by Charles Tang
“Sure does. It’s the same view. Same position. Same baby giraffe,” Jessie said.
Blake and Annika clicked their camera buttons at the exact same time.
“Done!” Blake said, stepping back from the fence.
“Whew,” Henry said, finally able to breathe. “I’m surprised you don’t want to take a few more pictures to make sure you got it just right.”
“When you have a winning photo, all it takes is one shot,” Blake said with certainty. He glanced over at Annika, who was busy taking multiple shots of the same view. “I think I’ll use this camera, with the winning picture, for the rest of today. Then I’ll have a completely new one to use tomorrow.” Blake patted his over-the-shoulder bag.
Annika leaned over to the fence and clicked her tongue. “Come here, little giraffe,” she said. She fired off another couple of pictures.
“Henry,” Benny said, rushing up to the others. “Have you seen Sophie?”
Henry looked around the group. “No. Why?”
“I don’t see her,” said Benny. “Being an assistant zoologist is hard work. It’s my first day, and I already lost a tourist.”
“Sophie’s not lost,” Violet said. She pointed to the tall blond girl sitting alone by the nearby picnic area. “There she is.”
Sophie was far off from the group. She was sitting in the grass. Instead of looking at the giraffes, she watched some peacocks.
“I’ll go get her,” Benny said.
Benny scampered off and came back a minute later without Sophie. “She says giraffes are boring,” he told the others. “She’s waiting for us to get done with the giraffes so we can eat lunch.”
“Let’s go, then,” Blake said, holding his bag tightly against his chest. “I’m hungry.”
Benny rubbed his tummy. “I’ve been so busy today, I forgot to eat my snacks. I’m starving!”
Everyone went over to the picnic tables, where Sophie joined them.
The lunch cooler was there, waiting for them. The students set their cameras and backpacks on a table and went to get their lunch sacks.
For a few minutes, Nico was alone at the table. Then Benny came rushing over. “Here. These are for you.” Benny gave Nico an orange, a bottle of water, and some chips from his pack.
Sophie, Blake, Annika, and the twins sat on one side of the table, with Nico and the Aldens on the other. The rest of the tour group sat with Mr. Newton at another table.
“I’m not very hungry,” Henry said. He gave Nico half of his turkey sandwich, too.
“You Aldens are lifesavers!” Nico said, perking up after taking a bite of Henry’s sandwich. “Thanks a million!”
A few bites into lunch, a fight broke out at the far end of the picnic table.
“I want to take a picture of that bird,” said Griffin. He was pointing at a peacock pen near the lunch tables.
“You can’t,” his twin Matthew said. “You took the last three pictures. It’s my turn. And I don’t like peacocks.”
“But he’s a pretty bird,” Griffin said. “And his feathers are all spread out. Quick. Give me the camera.”
Matthew hid it behind his back. “No way,” he said.
Griffin reached over and pushed his twin, so Matthew shoved back. “If you want to take so many pictures, get your own camera,” Matthew said.
“Fine! I will get my own camera.” Griffin stood up and grabbed his lunch bag. Then he went and sat with the rest of the group at the other table.
“Tour group!” Mr. Newton called. He rushed up to the tables. “Some new butterflies are hatching from their cocoons!” Mr. Newton excitedly announced. “Let’s head over to the butterfly pavilion right now. The ones that hatched a few days ago are taking flight for the first time!”
The children from the tour quickly started to clean up.
Annika grabbed her camera off the table, stuffed her half-eaten food back into its sack, then walked over and dumped it in the cooler.
Blake was about to head over to the cooler, but he picked up his camera first. “I’d better put this away before anything bad happens to it,” he said. He shoved the camera into his over-the-shoulder bag and laid the bag on the table. Then Blake went over to the cooler with his leftover lunch.
The rest of the spring break tour group rushed about, gathering their cameras and lunches. They were in a hurry to see the butterflies.
On their way, a zookeeper and a woman wearing a security badge walked by. They were carrying a small monkey in a metal cage. It jumped about and made hooting sounds.
“I can’t wait to get to the monkey area,” Violet said.
“I think we’re seeing them at the end of the day,” Henry told her.
They finally entered the butterfly pavilion. “This is incredible,” Jessie said.
There were butterflies all around, on branches and bushes. One even landed for an instant on Benny’s head. Violet quickly took a picture before it few away.
Mr. Newton told the children that once the butterflies come out of their cocoons, they need to hang upside-down for a while so their wings can expand and dry before they fly. Some of the butterflies were just coming out. Others, like the one that landed on Benny’s head, had emerged a few days earlier.
When the tour group left the butterfly pavilion, the students went on to see some newly hatched hummingbirds. They were resting in their cup-shaped nest, waiting for their mother to return and feed them. After that, the group followed Mr. Newton and Benny to the baby alligators’ habitat. When they arrived, the small alligators were sunning themselves on rocks to keep warm. Henry took a few pictures.
At the jaguar exhibit, it was Jessie’s turn with the Alden camera. She focused on a baby jaguar, climbing up a tree. But she was suddenly interrupted by Blake shouting. “My camera! It’s gone! Someone stole my camera!” he said.
Chapter 3
A Mystery
Mr. Newton rushed over to Blake and confirmed that Blake only had one of his two cameras. He then called the group together. “We have a problem,” Mr. Newton announced. “Blake’s camera is missing. If you have a camera, please check and make sure that it is yours.”
“How would we know if it is Blake’s camera?” asked Matthew. He looked at the camera in his hand. “I think this is mine and Griffin’s, but it doesn’t have our names on it.”
“Yes. All the cameras we bought this morning look alike,” Griffin added. “They’re twins, just like me and my brother!” The twins high-fived each other. It seemed like they were back to being friends.
