Mr.FORTISQUE

Chapter-7

The Mystery Man

Amanda has an eagle's eyesight. So we let her do it. We were at Scorpius' house, in his basement, where his dad's microbiology lab was set. There were all kinds of stuff there- bizarre insects in glass jars, coloured liquids, all types of micro bio books etc. Scorpius' dad was a man known by all the residents of McCaffrey street- an extremely intelligent person. But Scorpius turned out quite the opposite. Anyways, I took the tiny paper bit, and placed it under the lens of the microscope that sat on top of one of the large oak tables. Amanda adjusted the lens, and tried reading those amoeba tiny letters on the paper bit. "It says something like Chayton Freedley", said Amanda. "Chayton Freedley? What in the world does that mean!?" Scorpius exclaimed. "Not what. I think its a person's name" I said.

I didn't know anyone called Chayton Freedley. Even Amanda and Scorpius didn't have any idea about who Chayton Freedley was. Instant solution- we googled it, except even google didn't know any Chayton Freedley. So, our only next option was to go to the library. As it was already seven, we cycled and raced our way to the McCaffrey community library. We decided to look through books in the 'Famous People' section. There were at least 300-400 books in that section. So each of us covered different parts of the bookshelf and quickly went through all the titles. Our luck, none of us could find anything about mystery guy Chayton, and it was already half past eight. So we got our bikes and returned home.

The moment I entered home, I was greeted by my mom's minotaur face. I received my usual why-did-you-come-home-late lecture. Actually, I know the whole speech in depth. After that, my dad told me that I needed to spend some "quality bonding time" with my sister. I knew that if I didn't do it, then I would land in serious trouble. I quietly nodded my head and thought of playing pass the ball with Ish.

Later, Ish and me started playing pass the ball in the drawing room. I thought it would be quite boring, but it turned out pretty interesting. Maybe playing with my sister wasn't a bad idea after all. We even gave each other points and had fun. Unfortunately, our fun ball met with a horrible accident. I passed the ball, this time slightly higher, but the ball went BAM and hit the sofa, bounced upwards and brought the old vintage scenery painting on the wall down. As the painting glass crashed to the floor, there was deathly silence in the house. Ish and me gave each other frightening looks. Mom and dad soon arrived at the crime spot and I received my second lecture for the day.

I was punished. I had to clean up the whole mess, even the glass. I swept the shattered glass carefully and threw it away. I took the painting into my hands and looked at it closely. Fortunately, the frame of the vintage painting was intact. Then, my eyes wandered off to the last part of the painting. And there it was! Ha!

Yours bewilderingly,

Sheldon Fortisque