An Afternoon of Trouble
I'm a highly trained, covert operative, but have absolutely no idea what to do. The last thing I expected to do over summer vacation was baby sit my three-year-old cousin while my Mom and Aunt went shopping. I only agreed because at the time, Kristy was sleeping and I thought it would be easy.
I figured that with my Dad at work and Mom and Aunt Alyssa shopping, I could easily work on my extra credit without having to worry about anyone wandering in and seeing me cracking CIA codes. Kristy shouldn't have been a problem.
But I was wrong. So very, totally, desperately wrong. I had left the room for only 2 minutes and 27 seconds to get a handful of cookies from the kitchen, but when I got back to the computer room, Kristy was no longer sleeping on the couch where I had left her.
Now, contrary to the popular belief, I am horrible with kids. I would have been perfectly content if she had slept on the couch all day. So, suffice to say, I freaked.
"Kristy?" I called, hoping she had wandered into the hall and I had somehow missed her. But Kristy didn't answer. I peered into the hallway and the first thing that I noticed was the basement door. It was open so that Marble could go down if she wanted to, so there wasn't a baby gate or anything across it.
"Oh my God!" I cried. If she fell down the stairs and broke her neck, Aunt Alyssa would never forgive me. I would never forgive me! But once I flicked the light switch, there was no body at the bottom of the stairs. "Thank God," I sighed in relief. But then, if she wasn't at the bottom of the steps, where was she?
I raced down the steps, thinking she had somehow gotten down the steps on her own, but no. There wasn't a single trace of her in the basement at all. She wasn't under the pool table or hiding behind the futon. She wasn't anywhere that a three-year-old could fit.
Just as I was about to give up, my eyes caught sight of a pair of scissors and I thought of the pair Mom had left on the coffee table after cutting a coupon out, that were within reach of Kristy's hands.
I darted back up the stairs, closing the basement door, at this point not caring how cool it was down there for Marble. But the scissors were exactly where Mom had left them, partially open, hanging off the edge. I grabbed them and put them back in the desk drawer where they belonged.
"Kristy? Where are you? Please come out!" She wasn't in the living room or the basement, but I quickly surveyed the room again, searching for anywhere that a three year old could be. I was starting to calm down until I spun around to check behind me, and saw the kitchen counter with its knives and appliances with sharp blades. "Kristy?!" the panic quickly setting back in. I ran into the kitchen and as a spy, it was only natural that I saw numerous ways for her to get up onto the counter top.
But again, there was no evidence that she was ever on the counter…except the red drop by the sink. Wait. The red drop by the sink?!
I poked the dot, but it wasn't blood. Just ketchup.
The only other place she could be would be upstairs or in the bathroom. What if she drowned?!
But she wasn't in the bathroom, thank God. Dad's razor was on the floor that would have been bad. I picked that up and scoured the whole upstairs, but there was no sign of Kristy anywhere.
I ran down the stairs and almost tripped over Marble as I headed back down the hall. "Maybe you could sniff her out?" I suggested, running out of hope that I would find her. But Marble only continued to give me her blank stare that said, "You're bothering me. Go away."
"Some help you are," I commented. Kristy had to be somewhere in the house. The only way she could get out would be through Marble's doggie door. She couldn't fit through that, could she?
"Kristy?" I yelled again, running for the back door. She was nowhere in sight. Not even in the road, though that was a good thing.
I gave up. Never a good thing for a spy, but what else could I do? I used every surveillance and searching trick that Mr. Solomon told us and I still couldn't find her. How was that possible?
Well, I thought to myself, I guess that I have no other choice than to call Mom and tell her I lost Kristy an hour and a half ago. I reached for my phone in my back pocket where it lived over summer break, but it wasn't there. It was still sitting beside the keyboard because I had been texting Kim. I sighed and slowly made my way back to the computer room, not wanting to tell Mom what happened.
"How did-by you weren't-and I-huh?" I stuttered, not believing my own eyes. I was almost about to believe that she had been there the whole time, but there was definitely a chocolate smudge on her cheek. It was almost hidden by the way she was curled up, but at least I wasn't hallucinating.
I was quite confused. How could I have not seen her while searching the entire house? I was a spy for crying out loud!
Then it hit me. I might be a spy in training, but Kristy was a naturally born pavement artist, and a damn good one at that too. And though it might be embarrassing to be out spied by a three year old, according to Aunt Alyssa, she's been doing this for forever. Kristy will disappear for a half hour or so, then reappear later unharmed.
I should have remembered this earlier, but once the panic set in, all rational thought escaped from my thought process.
I would have to let Head Mistress Morgan know to keep an eye out for Kristy. But I would somehow have to make sure that she didn't tell anyone about it. That would be so embarrassing! If anyone at school would ever find out about it, I would never be able to forget it.
But with Kristy asleep again, I sat back down at the computer and continued cracking the CIA code, trying to make up for lost time. My cookies were still sitting next to the keyboard, but I was no longer hungry for chocolate chip cookies anymore.
I was about halfway done with the code when I heard Mom's car pull up in the driveway. I quickly pulled up my email. Mom could easily believe that I was online rather than doing an extra credit assignment over the summer. She still thought that I hated school. The truth was that I stopped hating school as soon as I started at Gallagher. But, I could use it as my cover legend.
"Courtney? Where are you?" Mom asked, coming in the front door.
"In here!" I yelled back, loud enough for her to hear me, but not loud enough to wake up Kristy.
"She didn't give you too much trouble, did she?"
I could tell them, but…"No. We played hide and seek for a little. She's really good at hiding."
"I know. That's why we hardly ever play hide and seek."
"Is that why she was so eager to play?" I asked, totally making it up as I went.
"Probably," Aunt Alyssa answered. "Oh! I almost forgot. I found this really cute purse, and instantly thought of you. It's in the car, I'll go get it."
"Why are there cookies by the computer?" Mom asked sternly as she glanced in.
"Sorry Mom. Kristy was hungry and so was I and I was in the middle of a really important conversation with Eva…"
"About what?"
"The boys who visited our school last semester. They're a total mystery. We don't even know where their school is. It's no where on the map."
"Oh. So your day was exciting?"
"You could say that."
Tell me what you guys think. And if you didn't like anything, let me know. I LOVE criticism! And review if you like it too!