This story was written for the 2011 Boucheron Short Fiction Contest. The images are of Leyla's manuscript of the story. --> Her dad and editor.The Mystery
By Leyla Fern King
One day, a woman was hungry so she went to a restaurant called BBQ. But when she walked into the restaurant, the restaurant had been robbed. “I will figure out this mystery,” she said.
She looked for clues, like footprints, fingerprints and scraps of hair. She looked for days. When she was just about to give up, she found a scrap of hair, a fingerprint and a footprint. She said, “Wow, what are the odds?”
Then, she went running home and told her mother what had happened. Her mother said, “Wow, that must have been great.”
She asked her mother what to do. Her mother answered, “Keep on looking and your answer will come right to you.” What she didn’t know is that her mother knew who the robber was.
So she listened to her mother. She kept looking for clues for weeks and months. She found more and more clues everyday.
She was geting tired of looking for clues. So everyday she would ask her mother, “Can I stop looking for clues?” Her mother would say, “Your answer will come right to you in awhile.”
So she looked for clues. All the clues she found were from St. Louis. One day she found a part of a photograph. She’s seen this girl before. But she couldn’t put her finger on it.
The next day, her 2nd best friend flew all the way from Africa to St. Louis. She flew to St. Louis because she was going to help her friend with the mystery. They both thought it was their best friend’s sister.
But when they looked at the picture a 2nd time, the girl had glasses on. And they said, “Wow.” It was their best friend! “But it can’t be,” said one. Then the other one said, “It can’t be.” Then they almost fainted.
Then they ran to her house. They told her mother, “The robber is our best friend!”
“I knew you’d find out one day.”
Then they went to their friend’s house and said, “Are you the robber?”
She said, “Yes.”
They said, “Why?!”
“For the money.”
“We will not call the police.”
But later on, she realized that she’d have to live with this her whole life. So she called the police. Her best friend was found guilty. Her mother took her out to BBQ. And they never heard from their very, very, very, ex-best friend ever again.
