Leo looked at the trunk of the tree he was leaning against. High up, where the main branches split, was a knot that looked suspiciously like a keyhole.
He looked up, half-expecting the psychedelic cat from the cover to be watching him from a branch. The park was quiet, save for the distant sound of a lawnmower. He looked at the key, then back at the magazine. On the very last page, in the "Letters to the Editor" section, a small, bolded line at the bottom read: “The lock is in the hollow of the old oak at the center of the world.” Piff Magazine No 46 1973
Leo’s heart hammered. He flipped back to page 14—a slapstick comic about a detective named Inspector Piff. He looked closely. Behind the final panel, where the Inspector was slipping on a banana peel, there was a faint, raised outline. Using his fingernail, Leo carefully peeled back the edge of the paper. Hidden in the binding was a tiny, silver key. Leo looked at the trunk of the tree he was leaning against
“To whoever finds this: The secret is on page 14, behind the comic strip. Don’t let the cat see you looking.” The park was quiet, save for the distant
The cover featured a psychedelic, hand-drawn illustration of a cat wearing aviator sunglasses, lounging on a slice of pepperoni pizza that was floating through a nebula. It was absurd, it was colorful, and it was exactly what Leo needed to escape another long summer in the suburbs.
That summer, didn't just give Leo a story to read—it gave him one to live.