Oh, the Mystery of it All!

For writers group this month, we were asked to write a mystery. We were also asked to keep it brief - something that will add to the difficulty of this writers challenge. I suppose that is why we call it a "challenge!" :) Here goes...
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"Where's your brother?" my mom called out.

"I don't know," I said, my little voice wavering with worry. "We were playing hide and seek, and I still haven't found him."

I tried to think back to all of the places he liked to hide. I had checked under his bed. That was the most obvious place for him to hide. I remember looking in the bathroom, in a few lower kitchen cupboards, and behind the couch. My brother Zach was always good at hiding, but it was unusual for it to take so long to find him. We were beginning to get worried. By this point I was prepared to concede defeat. He had won; he was the grand champion hide-and-seek hider. I had gone to find my mother because by this point I knew I was not going to find him by myself.

My mother joined me in looking underneath all of our beds. We opened the cabinets again. We even looked outside. When we still found no sign of him, we began to look for clues. Surely, he had left something to help us find where he was hidden. Maybe he had eaten a snack on the way to his hiding spot and we would be able to find a trail of crumbs. Maybe he had taken off his shoes, and we would spot them along the way. Everything in the house became a possible clue to help us locate my missing, little brother.

At first the mystery was fun. It was fun to play detective and hunt for him. But after a while, I started getting really worried, and so did my mom. We abandoned only looking and we started shouting for him. He was not responding, even though I was yelling out, "You won! You can come out!" Either he was being very stubborn, or something was wrong. Just as we were about to call the police and report him missing, we found him. Where do you think he was?







In a closet, curled up and sleeping in a pile of shoes! Congratulations to my little brother (not-so-little anymore) on being a stealthy hider, and having to wait so long for me to find you that you fell asleep on the shoes!