The Young Detectives II: More than a Camp! (By Abdullah, Reza, Ahmad and
Abid)
A cold breeze touched my face which almost woke me up. The fog
was disappearing as the sun was rising. The birds were singing with their melodious
voice. The leaves were waving rhythmically with the breeze. It was a wonderful
morning, but one thing that had saddened me... IT WAS A SCHOOL DAY! But at the
same time I was happy as it was the last week of our academic year.
I had my breakfast and went to school. As I reached there, I saw
Abdullah and others, they were happy and were laughing with joy. I asked him
the reason for their enjoyment; he replied that our school would be attending a
picnic tomorrow. But Ahmad seemed to be disagreeing with the idea as he was
scared of ‘monkeys’. We comforted him by saying that the school would be
camping in the safe area and not in wilderness. We all discussed about foods
and other items for the picnic.
I heard some ringing sound next morning; I opened my eyes and
shook my head. It was 7:00 AM and I was late for school. I again heard a
ringing sound; it was a call from Abdullah and Ahmad. They were outraged as I
didn’t answer their phone calls and I didn’t go to school. Without thinking
anything I got ready and rushed towards out. There I found Abdullah and Ahmad waiting.
I apologized them and signed my attendance to the picnic supervisor. Soon we
all got into the bus; the bus travelled for couple of hours and was warm by the
joy and shouting of the students.
We have passed the city and the bus was traveling very fast.
Suddenly the bus stopped and we all fell on our knees. The driver then said
that the gear was not working and the place was a remote area. Later he said
that it would take several hours to mend it. The phones weren’t working as the
network was not at the range. The teacher said not to worry and to place a camp
there for the time being. The teacher advised everyone to stay close with the
group.
As it was boring and too crowdy there, we three wanted to have
some fun. We went far away for a little time. The place was new to us and it
was fun exploring every bit of it. We heard some sounds, at once Ahmad cried
"Monkeys?!” We two began to laugh and said to him, "Calm down, it’s just a wind
blowing the dried leaves.” We were having a wonderful time by making fun of
Ahmad. But suddenly Abdullah said, "Wait a minute! I think we’re late.” And
Ahmad looked at his watch and agreed. So we rushed back running as fast as we
could. At last we reached and were panting, we found no one there. We predicted
that the bus got repaired and set off without noticing us.
As we were near to the road, Abdullah said "Why don’t we walk
along the road till we find a hope for help?” I asked, "Which way? Right or
Left?” He replied "Obviously, the way back!” And Ahmad was scared and worried
at all times. We walked for a long distance about an hour and rested near
woods. At last we could see something moving.... It was a brand new black car
with shiny rims and it was without any number-plate. As we were excited we
didn’t think much, so we waved our hands in order to attract the driver’s
attention. It slowed down and we thought it was stopping for us but it passed
by without any response. We lost our hopes and were furious at the driver. We
began to walk along the road with our broken hopes. It was getting dark as if
it was the beginning of darkness in our lives. Ahmad said, "I don’t want
to die so early". I replied, "Don’t worry; as long as we are together
we will be safe”.
Again we saw a car coming. We weren't that excited as we were
before and were afraid of losing hope again. We waved our hands hoping to
receive some help. As the driver noticed us, fortunately he stopped. He asked
us "What are you kids doing here at this time? "Abdullah said, "We
are lost and hoping that someone can take us back home". He asked us,
"Where do you guys live?" I gave him our location. He replied
"It is getting dark now, so I will take you guys to a nearby village where
I live, and I will take you back next morning". We were scared and lost,
so we agreed to his offer. We drove to his village passing the woods, his
village was fewkilometers away.
We went with him and he took us to the village. It was lovely, quiet and small.
We spent our night in his house.
At the next morning we were having our breakfast. While we were eating, we were
also reading a newspaper, on the front page it said "Three kids are
missing after a school camp .....” We were sure that the newspaper was talking
about us. And below that, there was a picture of a car where it said "A
car was stolen from......" we were surprised to know that all the
description of the car was as same as the one which we saw yesterday passing
past us while we were looking for help. We thought of hiding the newspaper so
that the man won't recognize us as the lost children from a school picnic.
