment. "Over there," he said. They jogged to the swing set. There was also a jungle gym, a seesaw, and a merry-go-round. Bradley put the basket on the ground and sat on a swing. "But I don't see any eggs," he said. Lucy was on her knees, peering under the merry-go-round. "Well, I do!" she said. She reached under and pulled out a blue egg. "Way to go!" Bradley yelled. "That's the sixth egg!" Lucy opened the egg. "Yum, pink jelly beans!" She offered one to Bradley and ate the other one. Bradley jumped off the swing and helped Lucy search. They didn't discover any more eggs there. Then Lucy noticed something. "What's that little house?" she asked. She was pointing toward a playhouse. It was behind some hedges, next to the school building.