Richard Poole was asleep in the hammock in his back yard. The book he had been reading had fallen from his hand and was lying in the grass. His half-drunk cup of tea had gone cold on the table beside the hammock.

'What a gorgeous day,' he had thought just before he drifted off, lulled into sleep by the quiet and the sea breeze blowing up the hill from the Honore Harbour.

He was awakened from his nap by his wife, Camille. He opened his eyes to see her beautiful face looking down at him. He grabbed her, pulled her into the hammock with him, but they both tumbled onto the lawn. Richard rolled over and penned her down playfully kissing her face.

'Richard, I'm taking the girls shopping for school uniforms. You are suppose to be watching the boys.' She had her pretend-to-be-annoyed face on.

They were immediately surrounded by children. Five year old Cammy was shouting 'Maman pushed Daddy from the swing.'

Her twin brother, Selwyn, was climbing on Richard's back laughing and shouting.

Nine year old twins Jenna and Carine were looking at their brother John's phone which they had somehow managed to swipe.

'Dad,' he moaned, ' Jenna and Carine took my phone. They're looking at my personal stuff.'

John Richard Poole, Camille and Richard's first born, was 13 years old now. His voice was changing and he was getting taller. Camille had also secretly looked at his personal texts on his phone after he and Rosie Best skipped school together in the spring. She knew it was innocent texts; the 'I love you to the moon and back' and 'Can we hold hands and walk on the beach?', but it needed scrutinizing. Their oldest was growing up and Camille realized that John and Rosie had always been close.

Eleven year old Philippe had ignored all the commotion. Of all her children, he was the one who seemed more and more to resemble Richard. He had gotten a "Little Detective Chemistry Set" for his birthday and Camille was beginning to wonder if that had really been such a good idea. He had the patio table covered with papers and paraphernalia from the chemistry set.

'Let me up Richard. I'm meeting Juliette in Honore in 10 minutes. You need to check on Philippe and see what he is doing.'

'He's trying to figure out how to get fingerprints off paper.' Richard said, rolling over so Camille could escape.

'Did you tell him how difficult that is?' Camille asked.

'No, I thought it would keep him entertained for a while.'

Camille took the girls and headed off to meet Juliette Best in Honore, and Richard was left to supervise their three sons. Philippe would entertain himself, the only problem was that some of his science and investigative projects required frequent supervision.

John was sulking, sitting on the bench beside the walking path to Honore. 'Dad, I could have gone with Maman. I could help out.'

Richard knew John only wanted to go school uniform shopping because Rosie Best was going to be there. Rosie was a year and a half older than John, but since they were small children, they had preferred each other's company. Sometimes he thought that maybe they were soul mates.

'John, I'm sure you could have helped your Maman out with the younger kids, but fact is I need you here to help me out. Like right now, I have no idea where Selwyn is'.

Richard looked around in a panic, but Selwyn was no where to be seen.

'Philippe, do you know where your brother is?' Richard yelled.

Philippe looked up from his science experiments. 'He was over by the walking path few minutes ago.'

Richard began to call. "Selly! Selwyn Poole!" There was no answer.

'John, I'll go down the path toward Honore. You go in the other direction. Philippe, stay here and look for your brother.'

Selwyn Poole was no where to be found. Richard ran all the way to Honore on the path, realizing that a small child would likely not have been able to go that far in a short time. John ran that far in the other direction. Both had stopped to talk with neighbors in their back yards. No one had seen Selwyn. Philippe had gone up and down the road in front of the house, and walked through the inside of the house, looking for his brother.

'Maman is going to kill us when she gets back,' John was obviously very worried.

Richard's phone rang. It was Camille. He dreaded the conversation, having to tell her that they could not find Selwyn.

'Listen Richard,' she said. 'I forgot to tell you that Selwyn has gotten into a mischievous habit. He hides in the large wicker basket in the laundry room. Sometimes he falls asleep in there.'

Richard put the phone on speaker mode and Philippe and John listened in. 'Say that again honey. I couldn't hear you over the kids.'

She repeated it. John looked at his Dad and made a dash for the house and the laundry room, while Richard kept Camille on the phone. She was getting impatient as he kept asking her how the shopping was going, how was the traffic, were the girls behaving.

Richard breathed a sigh of relief as John returned, carrying his sleepy brother. 'Ok honey, I'll let you go. It's all good here. Have fun shopping.'

Richard sat down on the lawn, holding his head in his hands as John put Selwyn down beside him.

'Don't tell your Maman about this, ok.'

'Dad, that's lying, sort of, anyways it's funny.' Philippe was always seeing things from a different angle.

Selwyn pulled Richard's hands away from his face. 'Daddy are you sad?'

Richard gave him a hug. 'Daddy's not sad now. I thought you were missing, when you were hiding in the laundry basket. It made Daddy very sad, but then we found you and now I'm happy.'

Selwyn decided now was a very good time to bring up his favorite subject. He sat down on the lawn beside Richard.

'Daddy can we get a puppy?'

'We'll think about it.' Richard said.