The Stonetown Scavenger Squad [A Mysterious Benedict Society Fan Fiction]

Chapter 3: An Age Old Riddle

/*Thanks for all you enthusiasm y'all! I never thought so many people would like this. So without further ado, here is another Random Update!*/

The Mysterious Benedict Society ran up to Kate's room and immediately settled in their usual positions in a circle on the floor. Then Kate, Constance, and Sticky turned expectantly towards Reynie as he pulled out the envelope out of his pocket. Reynie noticed that it was shaped a bit differently than a normal envelope would be, but he was more interested in the contents of the envelope, which turned out to be a sheet of lightly blue tinted paper. He cleared his throat, and began reading aloud.

                                   What Goes On Four Feet In The Morning,

                                                           Two Feet At Noon,

                                              And Three Feet In The Evening?

Reynie looked up from the letter and his eyes met Sticky's. Then they both burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" asked Kate as Constance leaned over her and grabbed the letter from beside Reynie, who had rolled over on his side and was was too busy laughing to notice.

"I'm sorry," said Sticky as he took off his glasses and wiped away at the few tears that had begun forming in his eyes. "I just expected the clue to be a lot harder!"

"What do you mean easier!" said Constance. "It's just a bunch of nonsense! Two feet in the morning and three in the evening? What about 7 feet at teatime and 3 inches for supper huh?"

"We're not trying to be mean Constance," apologized Reynie, who had stopped laughing and was sitting up straight again. "We were just expecting Mr. Benedict to give us a really hard puzzle that would take us ages to figure out, but instead it's just one of the oldest riddles known to man."

"Wait, now that you mention it I do think I've seen this somewhere before," pondered Kate. "I just can't place my finger on it..." And in the blink of an eye Kate was completely upside down, having done a complete handstand in what seemed faster than a blink of the eye.

"I've been trying this new thing I read about in a book Rhonda gave me," said Kate as the rest of the group stared at her in shock, still not completely sure what was going on.

"It said that if you're upside down it can help you think, so I thought to myself, Kate, why not give it a go?"

"Well you could have warned us first," said Sticky, who had tipped over in surprise when where Kate's face had been a second ago there was just a pair of knees surrounded by torn and faded jeans. "And besides, why didn't you just ask us for the answer?"

"Now where would the fun be in that?" scolded Kate. "Besides, I'm sure Mr. Benedict would want us to at least try to figure it out for ourselves."

"Well I'm all for the boys just telling us the answer," called out Constance from her spot on the floor. "It just doesn't make any sense to me."

"Oh come on Connie, let's show these boys that us girls have what it takes!" said Kate as she picked up one of her hands and ruffled Constance's hair. Reynie and Sticky felt themselves unconsciously sliding away from Kate, warily watching her swaying feet way up in the air.

"So let's see, I can't think of anything that changes how many feet it has based on the time of day," oblivious to Reynie and Sticky slowly pushing themselves as far away as possible from Kate, who had proceeded to stroke her chin with her free hand. "So that means that one of those two has to be some kind of metaphor or something, it can't actually be real."

"Try thinking far back," called out Sticky, who had backed up against the wall of Kate's room, just waiting for her to come crashing down and wanting to be as far away as possible when it happened.

"Really far back," added Reynie, who was sitting several feet away but along the same wall as Sticky. "Like to the time of ancient Eygpt."

"Egypt?" asked Kate with a confused look on her face. "What would Egypt have to do with . . Oh!" And with the skills of a trained gymnast Kate flipped off from her hands and landed back into a cross legged position. "This is the riddle of the Sphinx! The answer is man!"

"Great she figured it out, can we go and actually do something now?" Constance said exasperatedly as Reynie and Sticky began scooting themselves back towards the girls. Kate gave them a funny look, and they both almost started laughing again, but instead Reynie asked "So we know what the answer to the riddle is, but I'm confused as to where we can go from here. My first thought was that we would have to find a sphinx in the house, but I can't recall seeing one anywhere."

"I was thinking the same thing," concurred Sticky. "And even though the answer is 'man' that is just too general. I guess we were wrong about this being easy."

"Well, we solved the riddle," said Constance with surprising optimism. "So now all we have to do is figure out what to do with the answer."

"Constance is right," said Kate as she flashed an approving smile at Constance. Constance hid her face but everyone could tell that she was blushing slightly. "We just need to put out heads together and we can figure it out."

Motivated by their friend's optimism, Reynie and Sticky rejoined the circle on the floor with Kate and Constance and began bouncing ideas off of each other. And a few minutes later they suddenly figured out where they had to go next.

/*The next chapter will be called Chapter 4:The Tomb (Only We Can't Call It That Anymore). Can't wait!