Chapter 20: Mysteries and Strange Finds
The next day, Donkey got up a little later than usual, and assumed that Diddy would do the same because he was no longer going to have classes. Even if the day seemed calm, he felt a little bad that he had argued with his nephew the night before, even though it wasn't the first time they had argued for the same reason. Donkey wanted to go see him to clear things up and went to his room.
"Diddy, are you awake?" knocked on the door, which was adjusted so he could pass without problems. "Little buddy, I just wanted to talk with-"
When Donkey came in, he only saw the things in Diddy's room, but there was no trace of his nephew, which seemed a bit weird to him.
"Diddy?" called him again.
Donkey searched for him all over his room, but for some reason, Diddy wasn't there. Then, he looked for and called him all over the house, but received no answer, which was looking unusual at that time.
"DIDDY!"
Maybe he assumed his nephew had been out for a while because of the bad days he'd had, so he decided to wait a little longer.
After breakfast, Donkey stayed home for a couple of hours, but Diddy wasn't there yet? That was getting pretty weird to him. He also went to look for him in the cave where they stored the banana reserve, but he didn't receive any response either.
He decided to go to Funky's house to ask if Diddy wasn't there or if he hadn't seen him on the beach.
"Funky!" called him Donkey from afar while Funky was adjusting some devices.
"How are you, brother?" Funky greeted him just before noticing his concern. "What's wrong?"
"By any chance, Diddy hasn't been here?"
"No, brother, I haven't seen him. Why?"
"I wanted to talk to him, but when I went into his room, he wasn't there... And I don't know where he is now."
"Hmm, maybe he's walking around. But at least me, I haven't seen him today."
Donkey just looked away, while becoming more concerned.
Then, he went to Cranky's cabin to look for him, where there was no one, but he had access anyway. But there he found no trace of his little nephew either. So, he went to Candy's house.
"I haven't seen him, honey, why?" Candy replied after Donkey asked about Diddy.
"I haven't seen him almost all morning either. I called him all over the house and he wasn't there."
"And won't he be at school thinking that there are still classes or did he have something pending to do? He may have had to go there as an emergency."
Donkey turned to Kong Kollege to make sure. There was only Mr. Pinky arranging some papers of the outgoing students.
"Mr. Pinky, good morning," Donkey said as he entered.
"How are you, Mr. Donkey?" Pinky replied formally. "What brings you here?"
"Just in case, Diddy hasn't come here?"
"No, Mr. Donkey. In fact, he should have come to pick up his certificate and talk about how we could make up for his final work. What has happened to him?"
"I haven't seen him for most of the morning, and he's not in the house."
"Well, no, Mr. Donkey, I haven't seen him."
After still no affirmative answers, Donkey went to Lanky's house. Although it would be unusual for Diddy to be there, he went anyway to make sure.
"I haven't seen the little guy these last few days, Donkey," Lanky said. "Haven't you asked Swanky?"
And finally, he went to Swanky, where he also had no hope of finding him, but wanted to make sure anyway.
"No, the last time I saw him was when we met over the weekend, Donkey," Swanky said.
Donkey went home again, had lunch, and it was past noon... But his nephew still gave no signs. It was very strange, since he didn't know how to leave like that without telling Donkey. Diddy used to leave his house freely, but in cases of being absent for long hours, he always informed Donkey. He still didn't want to think anything wrong, even if he was already starting to do so because it was his little nephew.
Minutes later, Donkey heard voices calling him from outside his house. He leaned out the window and, to his surprise, there were Funky, Candy, Lanky and Swanky downstairs waiting for him. Donkey wondered what the four of them had come to together, but he guessed maybe his friends had news about Diddy... and it was what he most expected to hear at the time. He got out of his house and hurried to his friends.
"What happened, friends?" Donkey asked them, finishing down the stairs.
"Bro…" Funky said with an apparent worried face. "By any chance, Diddy has already appeared?"
"No, I thought you were going to tell me you found him," Donkey replied, looking disappointed.
Suddenly, the faces of the other kongs became even more worried and looked at each other as if they had something important to say.
"What? What's wrong?!" Donkey asked them with all the unknown when he saw their expressions.
"I don't want to scare you, bro," Funky replied in a way that made Donkey more worried than he already was. "But... we just found out that... there is recently found on the banks of the river an ape kid Diddy's age, apparently…" Funky paused deeply before continuing, "...drowned…"
"WHAT?!"
Donkey felt as if he received a hard blow to his stomach and the circulation went down to his feet with force when he heard that from Funky. He began to think about thousands of terrible things.
"No, but calm down, honey... I don't think it's Diddy!" Candy added, trying to calm him down immediately. "He is well known here. If it were him, we would have already been told."
