Tania is a detective
Tania and mama were in the park. Tania wanted to sit on the merry-go-round. As usual, she had taken Anne with her. Anne was Tania's favourite doll. Mama put Tania on one of the seats of the merry-go-round and Anne on another seat. Then mama pushed it to make it go round. Tania was delighted and shouted, "Faster mama, faster! I want it to go faster." So mama pushed harder and soon it was going quite fast.
Suddenly it started raining heavily. Mama quickly picked up Tania and took her indoors. But they had to run some distance in the rain and they were both soaked. In their rush they forgot all about Anne. Poor Anne.
Mama rushed Tania home. She undressed her and dried her vigorously with a towel. Then she put her in clean dry clothes. Mama dried and changed herself too. When they finished, it was time for dinner. Tania went to get Anne so they could have dinner together. Papa was going to be back late from office. So it was just the 3 of them. Tania could not find Anne
in the usual place. She asked, "Mama, have you seen Anne? I can't find her." "When was the last time you saw her?" asked mama. Tania thought for a moment and said, "We took her to the park. She was on the merry-go- round." "Oh no!" said mama, "I suppose we left her there when we rushed back because of the rain." Tania looked very upset. She said, "Mama, Anne is wet in the rain and all alone. Can we go get her now?" "Yes of course sweetie." said mama willing to delay dinner for such an important matter. Tania and mama walked up to the merry-go-round, but Anne was not on it. Where could she be? Tania asked, "Mama where is Anne? How do we find her?" Mama replied, "Lets ask the building watchman. He may know what happened to Anne."
So they went back to the building and asked the watchman. The watchman said "I saw the doll on the merry-go-round. I did not know who
it belonged to. So I brought it in and put it on my desk here. Just a few minutes back I went to the rest-room, and when I was back the doll had disappeared. I assumed that, the person it belonged to, had come and taken it." "That is odd." said mama. "When we came out of the elevator you were not here and neither was the doll." "Yes, I suppose I left for the rest-room before you came out of the elevator." "So what now?" asked Tania. "Did someone kidnap Anne? Mama what will happen to her? Will she be okay? Where can we look now?" Mama said "Tania, lets go home and have dinner and figure out what to do next."
Mama was unlocking the door when Tania exclaimed, "Look mama! This is the button from Anne's jacket. You sewed it on last month, remember? That means she was here mama." "But Tania, that button could have fallen off when we took her down to the park." "No. The button was on Anne's jacket when she sat on the merry-go-round. I remember that." "Are you sure?"
"Yes. That means someone brought her here."
"You are right. Someone from the building must have recognised Anne to be your doll and brought her here. The person must have been coming up on one elevator while we were going down on the other one. By the time we were down the person had already picked up Anne from the watchman's desk. But when the person got here we were not home. So he or she took Anne home to keep her safe. You are a smart little detective Tania." "Mama, I think it was Tanisha. She would know Anne lives here. She was supposed to come back from dance class at that time." "Call Tanisha and find out."
Tania rushed to the phone and dialled Tanisha's phone number with trembling fingers.
She was desperately hoping her deductions were correct and that Anne was safe. Tanisha's mother answered the phone and Tania waited impatiently while she called Tanisha. Tanisha said, "Tania don't worry. Anne is with me. She was wet on the watchman's desk and he was not there. So I picked her up and brought her to your house. But no one answered the door bell. So then I brought her home. Mama helped me dry her with a hair dryer. She is fine now. I was going to call you after dinner and let you know." Tania heaved a sigh of relief. She said "Thanks Tanisha for keeping her safe. I'll come right now and get her." Tania ran up the stairs to Tanisha's house and got Anne back.
She put her safely on the sofa.
It was getting really late and Mama brought out the dinner. Just then the doorbell rang. Mama went to answer it grumbling, "We will never finish dinner tonight." Papa was at the door. He was home a little earlier than he had expected. Papa joined Tania and mama for dinner and they told him how they had cleverly solved the "Mystery of Anne's Disappearance".
