A Holiday Adventure by Shreya Devarajan

(Age Group 7-11yrs)

“Ooh, I’m freezing!” exclaimed Merope Quint to her best friend
Hallie Parker.
Hallie had been staying at Merope’s place, a lovely bungalow by the
English beachfront, for the summer. The two friends were having
loads of fun, visiting different places every day. Merope had just
been swimming in the town pool that evening. Hallie, however, was
addicted to her comic book and preferred to read it lounged on a
poolside chair while watching her best friend splash around in the
pool. They were walking back home after yet another lovely evening.
“Of course you will, if you’ve just had a long swim!” laughed Hallie.
“Lucky I chose not to wet myself in the water.”
“Well, we could just go home and play Uno or watch some television,”
suggested Merope. “Honestly, I’ve got no energy to do anything else
today.”
“I’m all in for being a couch potato,” said Hallie, “because I’ve never
been an outdoorsy person, as you perfectly well know.”
The girls grinned at each other.
“Well, we’d better hurry,” Hallie said, “or else Mr and Mrs Quint will
be worried!”
“Right you are,” nodded Merope as the two girls made their way
back home.
However, complete silence greeted them when they cheerily
announced their arrival and opened Merope’s lovely family bungalow
by the sea, which had been her home for the past few years. It
was very surprising indeed, for Mrs. Quint was always very prompt
in fussing over the girls as soon as they arrived, armed with hot
chocolate and their other favourites.
“Well, maybe Mum and Dad have just gone to the market,” said
Merope. “We’re always out of bread or milk.”
“Or maybe they’ve gone to get your bicycle repaired,” suggested
Hallie. “Didn’t you mention that your bicycle broke just a week ago?”
“Yes, but the shop is closed – the shopkeeper is on sick leave,”
pointed out Merope. “And the market isn’t open either – it closes in
the afternoons.”
Hallie sighed, “Hmmm… this is fishy. They would have not left
without mentioning it to us this afternoon. Well, it’s good we had a
spare key. Let’s call your dad and find out where they have
disappeared!”
They quickly dialed Mr Quint’s phone number. When they got no
answer, they tried Merope’s mom’s mobile number too. No answer
there either.
“Oh dear,” Merope kept whispering, sounding horrified. “Oh dearie!”
Hallie, however, wasn’t panicking. She was trying to figure out
where Mr and Mrs Quint could be. Just then, the phone rang – it
was Mrs Quint!
“Hello, girls?” she said.
“Yes,” replied Merope, sounding relieved, “we’re here. Mummy, you
scared the life out of us –“
“Yes, you did –“ sighed Hallie.
“- we were so very frightened – y-you weren’t there and – where
are you?” continued Merope.
“We’re at the beach,” replied Mrs Quint. “Sorry, we thought we’d
made a quick stop over to get some roasted corn and we ended up
staying a teensy bit longer. Of course, we would come home, but why
don’t you girls come out here? We found a new friend we’d like you
to meet!
“Ooh, alright then,” said Hallie. “We’ll come to the beach, Mrs
Quint.”
“Yes,” agreed Merope, “we’ll come.”
“Good to hear,” said Mrs Quint. “You’d better hurry, we can’t wait
here forever!”
So Merope and Hallie quickly made their way to the beach and found
Mr and Mrs Quint. They were with a tall man who smiled upon
seeing the two girls.
“Why, hello, you two,” he said in an oddly gentle tone. “My name is
Charlie Benson. You must be Merope and Hallie. Why, Mathilde and
Frank were telling me ever so much about you!”
Hallie shook hands with Charlie. However, Merope’s face was
unwelcoming and cold. She didn’t stretch out her arm or wave or
smile. After a while, she motioned for Hallie to come with her. When
Hallie did not recognize the signal, Merope dragged her away.
“What’re you –“ began Hallie.
“Shush!!” hissed Merope. “Now, tell me: do you recognize this man
who introduces himself as Charlie Benson?”
“No,” replied Hallie, shaking her head. “I’ve never seen him before.”
“Well, if you look closely,“ said Merope, “you will notice that he looks
quite like the criminal James Robert – you know, the one who’s been
robbing all the houses on the waterfront.”
James Robert was a criminal who stole prize possessions from all
rich homes. Almost every day, someone’s gold or jewels were stolen,
and it was all thanks to him! It was all the news channels could
report about.
“I do know about James Robert,” said Hallie. “They managed to
get a picture of his face on the news a couple of days ago, right?”
“Mm-hmm,” nodded Merope. “Yes, they did. And it looks like Charlie
Benson’s, doesn’t it?”
