The Cornfield Maze Mystery

Book excerpt: Across the dull gray sky of a late October afternoon, two girls, standing on a slight rise near a cornfield, fold their arms across their windbreakers. With cheeks aglow from the frosty air, their eyes dance with excitement. Lila and her best friend, Erin, have just decided that today is the day that they will conquer the cornfield maze on the Dunphy's Family Farm. Lila and Erin gleefully push open the wooden gate and enter the cornfield maze. Erin starts running down the path, laughing and yelling that she will go first. She tells Lila that she must count to twenty before she follows. But when the time comes for them to meet up, Lila can't find Erin-she has disappeared! What could have happened to her? Erin can't find her way out of the cornfield, and the darkening sky looks more and more like rain. She is running now, crashing carelessly through the dead corn stalks, too frantic to recoil from the dry leaves whipping her face as she charges along. Unexpectedly, she sees a shadowy form, just ahead, not moving. It stands motionless, partially obscured by the high stalks. She stops, stunned. Will she ever find her way out of the maze and back to Lila? Inspired by the photo above, featuring the author's granddaughters, this story is part reality and part fantasy, recalling a wonderful afternoon spent romping through a large cornfield maze.