One cold, rainy afternoon twelve year old Tally Luster was walking home from school. As she plodded along the storm worsened and bitterly cold winds as well as thunder and lightning surrounded her. As the girl passed the cemetery, frightful as can be she noticed some paper wiping around in the fierce winds. She noticed it wasn’t even the slightest bit wet! Not a bit of water touched the mysterious piece of paper.

She suddenly ran after the puzzling paper in curiosity. But, just as she was about to capture it, the troublesome little thing plunged straight into the sewer.

            “Great,” said Tally.

            She looked around for something she could grab the paper with. She noticed just ahead of her their was a short, pointy stick. She snatched it quickly any poked it through the holes in the cover above the sewage.

            “Too short,” she said, frustrated. “How wonderful.”

             As the paper flowed away in the stream of muck beneath her, it suddenly got stuck on a can of Cola. This bought her just enough time to find another stick. Tally pushed the stick down slowly, her hands shaking. She poked and poked at the paper until finally she caught it on the stick.

As she pulled the paper from the sewage muck, she noticed that it had not gotten dirty at all. The paper was completely dry. And, she also realized that this was not ordinary paper...it was parchment! Made from what appeared to be deerskin. Tally pulled the stick off of the paper. Suddenly the hole where the twig had been disappeared! This paper was indeed very mysterious. Tally decided she should stop poking around, and head home. She had probably already caught a cold, and she was freezing beside that. Thunder and lightning filled the sky, and it was almost pitch black outside. The girl slipped the parchment into her backpack and stood up. Her jeans were all muddy! Great! Her mother was probably already worried sick, and now she was going to be furious that Tally had stained her brand new pants! She continued walking home, and tried contemplating the odd piece of parchment she’d found, instead of worrying about being in trouble.