Four Go Adventuring Again

Chapter 5- Upside down

AFTER the day's work, they were all tired out and went to bed. In the girl's room, Sandra and Jessy were getting ready to sleep for the night when Kate's footsteps were heard.

'Here comes mother.' whispered Sandra across the room. Kate came in to say goodnight to the girls, she went into the boys room and did the same too. They were almost asleep, but she had interrupted them. Once she had left, Drake grumbled.

'I really wish we had an adventure to catch up on, this summer.'

'Yeah, me too.' Michael replied. 'It'd have been nice if we had one up our sleeve.'

Some hours later, everyone was asleep. The house was quiet and peaceful. The darkness intoxicating everyone to sleep peacefully, not when she heard the noise.

Jessy sat up on her bed, her ears twitching for any sound. She was a good listener. She turned to look at Sandra. It wasn't any good waking her, one thing is sure, Sandra would be more frightened than her. And that's where the difference came in. She wasn't afraid of anything! Even if she was the youngest of the four.

'I had better go and see if everything was alright.' She thought. Jessy wasn't afraid to walk in the dark, the thought didn't terrify her at all. She slipped on her pyjama pants and slipped off the dressing gown she was wearing– taking a shirt along.

She crept softly downstairs. The stairs made a creaking sound and she cursed silently. She was going to talk to her father about the idea of having ceramic stairs instead.

Jessy moved further through the hall, then to the sitting room. The fire was still there, the red glow making the whole place shine.

Suddenly, she saw a shadow pass quickly, and a slight sound came from the other side of the room. It came from the study. She ran there just in time, and saw a figure trying to jump down from the window. She was shocked. Who was this person and what was he doing here at this time of the night?

'Hey, who are you? Stop right where you are!' she yelled at the figure.

Just as he was about to move again, she shouted at the top of her lungs.

'A burglar! Help!'

A noise of someone falling over from outside was heard and then sounds of feet pattering down the stairs with loud groans.

Kate had bumped into her two sons on the passage when she heard Jessy's scream. Sandra came out too, looking scared.

Michael switched on the light and was welcomed at the sight. The others arrived just in time and then looked with the greatest astonishment at the mess.

'Oh my! What in heaven's name happened here?' Kate exclaimed.

'A burglar, mother! Someone was at our house! He jumped through the window.' Jessy cried out.
Michael and Drake quietly walked towards the window to see if anyone was there. Sandra held her mother tightly and Kate pulled Jessy towards her.

'Jessy, why did you come downstairs, this late? What if something happened to you?' Kate scolded her.

'I heard a noise down here, and came to see what it was.' she explained, shakily.

'I wonder who the person was– and why did he rob us?' Drake pondered.

Just then, Kate was about to speak up when Sandra pointed at the mess on their father's table and the lock above the chair on the wall.

'No! No! Not that!'

They all turned towards the table and saw their father's safe wide open. It was a shock to everyone.

'We've been robbed!' Sandra screamed aloud.

'Our Jewels! Just look at the mess on father's table!'

'Mum, what do we do?!'

Kate was speechless at that moment, shocked to the core. Who could have done such a thing?!

'I'll need to call the police', she stuttered and left the study. Jessy followed her out.

'Father isn't going to be happy about this.' Drake told the others.

'Do you think the police will respond to mum's call tonight?' Sandra asked suddenly.

'Of course, they will!' Michael said. 'Father is a very important person to them, besides it's our jewels we are talking about guys.'

'The thief must still be around somewhere.' said Drake.

'You can't tell yet, we'll have to wait for the police to do their findings.' Michael explained.

'Let's see if mother has reported the theft already.'

The three of them left the study untouched, to meet Kate and Jessy who were in the living room.

'Mum already called the police. The inspector is on his way here.' Jessy told them.

While discussing the issue on ground, the doorbell rang. Michael walked towards the door and opened it, allowing the inspector to come in.

'Welcome Inspector.' Kate greeted.

'Hello Mrs Flynn, hello four!' he greeted back. 'I'm awfully sorry about what happened earlier at your house. If you don't mind, I'll like to take a look at the scene.'

'Of course, it's right here.' Kate said, as she walked him to the study, with the children behind them.

The inspector carefully inspected everywhere and even looked outside the window.

'Hmm, seemed to have had a pretty bad fall from here.' he said, still looking outside.

'What do you think, Inspector?' Michael asked with curiosity.

'From what it looks like, the theft was a planned one,' the Inspector opened up to them.

The four children were suddenly taken aback, well except for Kate, their mother of course! She wasn't happy with the news either.

'I knew this diamond jewel your father gifted you children, will do a lot of havoc! News spread so fast in this town like wildfire!' she exclaimed.
'One way or the other, I'll have to tell your father about this— and warn him about gifting people with expensive gifts! Especially teenagers!'

'But, mother— how is this any of our fault?' Drake asked, feeling a little bit down after what Kate, their mother had said.

'Mrs Flynn— I'm sure this can be sorted out, don't take this too hard on yourself.' the Inspector said.

Kate was full of mixed feelings, that period. How couldn't they see it from her own perspective? She wished Joe was around, so she could pour out her feelings to her. Good old Joe would surely understand!

Her four children tried to make her see things rightly and not the other way she's thinking— but she remained quiet and uninterested and even excused herself and left for bed.
Wow! Okay, Kate Flynn was actually taking this matter too serious! Do you think she'll come around? Well, we'll see about it.

The children felt sad about their mother's behavior. The Inspector assured them that their jewels would be found as the search would begin that night. He encouraged them to cheer up.

That night, the Inspector left and declared a search warrant with his team. The four children went to bed. It was hard for them to fall asleep, but eventually they did.

Jessy did not sleep. She kept thinking about all that happened, and made a promise to talk to their mother, the next day.