The Only Mystery I Ever Wrote

Since Loves A Mystery is here I thought I would post my only mystery story. Here it is.


Margaret, the chicken, was missing. She had been missing for a week now. It was not the first time Margaret had come up missing. She sometimes had been missing for three weeks at a time, and then showed up all of a sudden, as if no time at all had passed. But since her confrontation with Brutus, the big dog from Lester’s Field, she had been close around the farm. Now that she was missing, all the animals feared the worst… that she had been killed, finally, by the Brutus and his brothers.

Everyone searched for Margaret in their own way. Mr. A.A. Corn, and the other squirrels searched high, and Camille the Chameleon searched low.

Basil and Silverthorn searched all the tall grass on their side of the ditch. Old Agnes and her Thousands searched in and out of all the nooks and crannies. Cho Lee Yen, the peacock looked in the sunflowers and the pig’s pen. Mildred and Claudie Armadillo even searched Lester’s Field ( a wild uncivilized land, as everyone knows) with no sign of Margaret. Wooffer had sniffed the ground from here to there and did it one more time to make sure. No Margaret, not even a whiff. Where could she be! It made all the animals nervous and fearful. What terrible thing had happened to Margaret. Why couldn’t she be found? Wooffer meant to find out.

Wooffer has very (and I do mean, very, very, very) good hearing. He would listen night and day for any sound of Margaret. A cluck, a squawk, a cackle… if she made a sound, he would hear it. Wooffer listened for three days and three nights. Very early on the fourth day he heard a faint cluck, cluck, cluck. It seemed a long way off. Wooffer’s mom was still sleeping, but he pushed her with his nose until she woke up and let him out the door. He sniffed the air and listened for another sound, but none came. He wandered off in the direction he had heard the clucking, but no Margaret was to be seen or heard or smelled. But Wooffer felt sure that the clucking he had heard was Margaret. That meant she was still alive! He hoped that he was right.

While Wooffer was listening for any sound of Margaret, the other animals were listening, too. They had all heard the faint cluck… cluck… cluck at the same time that Wooffer had heard it. They were all sure it was Margaret and that she was alive. Oh, Great Day In The Morning!!!! But they had to find her! She might be hurt… or trapped… or… they did not know what bad thing!

Wooffer asked Cho Lee Yen if he could THINK like a chicken, since he was a bird, too. Cho Lee said, “I don’t know if I can think like a CHICKEN, but I might be able to think like Margaret. She does talk to me a lot, you know.” So Cho Lee tried to think like Margaret. He thought very hard, but all he could remember was that she wanted to hatch eggs one day like all the other chickens. She had heard about hatching eggs from the other chickens before they were all killed by the big dogs. It was her dream.

None of the other animals, and especially Wooffer, knew anything at all about eggs (much less about hatching them), except Camille. Lizards lay eggs, Camille knew that, but hatching was something she had never heard of since lizards don’t hatch their own eggs. They hatch all by themselves. But Camille had heard the other lizards talking, and knew that laying eggs was something important to do.

Cho Lee explained about laying and hatching eggs. “All birds do it,” he explained.” There comes a time for every “hen” (that is what girl birds are called) when she knows it is time to lay eggs and hatch them.”

Wooffer asked Cho Lee “Where would Margaret go if she wanted to lay eggs. Maybe that is what she is doing and why we cannot find her. Think! Cho Lee. Think!”

Cho Lee did not have to think very long. He knew what every bird knows. She would build a nest in a safe, hidden spot, where she could see everything for a long way in all directions. Cho Lee ran off in the direction that the “cluck… cluck… cluck,” was heard that morning. He searched the tall grass and weeds until he saw Margaret setting in her hidden nest. She was very quiet. She hoped nobody would see her. Margaret had laid fifteen white eggs and was keeping them warm, hoping they would hatch this time. Cho Lee turned around and came back to where Wooffer and the other animals were waiting. He said, “Margaret is setting on eggs and does not wish to be disturbed. She is sorry everyone was so worried, but she is trying to hatch the eggs. She hopes everyone will understand.”

Everyone was very glad that Margaret was not hurt, and they all hoped she hatched her eggs almost as much as she did. Cho Lee had solved the mystery. When all the other animals had gone about their own business, Cho Lee went quietly up to Margaret and kept her company for a long time, talking about this and that and what to call the chicks when they hatched, and other comforting things to talk about with a chicken who is setting on eggs.


Love,
Betty

A nice mystery with a happy ending. What more could anyone ask for?

Good job, Betty

It's beautiful, Betty. If only we could create happy endings in the real world.

Ann

That was very cute, Betty, and thank you, I feel honoured that you would post a mystery because I am here! (I hope I can call you Betty even though we have not been formally introduced. )

This would make a great picture book for children! You have a nice way with words, reminds of the books I would read to my nieces and nephews when they were younger.

You should read her first book, Wooffer, lovesamy. Talk about delightful stories to read to children, Wooffer is full of them.

I'll add it to my list! Although my nieces and nephews are working on getting married so I am pretty sure they've outgrown being read to ....

Yeah, but I bet they'll be having their own children. One great thing about books - they don't expire after a certain date.

Thank you all for your nice words.
There was a time, not too long ago, when I wrote stories for something interesting to send to my family on the email. I had gotten my first computer with Window's 3.5 and bought an external modem 14.4 to connect to the internet. Talk about a life altering moment! I went nuts. I stayed up all hours of the night and chatted on ICQ to people world wide.
My David was so jealous of that he called them "my love lines."

Since then, I have gotten a grip on my self.

Those little stories I blabbed out on that old computer and sent to my family turned me into an author. I wrote willy-nilly and had such a fine time.

Wooffer, my little dog, was my window to the world in a time when most of my moments were working hard and long hours out here in the wilderness. He showed me the world of little animals that I had noticed but never took much time to think about. Unlike me, he noticed every movement and every smell, every creature no matter how small.

That is how Wooffer, the book was written. There is something so profound in the connection of all these small lives and us. I know it is the secret of life.

Love,
Betty

Betty,

You are a treasure!

Carol

My daughter talks to grasshoppers... does that count?

Dear Phil,
You would be surprised how many people never notice grasshoppers. My neighbor was talking to me this day across the fence.

She said, 'Have you seen all those little crickety bugs that are coming out. A thousand of them were on my little pool yesterday. Do they bother your plants?"

We have had, as every year this time, the great grasshopper hatch. They start out little black hoppers and grow and grow and finally split down the back and emerge as a three inch yellow grasshopper with orange wings.

I am proud that your daughter knows how to speak grasshopper. They have some tales to tell if anyone could understand their language. I cannot, but Wooffer does.

Love,
Betty

Love,
Betty