The Young Detectives III – The Lost Detectives!
Summertime fun in the sun began
with the last bell of school day. It signified that it was time to throw away
the school bags and forget about anything to do with school for three months at
least. After I came back home, I rested for the whole day.
The next morning I woke up with total freshness. I couldn’t make up my
mind on what to do first this summer… so me, Reza and Ahmad planned to visit
Abid’s house, a new friend of ours. He shifted to our neighbourhood about a
month ago; his mom and Reza’s mom knew each other and were kind of best mates.
We got along and became friends easily; he admired us a lot as he knew about our past heroic
incidents. As time passed by, our friendship grew better and closer. He was a
friendly and good-hearted person. He was indeed one of the kindest people I
have met.
That day, we went to his house. He welcomed and took us to the living
room, turned on the T.V and brought us some drinks while we were
watching. After sometime, he suddenly started to show some sad faces…
"What’s the matter?” I asked. "I and my family are going to visit our
relatives in a village near the Woods next week and I don’t want to leave you
guys” he replied. When we heard the word ‘Woods’, we all 3 started
wondering. We asked him the
location of the village and it matched exactly with the one we went last time.
"I wonder why you are all asking me the location. Are you going to come
with me? That would be so nice” asked Abid. Hmm… excuse us for a minute”
replied Reza. We three turned to ourselves and started murmuring about this
matter, but all in our mind was - ‘The
Map’
"I wish we had the map, and then I would definitely go with him” I said.
"What map?” Reza asked. "The map Ahmad threw in the lake…”. I replied
sarcastically. We silently noticed Ahmad with a naughty smile and a raised
eyebrow. "And what makes you smile right now?” I murmured angrily. "Haha! I
never threw the map in that lake!” He answered grinning. "So you lied!”
we cried. "I had to; I thought that was the only way which could keep us safe”.
"So where is it now?”. "I hid it somewhere in the Woods…”. "Good, do you
remember the place exactly?”. "Yes, I think so”
We three kept on discussing about this enthusiastically when Abid came
in and said happily… "Well, hope you guys have made a decision, and what were
you discussing about, seems something interesting?”
"We’re going to ask our parents. We will let you know tomorrow, don’t
worry. And we were actually discussing about……” We told him everything from the
beginning. He said, "Wow! That will be so fun! I hope your parents will
let you to come with me”
We enjoyed the rest of the day. It was
then time for us to go back home. The next day I woke up, soon got ready, had
breakfast and then called Ahmad and Reza, asking them to come to Abid’s house.
We reached there in no time.
"We can come with you!” we said, happily. We were all jumping out of
excitement. The whole day, we did nothing but enjoyed ourselves playing and
later slept nicely.
At last, the awaited day arrived. We all gathered at Abid’s house. We
were all ready. We brought our bikes, bottles and a bag full of
necessary stuffs. Two vans parked near us.
We put our stuffs and bikes in one van and went ourselves in the other.
The vehicles took off and the journey began. It lasted for two hours and a half; we were so
exited.
It was 12 o’clock noon when we reached the village. We drove to the
house, it was very clean and one of the biggest houses in that village I think. We entered in and
were welcomed by the people there. They led us to our rooms. We unpacked our
stuffs and rested after the long journey. Later, we had our lunch and stayed at their house for
the rest of the day.
The next day at 9 o’clock sharp, we asked if we could go for biking, and
yes, we were permitted. We took our bags along with us but before we left the
main gate, Abid shouted… "Oh no, hold on… I forgot my toothbrush! I’m always
advised to keep it with me, just a minute please!”, running back to fetch it.
We looked at each other being speechless…
Our actual intention was to find the map. As we went to the Woods, it
became very difficult to ride our bikes. Ahmad was leading us to the map; he
took us to a small lake in the Woods. He went through some trees, dug the
ground and finally got the map!
Before we started to even think about anything regarding that, we decided
to go back to the old cottage, thinking we might find something useful. We
paddled our bikes there and locked them nearby. The cottage was empty. There
was a bundle of useless papers. We were looking for something really useful. We
astonishingly found an old compass! We were glad because without it, it would
be impossible to know the directions. Suddenly, Reza shouted…
"Yes! I found a binocular. I’m sure it’s going to be handy!” We first
thought he found the treasure… really got us shocked, "Alright then, let
the adventure begin!” I said.
