I’m Ferdinand, but everyone calls me “Andy.” Dad named me after our supposed great-great-great-great-too-many-greats great grandfather, Ferdinand Magellan. You know, the famous explorer and map maker. Well, that was his claim to fame. I’d rather be an influencer or have my own brand of clothing and music, but that’s me.

The rest of my family are full of interesting characters. Dad, who is oh so great at handing out names, used to work for NASA. He loves rockets. Mom is a paleobotanist. She loves really old plants. And my uncle Reggie? Well he is … A piece of work. At least that’s what my dad calls him. Never had a real job, but is always traveling the globe. He used to let me come on expeditions with him during the summer like this one time we went to Egypt and I met his assistant, Desiree, who was …fit. Anyway, we got to explore this old tomb and excavate real artifacts, like from the time of the Pharaohs. Yeah, I was definitely more of a nerd back then.

I miss my Uncle Reggie. He’s been out of town for years, kind of “missing in action.” Last we heard he was on the hunt for “El Dorado” — the legendary city of gold — somewhere down in the Amazon jungle. So I was surprised when I got a package delivered from him for my birthday. It was just a sealed cardboard tube with my name and address on it and a message in his handwriting that just said, “For your eyes only. Open on your birthday,” and signed in blood red ink, I guess for emphasis.

So today’s my birthday - happy sweet sixteen to me - I open the package and it turns out he sent me an ancient looking treasure map of some sort. I was like, “Really? What am I going to do with some weird, old map?” It was probably something he found in a dusty museum basement that he thought would be a funny “gag” birthday gift. But then I saw that it had a giant “X” on it. And it looked a lot like my neighborhood. Same streets, same river, the same old park on the hill. And that’s where the X was — right in the middle of the park — close to where I used to play as a kid. But what sort of treasure could be there?

Then I saw all these ancient looking markings all around the border of the map. They looked like Old Norse runes. Uncle Reggie taught me how to read some ancient Viking languages when we traveled to Iceland. So I went up to my room and started to read them from top to bottom and crazy as it sounds each one of the runes seemed to glow as I read them aloud. Soon the whole map began to glow and the room shook and rumbled like an earthquake!

The map grew before my eyes, expanding in all directions at once! It’s like it was alive! I braced myself, as a huge gust of wind came through the windows, blowing everything away but the map. Everything on it was becoming life-size. And I felt like I was shrinking and falling… into it. I just kept staring at the growing X as it got bigger and bigger. I closed my eyes and suddenly the rumbling and shaking stopped. I looked around and I was in the park up on the hill. It’s like I became part of the map or the map sucked me in. Or somehow it transported me across town? What did uncle Reggie send me?

Maybe this would be a clue to his disappearance. But for now I was just freaked out. I’m wondering, what kind of treasure could be here in the park… Or in the map of the park? I’m so confused. But now I’m also curious, am I some kind of teenage wizard? Maybe I’m having an aneurysm?

Then a booming voice like God came out of nowhere, maybe from the map or the sky or my head, “You don’t have much time! Find the key and follow the map!“ Jeez. I’m definitely going insane. Or maybe this is real? I don’t want to go crazy or have an adventure right now. I just want to get my driver’s license and a girlfriend. Pass math this year. Get some more followers on TikTok. Anything but this! Help?