After hiding the newspaper we went to the man saying "Wow!! This
village is lovely and we would like to have a walk around here.” He asked, "Are
you sure? You are new here and you might get lost.” We said, "Sir it’s okay! We
are grown up enough” The man smiled and sweetly said, "Okay but come back as
soon as possible; we have a long way to drive tomorrow”. We agreed. He left and
went somewhere. I brought the newspaper back and looked at the descriptions
clearly, when Ahmad said "I don’t know what you guys are planning; But we
have a chance to go back, now let’s go back with that man, it would be safe for
us”. Abdullah said, "Hey stop being a 'Scary Cat’, just follow us".
Abdullah suddenly came up with an idea and said "Wait a minute, why was
the car going slowly and it didn’t even stop for us?” Ahmad said "No idea”. I
said, "Maybe its petrol was finishing or something….?” Abdullah explained, "No,
it didn’t seem like its petrol was about to finish, it seemed more like it was
about to stop somewhere nearby like 50 meters away, hmm… maybe he stopped at
the woods somewhere and he was there”, Ahmad said "Ohh, now I get it!” I said
"So the woods are like a mile away and if we walk there and search properly, we
might find the car and the thief. Who knows? We might be rewarded again” Ahmad
suddenly said "I’m in!”. So we walked to the woods, it took an hour to get there. We were
surrounded by trees everywhere, we walked and walked till we could hear some
noises … it sounded like cutting of trees! We followed the sound and it was
getting louder and louder. At last we could see a small cottage and beside it
was the car, we could see the back of a man who was cutting the trees. We
couldn’t figure out his face, so we slowly tried to get close to the man’s
front side by creeping along the bushes. And when we reached, it was shocking
to find out that the man was ONE OF THE FOUR MEN WHO WERE CAUGHT LAST YEAR FOR
KIDNAPPING! Our hearts began to beat very fast, our chests were vibrating as if
we got an electric shock. The surprising ’Shock’ didn’t end here, a man came
out of the cottage saying "Come on! It‘s about to get dark.. We need to get the
woods now or else we will stay without light in the darkness” It was surprising
for us to know that IT WAS THE EX-TEACTER, after that the other man said "Okay
boss”.
As it was getting dark, we decided to leave. Abdullah said "So we
came all this way for nothing? No, we are coming back tomorrow early morning
before the man (helper) wakes up.” Ahmad was scared and kept quiet. We went
back to the home, we were hungry and tired so we ate some food and then we
threw ourselves to the bed. I could hear a whisper saying "Reza, Reza .. Wake up…” , it was
Abdullah struggling to wake me up. I woke up and slowly we got ready. Me,
Abdullah and Ahmad sneaked out of the house; we walked again to the woods till
we got to the cottage. We reached there and found out that the men weren’t
there at the place. We had a great chance, and then we went inside the cottage
and saw some guns, papers, etc... but the most interesting thing was that we
found was an OLD MAP. We thought it could lead us to some kind of treasure or
something. So I put it in my pocket, Ahmad said "Reza you better put it back or
else it may cause some troubles.” "Relax Ahmad, nothing will happen” Abdullah
replied. We decided to tell the police about this after we go back. We
stepped out of the cottage, we made sure that the car was still there, we were
about to go back but then we heard some noises behind us; We looked back, it
was the thief and the ex-teacher! They saw us; our hearts stopped beating, we
were terrified and scared! They looked angrily at us! Without thinking we sprinted
back through the woods and they were running after us. We ran for about half a
mile when we noticed that they lost us. We were so glad and Ahmad said "I think
they remember us.” "Yes they obviously do” Abdullah said. I added "They can’t
forget the faces which put them in jail”. We all started laughing....
We rushed back to the man’s house, we went inside panting as we
said "We are.. ready to go back home.” He asked us "Why are you guys panting?
