Characters : Victim and all suspects come from same family.
1. Daisy : One of the suspects. A friendly and kind girl. Younger sister of Hamburger and the best friend of Kitty. First cousin to Gingey, Kitty and Nibs.
2. Kitty : Also one of the suspects. A confidant and truthful girl. Twin sister of Nibs and the best friend of Daisy. First cousin to Gingey, Daisy and Hamburger.
3. Hamburger : One of the suspects. A confused and sissy boy. Elder brother of Daisy. First cousin to Gingey, Kitty and Nibs.
4. Nibs : Also one of the suspects. Stubborn and annoying boy. Twin brother of Kitty. First cousin to Gingey, Daisy and Hamburger.
5. Gingey : The victim. An attention seeking, spoiled boy. Only child of his parents. First cousin to all the suspects.
Other Characters in the Story : Grandpa and Grandma
Location : Grandpa's house
It is a chilly December evening. It has been snowing since morning. So all the people living in Grandpa's neighborhood are inside their homes and street passing through his neighborhood is all empty. It's very quiet. Shh....... you can even listen the shrieking of whistles and streaking of the breaks as the train is running down the valley miles away. And oh listen, the church bell is ringing, announcing the end of the day.
Grandpa is in his room, reading a book. Whenever it snows, he fells ill. You know old age is a disease in itself. He raised his face above his shoulders and and now he is looking at the clock hung on the front wall. It's 8 o'clock. He's been in the bed all day. "ah, how sad. Once I was a very active person, but now....", he exclaimed to himself in a rather low voice, so the full sentence is not audible.
Grandma is in the kitchen, making supper. She's a splendid cook. In contrast to Grandpa, she's still very active. In fact, she never fells ill. Helping her in the kitchen is Hamburger. Tonight's menu consists of fried chicken, backed potatoes and lots of salad.
Kitty is in her bedroom along with Daisy. Both are doing their homework. You can hear their cheerful young voices. You can also hear bursts of laughter every now and then. Perhaps they are telling each other some jokes or perhaps they are............ You know, it's hard to guess most of the times, what two girls are talking about. Many girls only want to talk and talk and talk, without having something to talk about.
Nibs is watching TV in the lounge. He was outside the house all day and now Grandpa is angry with him. But who cares. Now he is watching TV instead of doing his homework. He knows that Grandpa won't left his bedroom before the supper is ready.
Gingey is in his bedroom. He is an only child to his parents so they pampered him too much. Quite spoiled chid he is. Although it has been for two months now, that he's been living with his cousins in the same house, but still he's not befriended with them.
You must be thinking why all the cousins are living with Grandpa? Allow me to inform you that their parents are in Africa, as they have purchased a goldmine there.
Suddenly the house shook with non stop shouting.
"what happened? What happened?", Grandma asked loudly as she ran into the lounge. You can see her with a carrot in her hand, wearing an inquiring look on her face. She looks a bit worried too.
"Gingey is shouting!", said Nibs with a look on his face as if he's chewing a bitter almond. "I can't see what is the problem with him? He always behaves like a spoiled brat. Why don't he grow up? One day I'll teach him a big lesson, I promise!".
"Keep quiet!", said grandma with an angry look on her face. "Behave yourself, you're a spoiled child yourself!"
At this moment, you can see Grandpa is entering in the lounge with signs of pain on his face. You know joint pain is such a crippling ailment.
By this time shouting has already been stopped but still you can hear the sound of crying. "What happened?", he asked Grandma. "Who is shouting?"
"Gingey is shouting, but I don't know what the problem really is?", answered Grandma. Let's go to his room. When they reached there they saw Daisy and Kitty were standing outside the door of Gingey's bedroom. Moments later Hamburger also joined them.
"What's the matter Daisy?", asked Grandma. "We don't know either, the room is shut up from inside", answered Kitty instead of Daisy.Grandpa knocked on the door. "Open the door Gingey", he ordered in a loud voice. Moments later the door opened. You can see Gingey with tears in his eyes and a red face, as he's standing at his room's door.
"What happened", asked Grandpa.
"someone has stolen my chocolate candy", Gingey answered in a crying voice.
"You're shouting so loudly for a candy!", said Grandpa in voice which is a mixture of anger, disappointment and surprise".