"Wait, wait, wait...!" Donkey exclaimed, breathing hard and trying to stay calm as best he could. "W-where did you get that?! Where did that happen about the child you mention?!"
"Right now, everyone is scandalized by that!" Swanky replied. "They are gathered in the place where they found him."
"In fact, they want to see you to look at the situation, brother," Funky added. "Come, let's see the scene!"
Donkey immediately went with his friends to the place they indicated. On the way, he just begged that what they said wasn't true, or worse... that it was Diddy.
They reached the banks of a river, where there was a big crowd of apes piled up and scandalized by the supposed find that had just been mentioned.
"Oh, Donkey Kong, good thing you arrived!" a gorilla in the crowd exclaimed, showing alarm. "You can't even imagine what happened here!"
"Where is the kid that was found?!" Donkey asked him desperately.
"Oh, you don't even know another detail! That child wasn't exactly drowned, but he had been... wounded; he had a wound on his chest," another gorilla commented, to which everyone made a gesture of horror and fear. "And now you don't even know what else happened: some unknown ones took him away!"
"Was he taken away?!" Funky asked the same way. "And who were those ones?"
Donkey began to feel more worried than he already was that he couldn't even think well at the moment. He just felt like his blood was freezing.
"Wasn't it the Kremlings?!" Donkey added, suspicious of those reptiles from King K. Rool's army.
"No, we saw that they were apes, but they had dark cloaks on to cover themselves. We couldn't see their faces!" replied another kong.
"And didn't you see if just in case the kid was my nephew Diddy?!" Donkey asked them, very worried.
"Your nephew is a little monkey with a red cap, isn't he?"
"Yeah!" Donkey replied anguished and fearing the answer.
"No, it wasn't him," the other apes replied, to which Donkey and his friends felt a slight relief. "The found child was not wearing red clothes, but we could not see what species he was. A group of us went to chase the apes who took the child's body away, but they still haven't returned."
"And... was the child alive or not?" Candy asked the apes.
"Apparently... No. S-some say he was all unconscious, had a frightful wound on his chest and didn't move."
"What a horror!" Donkey exclaimed indignantly. "How can somebody do that to a little one?"
"By the way, what happened to your nephew, Donkey?" asked one of the kongs in the crowd.
"He's lost and I haven't seen him all day," Donkey replied, now all worried. "And the truth is that this is already very strange and… Ugh! I don't want to think the worst," he added, putting his hands to his temple as Candy tried to calm him down.
"This sounds to me like there's a child thief!" Lanky speculated. "But this is something we need to figure out fast!"
Everyone stood for another while, watching the scene. Donkey was the one who had to stay calm, and in turn try to calm the community, so he warned everyone to take care of their little ones; the situation was becoming increasingly dark and suspicious. But at the same time, it was almost impossible for him to remain calm knowing that his nephew didn't appear and now he had just been informed that a kong boy had been wounded.
The only place Donkey hadn't asked yet was none other than Dixie and her family's house. He thought maybe Diddy could have fixed things with Dixie and was spending some more time with his friends... or at least that's what he wanted to think. Although the strange thing about that is that he never went out without saying where when he was away for a long time. Even so, Donkey only wished with the last hope that this group of young kongs would give him a positive answer about Diddy.
Donkey went to Dixie's house to ask. As soon as he arrived, Chunky met him at the door.
"Hi, Chunky," Donkey greeted him in a hurry. "B-By any chance, hasn't Diddy been here?"
"No, Chunky hasn't seen him for three days," Chunky replied, before calling the rest. "Tiny! Kiddy! Donkey asks if you've seen Diddy, haven't you?"
"No, we haven't heard from him," Tiny replied, appearing with Kiddy at the door, and Kiddy shook his head. "Why?"
"I haven't seen him all day, he hasn't even eaten in the house," Donkey replied worriedly. "And Dixie? Doesn't she know something about him? By the way... weren't they fighting because of that new little boyfriend of hers or something?"
"What? What are you talking about?" Chunky asked him with a look of strangeness.
"About Dixie. That is... has she had a mishap with Diddy because of that boy she says she is dating?
"What? No, she hasn't told us anything like that," Tiny replied in confusion. "In fact, she explained to us that Jemky is not even her boyfriend... She said it was all a joke she wanted to make on us," she whispered.
"What?! But Diddy told me that Dixie told him two days ago that she didn't want to be his friend anymore because of that."
"Where did you get that?" Tiny said with a look of surprise. "Two days ago, the two of them even hung out until very late at night."
"Too late at night?!" exclaimed Donkey in kind. "But Diddy returned to the house in less than half an hour."
