Talk:Penpal/@comment-25149810-20140707131744/@comment-25148747-20140707191216

I only have enough time right now to deeply explain one of the many elements of the story, so I guess I'll share my theories/observations/explanations on the Map and the stick figure drawing.

Keep in mind that when Josh's dad found Josh's body, there was a map found in his pocket and found in the mans' pocket was a stick figure drawing.

To recap a little bit, in “Maps” the author tells us how the summer after Kindergarten,  Josh and him started exploring the woods and lake behind his house. We also learn about Mrs. Maggie in this story, but I'll go on about her later. They already knew that the woods between their houses were connected and they wanted to see if the lake behind his house connected with the stream behind Joshs' house. They decided to make maps.

If you recall, they built a raft so that they can easily travel on the lake. The author tells us that him and Josh continued exploring and adding to the maps well into the first grade. He tells us about how him and Josh had difficultly with their explorations, because the forest was too thick in some places, and it was winter. We learn that one Saturday, the authors' mom had a work emergency and was going to be gone for two hours. She told them to stay put and that she would call every hour, but then realized she couldn't do that because their phone had been shut off. This meant the boys would have two full hours to go exploring and wouldn't have to worry about checking in with the mom.

They ran to the part in the forest where they left their raft last, and stripped down to their bathing suits, leaving their clothes in the forest. Once they passed the last charted spot on their  map, the water started to get too deep for them to push the raft with their sticks, so they laid on their stomachs and paddle with their arms. The author tells us how they were making a lot of noise while doing this, but they still heard faint noises of something walking in the forest to their right. When the boys stopped to update their map, they heard the noises again. Since it was now dark out, they started calling out “Hello” over and over. That's when the boys heard someone else say “hello”. The author describes it as sounding like “It was whispered and forced as if it were powered by the last breath in a pair of deflating lungs”. This leads me to believe that it was the man. (There is one instance the author writes about in another story that sort of proves this was the man, but that explanation will have to wait until later tonight since I don't have much time right now, sorry!) So anyway, the boys were frightened so they started to quickly paddle away. While they were paddling, they could hear that the person who (whom?)  was in the woods was now running. That's when the boys' raft fell apart. They grabbed  onto pieces of Styrofoam to try to stay afloat. But since it was winter, the water was freezing, and you know when it's cold you have a hard time moving your joints? Josh tried to catch the map that had fallen in the water and was now floating away, but was unable to do so since the water was so cold.

The boys approached their dock site and tried to get dressed as quickly as possible. Except the authors shirt was missing. (The man took it). He tells Josh to go back to his house while he goes to look for his shirt,  hoping he'll find the map too. He has no luck with either. Once safely at home, the author remembers leaving the lighter in his pocket. He goes to retrieve it so his mother doesn't find it, but he ends up finding something else. He finds a paper in his pocket that had his initials on it as well as a drawing, “inside of a large oval were two stick figures holding hands. One was much bigger than the other, but neither had faces. The paper was torn so a part of it was missing, and there was a number written near the top right corner. It was either "15" or "16"”. He asks Josh if he put the paper in his pants, but of course Josh didn't do it, the man did. The boys were probably 5 or 6 years old when this happened, remember the author mentioned being in the first grade? Fast forward to “Friends”, when the authors mom searched the mans' dead body for identification, all she found was a paper “On it was a drawing of a man holding hands with a small boy and next to the boy were initials. My initials.”

The man most likely stole the authors shirt and put the paper in his pants pocket right after they stripped down to their bathing suits and started paddling away on their raft. The rustling they heard off to their right side while they were on the raft must have been the man following them. When the boys realized the noises they were hearing were real, they called out to the forest, not expecting a reply since they probably thought it was just an animal. When they heard the man faintly respond “hello”, the author lit some fireworks off since it was getting late and dark out. The fireworks didn't help the boys see who was there, but it did scare the man. The man started running, as well as the boys started paddling home. The man probably took cover at Mrs Maggies' house, and that's why she tells the author that Tom is home.

After that whole incident, the man probably went back to the lake when no one was there and looked for the map the boys lost. He found it and took it, eventually putting it in Josh's pocket the day they were buried alive.

When Joshs' body is found with the map in his pocket, the author shares how Josh was probably finishing the map to give to the author as a present for his 12th birthday. But during the raft incident, Joshs' map floated away. The author worries that Josh was taken while he was out trying to expand the map, but that can't be the case since Josh didn't have his map. Josh was straight up kidnapped from his own bedroom. All the signs are there. In “Footsteps”, the author was kidnapped by the man and was taken to that spot in the woods. Come to find out the man forged a letter and left it on the boys' bed so that his mother would think he ran away. In Josh's case, we learn from “Screens” that Josh never came to visit Veronica in the hospital because he had ran away and left a note on his pillow. Obviously Josh was kidnapped and the letter was forged by the man.

As for the other note with the stick figures, the number 15 or 16 that was written could stand for the age of Josh when he died. In “Screens” we learn the author was 15 at the time he met Veronica. Since Josh and the author were around the same age, maybe the number 15 or 16 represents his age. The man could have been planning to kill Josh once he was 15 or 16. I made a reply to Siberiandog in which I went into detail how Josh was killed shortly after Veronica's death. I suggest you read that if you're confused with this part of the time line! To state the obvious, since the note found in the authors pocket when he was 5 or 6 had stick figures and his initials, and the note found on the dead mans body has stick figures and his initials, the man must have been the one in the forest that one winter night.