Mystery On Mipha: A Short Story

Mystery on Mipha

It was an ordinary day of trying to repay my home loans. Ms. Rebecca, the fisherman, the bug collector, the lumberjack, anything I could do to comb up a few bucks on this island named Mipha. Things took a twist when Reneigh, the island's botanist, asked me to go on a treasure hunt. We met in the Island Plaza and she gave me five minutes to find the treasure. The second that she pressed the start button on the timer, I ran in search of a buried prize. I looked along the beach, behind people's houses, around the little Island Shop, but no treasure could be found. It seemed like there was no treasure at all. When I heard the timer's beeping sound I knew it was over. I walked over to Reneigh glumly and she had an apologetic look on her face, "Better luck next time." I told her I searched everywhere, and asked where she hid it. "Right over here," she walked over to the beach and dug and dug till the hole was a foot down. "I could have sworn I hid it? Well good night Rebecca." We then went to our homes since it was getting late at night.

While I was getting ready for bed, I heard a knock at my door. I opened it to see my sister Autumn, the co-founder of Mipha. Her and Tom Nook, the billionaire, had a plan to make a town on a deserted island and so far it has really paid off. She came inside unannounced as soon as I opened the door, holding a small blue box. She looked unusually excited, "You would never believe what I just found!" She held it out to me and I was met with a lock in my face. "It's locked! It's some secret treasure!" I was so excited for her when I realized it was Reneigh's treasure I was supposed to find because a closer look at the box showed her name engraved in it. I asked where she found it and she replied, "Right along the beach, why?" I pointed out the little engraving of Reneigh's name and told her about the treasure hunt. "Well let's go make sure it is the treasure you were sent to find."

We walked to Reneigh's house and showed her the box. She was shocked when we showed it to her. " Did you play a trick on me, Rebecca? How did you get this?" I told her that Autumn found it. She asked her to show her where she found it so we all followed Autumn to the same spot Reneigh showed me she hid it. Questions started to come up and suddenly I didn't know who to trust. I took out my phone and took pictures of the area. "What are you doing, Rebecca?" Reneigh asked. I told her that I'm going to investigate what happened. I bent down closer and saw footprints going to the other side of the island. Reneigh went back to her house to go to sleep and wished me luck and Autumn and I followed the footprints. They led to Dom's house, the sports fan of the island.

We knocked on his door and he answered it with a nightcap and pajamas on and sleepy eyes. "Hey guys, what are you doing here so late at night? You woke me up." We showed him the treasure and asked if he knew anything about it. He shook his head no and looked confused. We then asked why there were footprints leading from the spot of the treasure to his house. He slightly chuckled, "I went for my evening jog. It was getting dark out when I was at the end of it and I must have stepped in the dirt. But I did find this when I was over there." He went back into his house and handed us tubberware with orange slices in it. Autumn and I looked at each other confused but then I remembered that Al was handing out snacks earlier that day. We wished Dom a goodnight and made our way to Al's house.

When we knocked on Al's door, he was covered in either chocolate or mud. Al is the island's chef, so he obviously likes to share food with everyone on Mipha. He invited us in and the smell of sweetness filled the room. We asked what he was doing and he replied, "Making cake for tomorrow!" Usually we wouldn't give it a second thought but this time, we had to question everything. We asked why he was making a cake. "Well, Cookie is having a bonfire this weekend and asked me to make a dessert. How could I refuse when she bought my orange sugar cookies! Of course I gave her the orange slices for free, just like everyone else." So, Cookie got orange slices from Al and left them after taking and then replacing Reneigh's treasure. Time to make a visit to Cookie.

When we reached her house, she was in her front yard, putting sticks and wood into piles. Cookie is a popstar in the making, claiming she is going to be a famous singer. We asked what she was doing so late at night and she looked worried. "I have to get the wood ready for tomorrow night for the bonfire! My party is going to be a disaster if I don't have everything perfect!" We bent down and helped her put the sticks and logs into piles and tried calming her down. We showed her the tub of orange slices and asked if she had lost them. She giggled a little, "Well, Al gave me them but when I was walking home earlier today, Gail looked to be panicking. She asked me for the orange slices and I gave them to her. I was okay with giving them to her because I bought Al's famous orange sugar cookies!" We helped Cookie prepare for the weekend bonfire but once she started yawning one too many times in the span of a minute, she finally went into her house and went to bed.

We knocked on Gail's door and she had a weird look on her face. We asked her about her missing orange slices. She hesitated but then suggested that they weren't her orange slices but somebody else's. We asked her what she was doing all day and she looked quickly between the two of us. "Oh, I was just going fishing, you know, to pay off my home loans and maybe buy a new outfit...do you guys know that a new neighbor is moving in. I'm going to bake them a cake for when they arrive. You guys want to join in?" We both turned down the offer and was about to walk home whenever Autumn stopped me.

"Doesn't it seem weird?" She asked me and I looked at her confused because I didn't know what she meant. "I looked in Gail's house and there are no fishing poles or anything. Plus, you know Gail doesn't like to fish. The other day she asked me if I could get her a horse mackerel so she knew what a live one looked like for one of her drawings." We looked back towards Gail's house and noticed a shovel laying against her fence in the backyard. We quietly went over to it and noticed fresh mud on it. Autumn and I looked at each other and went back to Gail's front door.

We asked if we could see her fishing pole that she fished with and she rejected us. Saying she put it away in her closet and doesn't want to get it out right now. We then asked if she was doing any yard work and she shook her head no. We asked if that was true then why did she have a shovel in her backyard with fresh mud on it. She looked worried and she finally gave in, "Ok, I admit it. I saw that you and Reneigh were playing a treasure hunt game so I followed Reneigh when she was hiding the treasure and as soon as she was going back to you I dug it up. Then when I saw you guys finishing the game and going back home, I hid the treasure there again. I knew Autumn was going to find it because she always checks the island at night, making sure nothing is wrong." But what was her motive? I asked her why she would do that and she explained, "Remember that movie night that you hosted, Rebecca? I got jealous that you were talking to Al more than me, so I just wanted you to feel left out of something like how I felt at the movie night." I felt bad for Gail so I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, "Gail you could have just told me you felt left out and I would have made sure you didn't feel like that again." Gail apologized and then we all started to wonder what was in the box.

We went back to Reneigh's house and asked for her to open the box and she did. In the box there was a game of twister, "I thought that it would be fun for all of us to play this at Cookie's bonfire!" We all laughed and then went to bed. The next night was Cookie's party and the whole island was there, eating Al's chocolate cake, racing with Dom but him always winning. We sang karaoke with Cookie, but the best part was everybody playing twister together. Finally, things on Mipha were back to normal and we were all friends again.

Inspired by true events from Animal Crossing: New Horizons

By. Sadiline Swarovski