“Your map?” Has Nellie had a piece of the map all along? Eli can’t believe it

Eli: Nellie and I worked things out, finally.

Nellie: And I was able to pass Eli some of the tools I’d found from the clubhouse. I wonder what he’ll make out of them.

The rocks crash to the ground in a shower of dirt and pebbles. Eli blinks through the mess and moves away some of the bigger rocks. He wipes his dusty glasses on his wet sweatshirt and squints through the dark.

Nellie is standing a few feet back, and she grins in the dim purple light when she sees him. “You did it!”

Eli beams back at her. “Now, let’s get out of here and go home.” He steps onto the pile of broken rocks and over to Nellie’s side.

Something catches his eye in the dirt. There’s a flash of white, a corner of a piece of paper, and Eli kneels down to gently pull it out from between the rocks. Its thickness feels familiar, just like the paper he has in his pocket, and his eyes go wide when he recognizes it.

“It’s part of my map!” The markings are similar, the same trees and paths winding through the woods, but the paper is longer than Eli’s, much bigger.

That’s why his map had made no sense. It was just a piece of the whole map!

“No,” Nellie says, and she crouches with him over the map, her eyes shining. “It’s part of my map.”

“Your map?” Has Nellie had a piece of the map all along? Eli can’t believe it. They’d spent so much time fighting instead of comparing notes, and they’d have gotten much further if they’d just known…