We followed the direction accordingly for 30 minutes until we became
very tired. Every tree began to seem like umbrellas and the ground as bed. We
took a tree’s shelter and soon fell asleep…
A creepy voice woke me up. It was a monkey’s voice I think. The sun was
just above my head, meaning that it was 12 PM already. I looked around and saw Abid still sleeping but not
Reza and Ahmad; they weren’t there! I quickly woke him up.
He jumped and asked, "Where are Ahmad and Reza?! I was surprised when he
asked that without even noticing anything… "Well, that’s what I am trying to
figure out myself” I added, "But how come you ask me that question?” "I had a
nightmare… Reza and Ahmad were lost and they were attacked by… uhm… something I
don’t really remember… and I also saw MYSELF, helping them” he explained.
His dream sounded strange and somehow I felt it had to do something
later on. We started looking for them. We searched everywhere around us, and
later, realized we were ourselves lost…
"What are we going to do now, Abdullah?” Abid asked, getting afraid. "We
have tried to find them but failed to do so. And we can’t find our way back
either, so the only thing we can still do is to follow the map which might lead
us to some treasure!” I replied. "So you’re suggesting that we go
treasure-hunting, leaving our friends behind and a hope to find a way back?”.
"No, that’s not my point. I said we have no other option left. And who knows,
maybe we will find them on our way?”
Thus, the real adventure began. I started to study the map. I had to
hold it carefully as it was very old and could be torn very easily. We both
headed towards south-west of the Woods. We walked for a mile or two. It
was around 6 PM as the sun was completely red. It was getting dark gradually,
so we began to rest for that time being. Meanwhile, we heard some voices. We
tried to follow and it was so shocking to find small huts where people lived.
They looked like Native Americans. We got afraid and began to shiver
inside. We immediately planned to escape. At that very moment, a woman called
us back, by some strange names, and her language was very strange too. She then
took us to a crowd of people in those huts. Everyone was speaking normally, but
in a very strange language, though similar to English, and behaved as if they
knew us already for a long time, especially Abid. A person took both of us to a
place where foods were served… probably a cafeteria.
When a
person is… over-hungry, he is ready to eat whatsoever you serve him and that
was the case with us. They served us their dishes and we had them till our
stomachs couldn’t fill anymore. Suddenly, I felt a hard thing in my teeth; I
asked that man what ingredients they used. I felt dizzy when I came to know that
we were actually having fried sea-crabs with frog’s brain soup! Quite
indigestive! My stomach began roaring and I felt like vomiting everything out.
I saw Abid, he was eating nonstop...
We then
slept in the guest hut; the whole night, something really put me into thinking
for a long time, "Why did the people here behave as if they already knew Abid?
I was very worried and confused. But as time went on, my eyes’ shutters closed
and soon I fell asleep...
‘X’ mark is close to the
river. I asked "Then why did the man say there wasn't anything like that
nearby?" Abid explained "Hmm... there are two possible answers to
that, either the man doesn't know or there is something he hid from us".
"Let's follow the map and see what we come up to then" I suggested.
We searched the
whole village but couldn’t find any sign of it; we had only ONE choice left…
‘Walk blindly towards the mark ‘X’. We began to walk to the west. The sun was
so hot as if someone had replaced the ‘Sun-Bulb’ by a new one. We sat under a
tree; a cold breeze was blowing which was very peaceful, so we planned to stay
for some time. Suddenly, an arrow passed between us and pierced into the tree!
Without a word, we both got hold of our bags and started to run. While running,
we could hear some voices calling "Stop, Stop!”. We had to stop because saving
our lives was far more important than finding treasures…
We started
panting, looking where the voices came from. I could see some figures getting
closer and closer. It was surprising to see Reza and Ahmad, but not as
surprising as seeing the other person! Although he was clothed in a very
strange way, carrying a bow and some arrows, he was just… a double of Abid!
"What!
But...... how come……?” we both faced a jaw-dropping moment, completely
speechless! "There’s no time to explain, we need to hurry. We have come to know
about the treasure’s location, thanks to your brother” said Reza.
"Huh… my what?
I never had nor have a brother. What do you mean he’s my brother?” Abid
exclaimed. "10 years ago, I, you and our parents came to this place near the
lake for a picnic; we both were 5 years old then. You were playing with dad and
mom was sitting down somewhere. As for me, I was chasing a beautiful butterfly.
I slowly realized I was lost… I couldn’t find any of you. The sunset began. I
was weeping and searching for you people when I finally lost hope and fell on
the ground, spreading my arms and legs. I was looking at the orange sky,
thinking what I would be doing without you all. After a while, a Native
American came to me. He took me to his home, gave me shelter and food for ten
years! And here I am today, seeing my brother… ”, explained Abid’s brother.