"It wasn't an ordinary candy, it was a chocolate candy!" shouted Gingey and began crying again.
"OK, OK, don't cry! Keep quiet", said Grandpa. "Everybody move to my bedroom", ordered Grandpa.
Now you can see them in the Grandpa's room. Grandpa is in his bed, with his back against the bed-crown, covering his legs with a blue quilt with red and yellow flowers on it. All the children and Grandma are sitting on sofas, in front of him.
"Well, my children", said Grandpa angrily, "I'm not feeling well tonight, so I'm not going to tolerate any kind of disturbance. Just tell me who has stolen the candy. It must be one of you. If you'll tell the truth, you'll not be given any kind of punishment. But if you lied and I myself discovered the truth, then you'll not be allowed to have shopping for Christmas and New Year. Understand! So hurry up and tell me the truth".
All shook their heads in denial. "OK, so I've to find the truth myself." exclaimed Grandpa thoughtfully. "Let's start with Daisy! Tell me daisy, why aren't you the theif?" asked Grandpa.
"Oh Grandpa. Believe me, I haven't stolen the candy! In fact, I was in Kitty's room when all that happened. We were doing our homework. I was there for 3 hours and I didn't left the room once, you can ask Kitty".
"Kitty", Grandpa turned his face towards Kitty. "Is Daisy right?", grandpa asked. "Yes Grandpa, she was with me." she answered.
"What about you? Weren't you out of the room just like Daisy?", asked Grandpa from Kitty again. "I was, and not once but thrice", answered Kitty truthfully in a very confidant way. "But I'm not the thief!", Kitty said. "Tell me why you were out of the room thrice?", asked Grandpa. "Well, first time I went outside the room to borrow Nibs' pen. Second time I went out of the room to ask grandma for dinner because I was feeling very hungry. And third time, I...... I went outside to........ I can't tell you. I'm sorry but I can't tell you! But I assure you Grandpa that I'm not the thief." At this point you can see anger in the Grandpa's eyes, but he stopped himself from saying anything harsh to Kitty.
"But why can't you tell me child?", he asked politely this time. "sorry Grandpa, I can't!", she answered while she was gazing at the wooden floor. Grandpa shot an angry glance at her and turned his face again towards Daisy. "Daisy, did you notice anything unusual when she came back to the room?", he asked quite angrily. "Well,umm,.........(at this point you can see hesitation in her eyes as she looked at Kitty)... when she came back last time, she went straight to her cupboard and stayed there for a while. I don't know what she was doing there? But I assure you that she can't be the thief. She is such a truthful girl. Believe me Grandpa.........But oh yes, when she came back after staying for a while at cupboard, she told me that she saw Hamburger evading from Gingey's room in such a great hurry", answered Daisy.
At this point you can see great surprise in Hamburger's eyes. Grandpa turned his face towards Hamburger with a suspicious look in his eyes. "what were you doing in Gingey's room?", he asked.
"I...I....I was there to........", said Hamburger in the most confused way you can ever imagine and began to cry. "Keep quiet! Keep quiet! What's the point of crying here? Just tell me why you were there?", asked Grandpa politely but Hamburger didn't stop crying.
Here Grandma interrupted their conversation. "I sent him there in order to see if Gingey is doing his homework or not. Actually Gingey's teacher phoned me the other day that he is not concentrating on his studies. But when he went there, Gingey began to fight with him. So he ran to the kitchen in a great hurry." Grandpa nodded his head and asked Gingey, "Why you were fighting with Hamburger?".
"He was asking me about my homework. Who is he to ask me such questions? Is he my teacher?" asked Gingey stubbornly. " But I know, who might be the thief? It must be Nibs!", said Gingey with a devilish look in his eyes.
Nibs rose to his feet and hold Gingey from the collar of his shirt. "Who are you to blame me? You're too much spoiled. I'm going to teach you a lesson tonight, so you'll think twice before accusing me for anything in the future!"
Grandpa rose from his bed, came to the boys and separated them from each other. "Stop fighting you fools, or I'll beat you both", shouted Grandpa.
"Kitty, when you went to Nibs to borrow his pen, did you notice something unusual?", Grandpa asked again.
Kitty glanced at her brother confusingly and replied, " Grandpa, actually.......... actually......... I never spoke a lie all my life........ so.......", she didn't complete her sentence.
