Marina’s Bottle Clue

Marina finds a clear plastic bottle beside the garden gate when she arrives at Aunt Kate’s house. A folded clue is tucked inside, tied with a green ribbon. Aunt Kate explains that it begins a treasure game she has made for Marina and Bertie, not a message that washed ashore.

The clue says to look where something tall gives shade to something small. Bertie points to the apple tree, where a tiny toy house stands on the grass. Marina thinks the tall sunflower beside a low herb pot might fit as well. They have found two possible answers already.

Instead of searching every corner, they read the rest of the clue. It mentions a sweet smell that stays on fingers after touching a leaf. Aunt Kate invites them to smell a mint leaf from the herb bed. Marina recognises the fresh scent from the mint tea at home.

The children choose the herb pot beneath the sunflower. A second folded card waits beside its base, safely above the damp soil. It asks them to find a place where a person can sit while two small wheels rest underneath. Bertie grins at the new puzzle.

He looks across the garden and spots a bench with a wheelbarrow parked beneath it. Marina notices that the barrow has only one wheel. “Two means two,” she says gently. They keep looking rather than changing the clue to suit the first thing they see.

Beside the shed is a garden seat with a small toy trolley underneath. Its two wheels match the clue. Aunt Kate lifts the light seat cushion while the children stand beside her, revealing a flat envelope containing a photograph of the whole family at last summer’s picnic.

The treasure is an invitation to another family picnic next weekend. Marina likes the photograph more now that she has worked out the clues leading to it. Bertie suggests putting their finished cards in order so they can explain why each choice fitted better than the other possibilities.

Before going indoors, Marina returns the empty bottle to Aunt Kate’s game box. The cards stay dry inside its wide opening, ready for another puzzle. “Our first guesses were not silly,” Bertie says. “They just did not fit every part.” Marina hopes to write the next set of clues herself.