“Well, I can’t be sure…”
“It does,“ said Merope, coming to the conclusion for herself. “But
still, we can’t be sure whether this really is James Robert. The
good thing is, we’ve got a way to find out whether he is.”
“What’s that?” asked Hallie.
“Follow me.” Merope took Hallie by the arm and pulled her towards
Charlie.
“You stay here,” she whispered to Hallie so that Charlie couldn’t
hear, and before Hallie could say anything, Merope sped off to the
coconut water shop.
“Excuse me,” she politely said to the shopkeeper, “may I borrow
that rope and knife?” She was pointing to the rope that was on a
wooden chair nearby and the knife that was in the shopkeeper’s
hand.
“Sure,” replied the shopkeeper, handing over the rope and knife. “I
have a couple extra, anyways.”
Merope thanked the shopkeeper and went to join Hallie and Charlie.
They were watching a couple trying to drag their little daughter
away from the beach. The beautiful kid with short black hair and
strikingly green eyes, was throwing a huge tantrum and refusing
to leave.
“That kid is so cranky, isn’t she?” asked Merope.
“Yes, she is,” agreed Hallie, realizing what Merope was up to. James
Robert’s mother had been interviewed on TV about their family,
and Mrs Robert had mentioned her little daughter Ellie, a spoilt
brat, who was the apple of her brother’s eye. She was James’
weakness and he would appease every single tantrum of hers. The
kid on the beach reminded Merope of Ellie. Hallie caught on to
Merope’s plan of trying to get Charlie to confess that he was
James Robert and played along.
“You girls are right,” said Charlie absent-mindedly. “This kid looks
very much like my little sister Ellie. Of course, this is nothing
compared to the tantrums she threw.”
Merope quickly twisted Charlie’s hands and held them tightly behind
his back, tying them tightly with the rope; her Knotting Badge
from Guide’s camp had come in quite handy after all!
Hallie quickly picked up the knife, which had fallen to the ground.
“Ah, caught you!” she cried triumphantly, raising the knife against
Charlie’s neck. “Merope, go fetch your parents!”
Merope didn’t need telling twice. She sprinted across the beach to
Mr and Mrs Quint, who were relishing ice creams in a shop at the
far end.
“MUMMY! DADDY!” she yelled to them. “Come here, quickly!”
“What is it, Merope?” asked Mr Quint, rushing towards her with
Mrs Quint. She led a bewildered Mr and Mrs Quint to where Hallie
was holding their new found “friend” at knifepoint! “What’s all this,
girls?” exclaimed a shocked Mr Quint.
“Listen to this,” replied Merope. She took out her phone on which
she had secretly recorded their conversation with James and played
the recording.
After listening to it, Mr and Mrs Quint were shocked. Their
charming new friend, a criminal?
In the meantime, a few passers by on the beach had gathered
around and the commotion had also attracted a few policemen on
patrol, who were quickly making their way through the crowd.
“Now,” said Mr Quint, “tell me: are you really James Robert?”
“Oh yeah,” sniggered James. “And I was doing a pretty good job
fooling both of you, until these nosey girls had to come along!”
“That’s enough!” said the policeman, who quickly handcuffed James.
The other one turned to the girls and said, “You did the smartest
thing and managed to trick the criminal who has been evading the
law for many weeks now! We may have a few questions for you all
later on – but we will be in touch. For now, we are taking James
into custody – he has to answer for all the crimes he has
committed”.
As soon as James was dragged away, everyone surrounded the girls
and lauded them for their bravery. Mrs. Quint immediately sprang
into action and fussed around, shooing everyone away! “Please let
the girls have some space – I think they have had all the
excitement they can take on one evening!”
The crowd slowly dissipated, as Mr and Mrs Quint, along with
Merope and Hallie made their way back to the ice cream stand at
the far end of the beach, right outside Merope’s home.
“Well,” said Hallie, grinning,” now that’s settled, let’s have a proper
time at the beach!”
The girls had a good time at the beach, guzzling down ice cream
and walking along the shore, with the waves gently lapping at their
feet.
“You know, I never knew I could handle this,” said Hallie. “Catching
a criminal, I mean. I never knew I could do it. But I guess I can –
I mean, together we can, we did it, Merope!”
Merope smiled, “I think our names are going to be featured in the
news tomorrow! Imagine that!”
“Yes,” said Hallie, grinning widely. “When we get back to school, I
bet the whole class will be dying to hear the whole story from us!”
“Ha ha! What an adventure! Well, maybe we should keep our eyes
open – to catch the next criminal!” Merope grinned, as she skipped
along the path leading to their cottage, hand in hand with her best
friend, right behind her parents. This was the best holiday ever!