"How come I
don’t remember anything at all? Besides, what’s your name?” Abid asked. "The
name’s Abdi. I couldn’t forget the most tragic moment of my life. And can’t
believe our parents hid this from you!” Abdi replied. "Abdi? That explains why
sometimes mom called me ‘Abdi’. I thought both the names are similar so she got
confused but now, I think I was wrong. There actually is someone called Abdi,
someone like you brother… ” Abid said, smiling. I looked at Abid and said, "And
that explained your dream too!”
We all sighed
out a deep breath. "Hey Reza and Ahmad, why did you leave us alone? Where have
you guys been?” I remembered and asked. "We didn’t leave you, you left
us!” he answered, with a confused face.
"When we all slept under the tree, I had to get up, realizing that I had
forgotten my bag-pack in the cottage. When I saw Ahmad was awake too, I decided
to take him with me. We thought we would make it before you guys would even
wake up. Sadly, when we came back, you weren’t there… ”. "So all these
confusions were nothing but just a misunderstanding. Okay, I get it now!” I
said, being annoyed.
We all
followed Abdi to the treasure spot. There we reached to a small area, quite far
from the huts, but there was no sign of it, only some bones which seemed very
old. For some reason, Abdi advised us to return, because he thought it was a
dangerous and an unsafe place and it was a fact that no one ever came back once
they stepped in there. We just ignored him and kept on searching...
"I bet we can
never find this stupid treasure, even if.........” said Ahmad, and suddenly
became quiet. I turned back, saying him not to worry, but he wasn’t there!
"Hey, get me out of here!” he shouted, being in an upside-down position in a
dark and deep place, some kind of a ditch. We couldn’t believe our eyes! It was
a ditch full of GOLD, DIAMONDS and what not! It was like a dream-come-true!
"Are you seeing
what I’m seeing?!” We never imagined this moment, and Ahmed kept on screaming
for help. I noticed Abdi was getting very uncomfortable. We were ready to jump
in and fill up our bags with all those valuable gold. All of a sudden Abdi
pointed at something. We never saw anything stranger than that in our whole
life... thousands of thin, sound-sensitive, brown, dead roots... coming towards
us!
We pulled
Ahmad out and left that area, with broken hearts. Those roots eventually
covered that ditch and remained there. We didn’t stop until we came back to the
huts safely. We couldn’t even touch the treasure! Thus the whole thing turned
into like a nightmare-come-true… pretty unfair…
"What on
earth were those?!” Reza asked. "They were the ‘Deadly Botanic Roots’, dead
roots but sound-sensitive. They can’t bear much loudness, thus attack the
source” replied Abid, "I read about them
"I think they
liked Ahmed, thanks to him now” I said, with sarcasm. We all started laughing
while on our way to the cottage. Ahmad kept silent. When we got there, we took
back our bikes that we forgot. We were expecting Abdi to come with us, but he
said this place had already become his home now, so he would have to stay. We
understood his feelings. He urged us not to tell anything about him to his
parents. We promised him we won’t and
also promised that we will visit him every summer. Before we left, we gave a
warm farewell to Abdi, and I took a photo, my camera was always handy I believe...
We could almost
figure out Abid’s relatives’ house. But seeing that made us nervous, how will
his parents react? We four slowly walked and entered in. All the house members
were sitting at the round table, with hands on their heads, probably waiting
and expecting us to come back. Abid just made a knocking sound. Everyone turned
at us and cheered up. We were sure the first thing they would ask would be
"Where on earth were you four?!” but instead, they simply said, "Go have some
rest boys”. Quite astonishing, wasn’t
it...?
We slept like dead,
and had nightmares. The next morning, as soon as I woke up, I rushed to the
dining table and saw others present already. We four were having our
breakfasts. Ahmad and Reza seemed to be murmuring about something. They turned
at me and Abid and said...
"Surprise!
Here, these two are your shares” said Reza, throwing two gold coins at us. Abid
shockingly said, "Cool! Where did you get them from?”. Ahmad explained, "When I
fell in the ditch, I quickly grabbed some gold pieces and put them in my
pocket. I couldn’t control myself, got only four pieces though...”. "Haha your
quality of theft has finally benefitted us someway at least” we all laughed.
"Well... who’s goin’ treasure hunting next summer with me?” I asked, smiling
and winking…
They stared
at me for a while... but then, Ahmed was the first one to put his hand
willingly on my hand, followed by Reza, and thus Abid ended doing his part. Our
adventure continues...
