Lost and Found

 All she saw was an empty space where it had been...

Squinting hard at her precious collection of books, Ari tried to remember which of her books was missing. Will she find what she's lost?

Class III had 4 small book shelves at the four corners of the classroom. Each book shelf had 4 rows and every child in the class had a row assigned to them. Ari's was on the top most row of the shelf at the farthest corner of the classroom, right next to a big, bright window. The students kept their favorite story books on their assigned shelves and were allowed to pick their book of choice during the reading hour, every Tuesday 2pm. 

It was seven minutes past 2 and Ari was still furiously staring at the gap between the books on her shelf, willing herself to recollect which book had been missing. The empty space between the books reminded Ari of the gap in her teeth. She lost a tooth two days ago, it was her first. Her mom said a new one would grow in its place. But what about the gap in the shelf? Would a book sprout in this gap? No, she must find out which book is missing, who took it, why did they take it and when would they return it to her. In that order. 

What would the famous five do if their book went missing, she thought. Best to emulate the detectives. There were 6 books on her shelf : 2 books from National Geographic Kids - one on Sea Otters and another on Owls, then there was Diary of a Wimpy Kid, then the Paddington bear book and her all time favorite, Oh, the places you'll go! by Dr.Seuss. Ari always followed an order of arrangement by color. Given the gap between the yellow and red books, she speculated that her missing book either had a yellow, orange or red cover. Well, that's not helpful she thought. May be it'll come to her in sometime. But meanwhile may be she should focus on lining up the suspects. She looked around and saw there were 12 students in the class today including her. And then she saw the new girl.

Aloof from the other groups stood a girl about Ari's height, observing her classmates. She saw Ari watching her and for a full minute, neither of the two girls looked away; both of them eyed each other suspiciously. And the new girl broke the gaze but now started moving in Ari's direction, approaching her. 

"Hi, I'm Bri", she announced with an outstretched hand. Ari was impressed, here was a kid who behaved like an adult. Ari shook her hand and introduced herself. "So why were you watching me?", she asked surprising Ari. "Well I.. umm you.. I only looked because you looked at me" she replied. 

Bri eyed her suspiciously but decided to not continue argument on the subject. "Why are you not reading?", she asked once again taking Ari by surprise. "Uh I eh.. umm.. why are you not reading?" she summoned courage to question this new girl who seemed too inquisitive. "I don't have a book to read today. The teacher asked me to borrow from one of the other students. I was trying to decide who to ask", Bri replied coolly. 

Oh, that explains Ari thought. "Now your turn, you didn't answer my question", Bri asked leaning on the window, never once turning her gaze from Ari's face. This time Ari didn't stammer, "Well somebody stole my book" she said sounding more angry than she intended to. 

"Which book?" came back the question, the voice still calm and cool. 

"Umm.. I don't know yet", Ari replied knowing she sounded silly. For the first time since they started talking, there was a change of expression on Bri's face. It was somewhere between a smirk and smile. 

"You don't know which book you lost?", Bri asked incredulously. 

"I'm going to find out. I know the cover must be yellow, orange or red", said Ari defensively, and proceeded to explain her deduction. 

Bri listened with amusement and said "Well, if you don't know what you lost, why bother looking for it?"

"Umm because it's mine? And someone took it wrongfully!", cried out Ari. 

"I get that but why cry over spilled milk", said Bri. 

"What?", Ari was confused, who cried over spilled milk, what was this new girl talking about. 

"It's an expression my mom uses. It means why be upset over something which can't be changed", Bri said, once again sounding cool and composed. Ari never met any child her age who acted like an adult. That intrigued her. 

"So what should we do? I cannot just let it be", Ari said looking dejected. Why couldn't she be a good detective, she wondered. 

"Well, my mom also says you should always make the best of your situation. So, let's see, what's your favorite color?", Bri asked. 

"Umm why would you... well ok, my favorite color is yellow", Ari answered realizing there's no point asking this new girl any questions. She might as well play along. 

"Good. Yellow it is. Here this is a new notebook", Bri pulled out a fresh new book from her bag, "Do you have a yellow sketch or color pencil or a crayon?".

"Yes," said Ari as she handed over her yellow sketch pen. 

"Great, now we color this note book cover in yellow" said Bri.

Ari couldn't see the point of this exercise, where was this going? "Why are we destroying your brand new book?" she asked Bri. 

"Because we are finding you a new book to replace your book shelf. Now, do you have any ideas on what we should write in this book? It could be anything - your favorite story, rhymes, anything". 

"Rhymes?", Ari made a disgusted expression, "I am not a 4 year old to recite rhymes". 

"Fine, poems then, whichever you prefer", said Bri, her gaze fixated on the cover she was sketching yellow. 

"Well, I always wanted to write about cool adventures that I would have", said Ari wistfully.

"What's the matter then? Why couldn't you have adventures?" Bri stopped coloring and looked up. 

"Just didn't find the right mate I guess. Would.. would you like to be my mate for adventures?" she said looking hopefully at Bri. 

A pretty smile appeared on Bri's face, she nodded her head and said "So let's start with the first adventure. Your lost book". 

"And a new found friend" Ari finished the sentence, smiling.