Were you running from someone? Where were you guys?”, "Ermmm.. We” Ahmad was
about to tell, but Abdullah explained "No sir we weren’t running from someone,
we were playing and having fun sir...” "Okay, so you guys are ready, let’s go”
he said. We went inside the room and packed our stuffs and then went out of the
house to his car. He started the engine, and drove out of the village. We were at
the high-way surrounded by trees..... All of a sudden, a car bumped into our
car. They were the thief and ex-teacher……….
"Reza.. Reza , wake up..” it was Abdullah again trying to wake
me up. I was tied with chains, I asked Abdullah "What the hell happened??” he
answered "I don’t know I just woke up here” I asked again "So where is Ahmad?”
"I don’t know, that is what I am trying to figure out”. We were at a small place,
it was old and quite dark. A door was opened, there was the man and the
ex-teacher and his man saying "You both were trying to fail our plan like
before, I don’t think that will happen, now hand over the map!” I was scared,
so I put my hand in my pocket and found out that the map wasn’t there. I asked
Abdullah "Do you have it?” he replied "No I never touched it..”.
The men were furious and we were scared. We didn’t know what to
do? We were out of plans and so were they. They were rubbing their heads,
thinking and thinking. They totally didn’t know what to do. We were happy and
had a little hope because Ahmad was out there somewhere.
We waited over there hoping Ahmad would come and save us all as
Abdullah said "It would be a miracle if Ahmad saved us.” I replied "ha-ha yeah,
I think so but don’t lose hope easily.” The men were talking and arguing, we
could hear something like this "I helped you escape from the prison, because I
thought you had a perfect plan, but I was wrong, you are of no use” The other
man said, "Sorry sir but let’s concentrate in this situation”….. Out of nowhere a squad of police officers rushed in the place,
we were happy! And the thing that made us happier was Ahmad, being there with
them safe, I said to Abdullah "You were right, Ahmad did it” Abdullah smiled at
me. The ex-teacher and the thief were caught, they were furious and
we knew if they come out of jail again, then the first thing they will do is
search and hunt us! We were untied and freed. We two were praising Ahmad.
One of the officers came to us and asked questions, we answered
all truly. He looked like he was impressed and he smiled at us. The officer
said "You three come with me, I will take you back” we waited and I asked Ahmad
"Where is the man (who helped us)?” He replied, "Don’t worry about him, he is
back to his consciousness”, then later we told the officer that we would go
with him. We went with the police car, it was cool! In the way there, we were
asking Ahmad what exactly happened, he answered "First when the car crashed,
you two fainted. Me and the man were worried, I saw them coming towards us, I
quickly explained the driver about them and told him to run with me……” Abdullah
said "You left us alone, how could you??” Then he said "We had to, but before
that I knew they were after the map so I took it from your pocket. We then ran
to the woods, we hid behind a tree and we could watch you guys being kidnapped,
they put you in their car, so we went back to our car and followed you guys, it
led us to that old place” I asked "So what took you so long? We were there like
for an hour?”, he continued "I knew if we went inside there alone, it would be
totally for nothing and we would get caught too, so I told the man to go back
to the village and call the police squad here and I will wait here watching you
guys” Abdullah interrupted "So you were here the whole time?” Ahmad went on
"Yes, I was … till the squad came and rescued you guys and caught them” I asked
"But what about the map, where is it now?” Ahmad said, "Oo I almost forgot! I
threw it in a lake or somewhere, I didn’t want any more trouble”. Me and
Abdullah were shocked and shouted "ARE YOU NUTS?” And he was laughing...
At last we reached our city. Before we went to our home, the
police took us to the police station, to the chief officer. We told the chief
everything, and it was the same chief that gave us the medals last year. He was
shocked as well as impressed again… We wished to have gold medals again but all he gave us was some
farewell words, pretty embarrassing... I went back home, when I entered the house my mom hugged me. She
was very happy to see me, I told her everything but she got angry for a few
minutes and yelled at me! After all, she was still happy to see me again. The
next morning I woke up and opened the door. I took the newspaper and sat down
reading it. My mom came to me saying "Since when did you start reading
newspapers???”…