"Well, I don't know, Dixie came back very late and said she hung out with Diddy all day," Tiny replied with a shrug. "Although... my sister has been very strange these past few days, did you know?"
"Yeah, yesterday when she came home from school, she was all paleface and was talking to us tremblingly," Chunky added in the same tone. "We asked her what was wrong but she only told us that she was tired because it was the last day of school."
"And today she just spent in her room taking naps," Tiny added. "But hey, she may really be very tired; just now she is sleeping."
Everyone was confused, as their versions didn't fit well and the situation was becoming a bit strange. On the other hand, Dixie was not present; apparently, she was in her room as mentioned by Tiny.
"What are you talking about, Donkey?! A wounded child in the river?!" Tiny exclaimed in alarm when Donkey told them the latest event.
"That's right, that's why I'm worried about Diddy too. We fear that some thug or a child thief is on the loose, and Diddy has been a victim."
"Oh, no, I hope that's not going to be another group of bad apes!" Chunky added in anguish, to which Tiny and Kiddy were frightened as when they had just arrived on the island, and clung to Chunky immediately.
"No, but don't worry, kids, we'll try to get everything under control," Donkey said, calming them down. "Tell Dixie this too, please, and if she knows anything about Diddy, let us know."
"Okay, Donkey," Chunky replied as he hugged Tiny and Kiddy. "B-but what about the child thief?"
"No, don't worry, that's not confirmed yet," Donkey added. "Of course, for now, I only ask that you all don't leave your house too much, and if you need to, you can meet with us. We'll be backing you up against anything, you know."
Donkey said goodbye to the three and left. He continued on his way back to the scene of the alleged crime. But first, he decided to go out and find Diddy again; he didn't want to think that he also ended up like that kong boy found in the river. Diddy was always like his younger brother or son, and if something terrible were to happen to him, Donkey's whole world would fall apart.
Donkey walked near streams, rivers, and lakes to see if he found any trace of Diddy; obviously, it wasn't what he wanted to find in that way, but still, he wanted to make sure. He was walking among the trees near a lake, when suddenly, he felt under his foot a small object with a rough texture. When he looked at the floor, he realized that it was a tiny gift box lid that had a tiny red ribbon and was covered with pink glitter and, a few centimeters away, the box was lying on the floor: this was so small that it could occupy only a quarter of the palm of his hand... But what caught his attention the most was that, underneath it, was a piece of paper. Donkey wasn't in the mood to browse, but it was so bright and colorful that he couldn't help but pick it up and take a quick look.
Donkey opened his eyes as much as he could when he unfolded that piece of paper and discovered that it was a writing, but what surprised him most was what it said:
"Diddy, you're my best friend, you've become someone special to me, I really love you and I like spending time with you. It's hard for me to tell you this head-on, Diddy, but really... I like you."
The note ended with a signature from no one but Dixie, and with a heart drawn next to it. That made an impression on Donkey, as both he and Diddy knew Dixie's handwriting and signature, and the note was identical to hers. For a few seconds, Donkey smiled as he read what he said; for a moment it crossed his mind to go show that to Diddy and he knew that would make him a lot happy... But within seconds, he came back to reality. With all the situation he was going through, he couldn't have the excitement he should, as he now just wanted to know where Diddy was.
Night had fallen. After the news of the child found in the river, all the inhabitants began to be alarmed, since that was very strange and it was something that didn't usually happen on the island. Donkey had passed by his house and had gone out about five times in the jungle, both for that matter and also, to make sure where Diddy was... But mysteriously, he didn't appear. Now, Donkey was too worried; he hadn't seen Diddy since the night before and he never knew how to get lost like that. The last time Diddy disappeared was when he had been locked in a barrel by the kremlings the time he tried to take care of the banana reserve, that season with kremlings on the island.
He was beginning to think the worst: what if King K. Rool had returned and taken him away? Or had his four classmates, whom he always suspected, done something to him? Or did Dixie have anything to do with it? Or maybe a child kidnapper was on the loose and took him and the boy found in the river away?... Or maybe Diddy only escaped because of the bad days he'd had?
It's known that Diddy had gone for a ride in the sea the night before, but that was only for a while. Had something bad happened to him on the way?
Donkey couldn't stop; even at night he continued looking for his nephew and even asked again at his friends' houses, but none gave him any positive news. Now that was too strange. Candy even accompanied him to his house so she could calm him down and give him some hope that Diddy would appear at any moment.
Donkey lay down to sleep very late, he couldn't even sleep. Even in the wee hours he got up again and again to look for Diddy. The worry of not knowing what could have happened to him was enormous and only tormented him more and more.