The Overdue Book
The library book had been overdue for forty-one years. Mila knew because the date was stamped in purple ink on the card inside the cover: Return by March 3, 1985.
She found it wedged behind the radiator in her grandma's attic, a very big atlas with a cracked green spine. When she opened it, a folded square of paper slid out and landed on her shoe.
It was a map. Not of any country in the atlas, but of her own street. Someone had drawn her house, the bus stop, and the old oak tree on the corner. Under the oak tree was a small red X.
Mila was very scared, but she was also curious, and curious usually won. The attic was really quiet except for the rain tapping on the roof.
She folded the map, tucked it in her hoodie pocket, and ran down the stairs very fast.
"Grandma," she said loudly, "who used to live in this house?"