How It All Began

The future sleuth-tastic siblings—Anaya, the ‘big girl’ at thirteen and her ‘baby’ brother Kiaan, all of eleven—were breaking the rules slightly. It was a warm summer afternoon when even the normally buzzy flies had settled down in cool cricks, taking a nap to recharge. Brother and sister were in no mood for a boring siesta. So, as the adults slept heavily, they toodled off to explore the neighbourhood. And do a little more.

“Hey, you do realise we are on our own. No adults around,” remarked a teeny bit nervous Kiaan.

“Well, don’t forget that I am a teenager, halfway to becoming an adult. And I’m seriously sensible. Trust me,” assured Anaya, confidence gushing through her veins.

“Yeah, sure! Sensible and trustworthy to be in rule breaker mode—the rule being no going off on our own. But now that we’ve twisted the rules, it is the best time to buy Mum and Dad a gift for their wedding anniversary,” suggested Kiaan.

“Now we are talking. Why do you think I was waiting to get some time alone? Let’s bounce,” responded Anaya.

They were on vacation. It was a pretty little town and their hotel was in the city centre. There was one main road running through, lined with small attractive shops on either side. Seated right next to a river with some ancient monuments dotted around, the town had interesting stories—the historical and ghostly kind—for those visiting.

It was well known for the variety of homemade sweets, chocolates and candies too.

The two walked out of the quaint hotel onto the road, caps on their heads. They were wearing shorts, T-shirts, and sneakers. Both had a little pocket money saved up for the gift.

“How about getting that packet of stick jaw candy? Mom and Dad talked about the fun they had as kids, exercising their jaws while chewing on the candy,” said Anaya.

Kiaan agreed immediately with sparkling eyes, “Oh yeah. And we can chomp on them too, for strong teeth and a jaw workout hack!”

“Oh, trust you to pounce on their gift before we have even given it to them. You are one greedy piglet!” said Anaya in mock exasperation.

Not to be outsmarted, came Kiaan’s quick retort, “You are in good company, Sis. If I am a brother piglet then that makes you a piggy sis. So be careful.”

And bantering happily, they hopped in and out of the shops, checking out the goodies and buying the gifts. A packet of sticky jaw candy, a strawberry-scented soap for Mum, and a lemon-scented one for Dad. It was after a good hour of walking around in the heat, that they decided to sit in a cafe for some cool lemonade.

“Ahhh, that lemon is tingling my roasted throat and cooling my toasted chest,” said Kiaan, stretching out on the chair and flopping his head back.

As he enacted his ‘I’m dying of the heat’ drama, Anaya jumped out of the chair, her eyes scouting around and said in a tense voice, “Kiaan, where is the gift packet? Have you kept it somewhere?”

Shaken out of his flip-flop stance, Kiaan replied, equally worried, “No, of course not. It was kept on the empty chair next to yours. Where could it have gone? Do you think it fell off?”

“No. It was too heavy to roll off. I kept it on the chair and went to the counter to get my drink.”

“Do you think someone took it? I had my head resting on the back of the chair.”

Darting out of their comfortable seats, they eyeballed everyone and everything, their mind-machines ticking on super zoom.

There were five others in the shop, and each person was under their eagle glare.

“We have to find the packet. Pocket money savings have fallen to zero. No packet, no gift,” commented Anaya, sounding desperate.

“No giving gift means feeling totally bummed. No option. Have to find the gift,” muttered Kiaan.

Of the five other shoppers, there was a toddler with his mother, a young boy in his teens, a middle-aged lady, a young girl, and a dog. The toddler was pulling at the colourful packets as the mother tried to discipline him, albeit unsuccessfully. The boy seemed drowned in his cell phone, lost to the world as the headphones cut out ‘worldly’ sounds. The young girl was intensely reading the label on a packet while the middle-aged lady was rummaging through her bag, hunting for something. The big furry dog was stretched out with his stomach on the cool floor. Each one was a suspect.

Soon, the siblings noticed that a couple of shoppers were about to leave, and there was no time to lose. Anaya had a brainwave. She had noticed cameras on the walls. Having read books on true crime detection, the tools used by detectives were familiar to her, and CCTV (closed-circuit television) or video surveillance was one of them.

“Keep the people distracted while I talk to the shopkeeper and have a look at the camera recordings. We cannot charge anyone without proof,” whispered Anaya to Kiaan.

Always ready for an adventure, Kiaan ran and stood in front of the door and broke into his favourite song, punctuating it with enthusiastic dance steps. Taken aback by this unusual activity, people stared, waiting for him to finish. Precious minutes ticked. Anaya had convinced the cafe manager to check the footage telling him what had happened. Eager to maintain the reputation of his shop, he did as asked and soon enough the truth was out. The dog, trained in picking up things, had responded to the sign from the middle-aged lady, his mistress, and carried the packet to her. She had quickly slipped it into her bag, where it was found.

Leaving the cafe manager to deal with the matter once the bag was searched and the packet retrieved, the siblings went back to the hotel, light footed and chirpy hearted with their purchase safe and sound. It was their first stint with doing detective work, a secret for the time being.

“That was super cool, Big Sis. You nailed it in sonic time,” said Kiaan, giving Anaya a thump on the back and an energetic thumbs-up.

“You were no less with your unplanned, in-the moment showbiz act. Watching Michael Jackson do the moonwalk paid off big time. Took the entire crew by surprise and gave us time to catch the culprit. Great going, little brother! We totally crushed it, rocking as a team,” said Anaya, giving Kiaan a tight hug.

Their parents, clueless about the recent happenings, were just about to wake up from their nap when the bubbly duo jumped onto the bed, waving the gift in their hands.