"Nibs, listen carefully", said grandpa with his thoughtful eyes on Nibs. "The truth kitty is hiding has something to do with you, I know. So be a good boy and tell me what is the truth? I won't punish you if you'll speak the truth. You still have a chance to save yourself from punishment, my boy!", said Grandpa kindly.
"Well, I was eating a candy when Kitty came to me to borrow my pen. She saw some chocolate at the corner of my lip, so she asked me to also give her a candy. She wanted to have it for Daisy's birthday tomorrow. She wanted to surprise Daisy. So she said, she'll comeback a while later when Daisy will be busy with her maths' homework. You know whenever Daisy gets busy with her maths' homework, she doesn't know what is happening around her. I'm really surprised, how she took notice that Kitty went to her cupboard. But I assure you Grandpa, that candy was mine, not Gingey's", Nibs replied.
"Don't listen to him Grandpa, he's a liar", shouted Gingey. "He has stolen my candy, don't believe him!"
"I'm not a liar! You're a liar yourself! You spoiled kid!", Nibs shouted back.
"Stop!", shouted Grandpa.
"And you Nibs, you didn't take pity on yourself. All the evidence is against you. I believe that you're the thief, therefore; you will not be the part of Christmas and New year shopping this weekend. I'm sorry that you lost your chance to save yourself!"
Here you can see a very devilish smile on Gingey's face as he gazed at Nibs with a winning look in his eyes.
Nibs began to cry, "I'm not the thief!", he said with tears flowing down from his eyes, wetting his blushed cheeks.
Grandpa didn't say a word.
"Wait a minute! Wait a minute", said Grandma with sparkling eyes. "Now, I remember something!".
"I know Nibs isn't a thief, he's innocent!", she continued....... (here you can see a flicker of surprise in everybody's eyes including Nibs himself)........ "He's totally innocent! I remember clearly that when all the children came back from school this afternoon, Gingey complained to me that Nibs bought many candies from school canteen but didn't share with him even a single one. When I asked why he didn't buy some candies himself, he replied that he had already spent all his pocket money two days before", she said while staring at Gingey.
They all looked at Gingey with pity in their eyes. Nibs was right that Gingey is a spoiled child.
Then it was decided that Gingey will not be the part of Christmas and New year shopping. Gingey really felt ashamed and asked Nibs to forgive him. He begged pardon from his Grandparents and cousins too.
In coming days he changed himself for good and they all lived happily ever after.
The End
Comments
@ siriA, thanks a lot for all of the corrections you've made. It's really sweet and kind of you. I highly appreciate such an act of yours!
Thanks a lot for everything again!
Thank you so much again, dear Nafis!
My pleasure dear Nida!
@ Nafis, I'm really glad that you enjoyed the story. Thank you so much dear friend for taking your time to read the story and for your lovely comment.
@ Tara, thank you so dear for such encouraging and supportive words. It's a mater of great honor for me that you found the story good. I'll try to write few more stories, although I'm not a writer. However, I think it is a wonderful way to practice my English.
Thank you so much dear Tara, for pointing out punctuation mistakes and for providing very nice links. It's so kind of you. I'll study the rules and then try to fix the mistakes.
Thank you so much again for taking your time to read my story and for all the support! You're a wonderful teacher indeed.
@ Miss Sara, thank you so much for taking your time to read my story and for your WONDERFUL and LOVELY comment. It's really kind on your part that you liked the story and the very kind words you wrote in your comment!
Thank you so much again dear friend!
What a great writing dear Nida! very enjoyable to read!
Excellent story! I'm so glad you were inspired by the Gingerbread Mystery. I agree with Anele. You must be reading a lot to accomplish this level of fiction writing. Poor Gingey. I had a feeling he was the guilty one all along.
Re corrections: Rather than pointing out a passage for you to fix, I think you should work on your use of quotation marks. It would be useful for you to learn the rules about quotation marks for dialogue. Most importantly, the comma goes inside the quotation when you are writing a direct quote using "he said" or "she said":
"Wait a minute! Wait a minute," said Grandma.
Learn more rules about quotation marks. This resource is useful too.
I look forward to many more stories from you Nida!
@ Rabab, thanks a lot for reading!
Waiting for your comment ! ^_^
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