Naomi had spent most of the morning in the back room of the Cape Town library, South Africa, where the old maps were kept. Most people didn't know the back room existed. Most people didn't care.
She was paging through a rolled map from the 1800s when she stopped. Lion's Head - the rocky peak that rose above the city like a crouching giant - was sketched in the upper corner. She'd seen Lion's Head on a hundred maps. But just below it, someone had drawn something else. A small rock, roughly the shape of a tortoise, sitting in the fold of the hillside. She knew that rock - she'd climbed on it once when she was six. It wasn't on any modern map.
Her finger traced the area just beside it. A small mark. A cave entrance? She rolled the map up carefully and headed for the door.
The cave was right where the map said it would be, tucked behind a curtain of brush on the hillside. She had walked past this hill her whole life. Inside, the air was cool and still. Red and brown paintings covered the walls - ancient figures, animals moving across the stone. At the back, a column stood near the wall, each of its four sides painted with a single animal. A lion. An elephant. A giraffe. A rhino.
Behind the column, on the wall, was a flat disc - four carved wheels arranged in rings around a sealed stone panel at the center. Each wheel showed one of the same four animals. She walked around it slowly. This was a safe. She needed the combination.
She studied the column. Lion on the right. Elephant on the left. Giraffe at the top. Rhino at the bottom. She turned to the disc and rotated each wheel to match - lion to the right, elephant to the left, giraffe to the top, rhino to the bottom. She stepped back.
Nothing. She pushed the panel. Nothing.
She looked at the column. Looked at the disc. Looked at the column again. Something was wrong with her thinking. She just couldn't see what yet. She sat down on the cave floor, thinking through the puzzle.
After thinking for twenty minutes, she still had no answer. Then suddenly the sun peeked through the cave entrance, blinding her for a moment. She put her hand up to shade her eyes. She knew that light. That was the sun setting outside the cave.
But wait. That meant - that was West.
She jumped up and went back to the column - to the Lion. The lion was painted facing her - straight on. It was looking right out the cave entrance. The lion was facing West. She rushed over to the disc - and this time noticed something carved into the stone around the wheels, barely visible in the shadows. N. S. E. W.
"The lion is facing West, but I have him on the right. It's all just backwards!"
Knowing she had cracked the puzzle she quickly moved the wheels. Lion to the left, lining up with the W. Elephant on E. Giraffe on S. Rhino on N. One by one the wheels clicked. Then for a moment nothing. She thought she had failed again. But a noise rose from within the rock, a rumbling like gears turning.
The panel slid open. Inside sat a curved piece of metal, its edge lined with fine marks spreading outward like the arm of a star. A piece of something larger. She didn't know what - only that it had been hidden here carefully for a very long time. She wrapped it in the cloth from her pack.
"I've been looking for that." A girl stood at the cave entrance, backpack on, boots dusty, goggles perched on her forehead. "My name's Lily," she said. She pointed to the artifact in Naomi's hand. "And I can tell you all about that."
Note for Caregivers
Naomi doesn't quit when her first answer is wrong. She sits with it, stays curious, and tries again from a different angle. For kids managing diabetes, that same willingness to adjust - to look at the same information differently when something isn't working - is something they practice every day. The numbers don't change. Sometimes you just need a new way of reading them.
What This Story Models
- Trying again after failure without frustration - staying curious instead of giving up.
- Understanding that the same information can mean different things depending on how you look at it.
- Building confidence through figuring things out, not through getting it right the first time.
For Conversations at Home
- Ask your child about a time something wasn't working and they had to try a different approach - what did they change?
- Talk about how the same number can mean different things at different times. What else do they pay attention to besides the number itself?
- Share a moment when you got something wrong, adjusted, and figured it out. Let them see that process is normal.
Our Hope
We hope this story reminds children that:
- Getting it wrong the first time doesn't mean you're on the wrong track.
- Adjusting your approach is smart thinking, not failure.
- Figuring something out on your own - even when it takes a few tries - is one of the best feelings there is.
And we hope it reminds caregivers that:
- Every time your child adjusts and tries again, they are building real problem-solving strength.
- Context matters in care - helping your child understand the why behind their numbers is just as valuable as the numbers themselves.
- The confidence that comes from working through hard things stays with them.