“Is there any chance you put your name on it?” Henry asked Blake.
“I didn’t think I had to,” Blake said. He was growing angry. “Someone took it. They knew my best picture was on that camera so they stole it!” He looked around at the group, staring at each person there. “Who did it?” Blake asked. “Who has my camera?”
“Slow down,” Jessie said to Blake. “Maybe someone took it, but it also might have fallen out of your bag. It’s always best to look around before accusing people of stealing.”
“We’ll help you find it,” Benny said. “The Aldens are good at solving mysteries.”
“Can you remember where you saw the camera last?” Violet asked as Jessie pulled her notebook out of her backpack pocket.
“It was in here.” Blake dumped everything out of his bag onto a bench.
“A pen, the zoo ticket, a bottle of water, a pack of gum, and a camera,” Jessie said, looking through the things from Blake’s bag. “No second camera.”
Violet picked up the camera. “How do you know the missing one had the giraffe photo on it?”
Blake pointed to the top. There was a little dial that showed how many pictures had been taken. “Zero,” he read. “I didn’t take any pictures with this camera yet. I was saving it for tomorrow.”
“When did you last use the missing camera?” Henry asked.
“I haven’t seen anything I wanted to take pictures of since before lunch,” Blake said, trying to rec
all. As he thought, Blake rubbed a hand over his red hair. “So the last time I used it must have been at the giraffe exhibit.”
“Okay,” Henry said. “We need to retrace our steps and go back to the places we’ve visited today.”
Blake glared at Annika as if she was guilty. “You knew I had a great photo on that camera. You wanted me to lose the contest, didn’t you?” He squinted at her. “I bet you took it.”
“I didn’t take your camera,” Annika replied. “I only have this one.” She held up her camera.
Mr. Newton began to break the students into small groups. “Jessie and Violet will go with Sophie and Nico back to the giraffe exhibit.” He pointed in the direction of the giraffes.
“I’ll go with Benny and Blake to the butterflies,” Henry suggested. “That was our first stop after lunch.”
“I’ll go with you, Henry,” Annika said. “Even though Blake accused me of being a thief, I’ll still help look around.” Annika huffed. “I’ll prove I am innocent.”
“Fine. That’s the second group. Blake, Henry, Benny, and Annika,” said Mr. Newton.
“Where do we go?” the Cho twins asked at the same time.
“You two can come along with me,” Mr. Newton said. He gathered everyone else into his group, too. Then he took the flag from Benny. “My team is heading back to the hummingbirds and then to the alligators.” Mr. Newton checked his watch. “We are going to meet in half an hour under the big banner announcing the baby monkeys.” He pointed at a nearby sign with a picture of little monkeys hanging from a tree. “It’s not very far from here. If you don’t see me, look for the flag.”
Mr. Newton wished the students good luck, and everyone went on their separate ways.
“Come on,” Henry told Blake and his group. They began to head off to the butterfly pavilion. “We’re going to find that camera.”
“I hope so,” Blake said. “But I’m sure we won’t. I know it was stolen.”
“How do we get to the giraffes?” Violet asked Jessie as they headed in a different direction.
Pushing his shaggy hair out of his eyes, Nico looked closely at the sign that Mr. Newton had shown them. “That way is the monkeys,” he said. “I see the signs for hippos and elephants. But there isn’t a picture of giraffes.”
“Forget it,” Sophie said. “Let’s skip the giraffes. There’s no way that Blake lost the camera there. It would be a huge waste of time to walk all the way back to the giraffes.”
“We told Mr. Newton and Henry we’d go to the giraffes. We better do what we said.” Jessie hurried over to a man in a zoo uniform selling balloons and asked for directions.
The man took a map out of his pocket. He said, “We are here.” He pointed to the jaguar exhibit. “You need to head that way.”
“Okay, thanks,” Jessie said, taking the map from the man. “Let’s hurry. We only have half an hour.”
Nico took off toward the giraffes, saying, “Long-neck friends, here we come!”
Nico got there first. Jessie and Violet were right behind him. They started looking around for the camera. But moments later, Jessie realized that Sophie wasn’t with them.
“Oh no,” Jessie said. “Not again. This is just like when Benny thought she was missing the last time we were here.”
Jessie and Violet stopped looking for the camera and searched for Sophie instead. They searched for a tall girl with blond hair in the zoo crowds, but couldn’t find her.
Giving up for the moment, they went to get Nico instead.
“I can’t find the camera anywhere,” Nico told the girls the instant they approached. “I even looked down there.” He pointed over the fence to where the baby giraffe was eating leaves from a low bush. “But there’s no camera on the ground of the habitat.”
“No camera,” Jessie said. “And, no Sophie either.”
“What do you mean?” Nico asked, peering over Jessie’s shoulder. “She’s behind you.”
Jessie swung her head around. Sophie was a little ways back from the giraffe cage, close to where they’d stopped to eat lunch.
“What? How?” Violet was confused. “I am sure she wasn’t over there a second ago.”
Jessie walked over to the picnic area. “Where were you?” she asked.
Sophie pointed at the tables. “I was checking the lunch area.” She looked at Nico. “Any luck?”
“Nah,” Nico said. “You?”
“Nope,” Sophie said, glancing over at the giraffes with a shiver. “Let’s get out of here.”
As they walked away, Jessie put her hand on Violet’s arm, a silent sign to hang back. Jessie was still holding her notebook in her hand. “I think if no one finds the camera, Sophie should be our first suspect.”
“I thought we weren’t accusing anyone yet,” Violet said to her sister.
“I’m just thinking,” Jessie said. She then jotted down Sophie’s name in her book. “Sophie didn’t want to look for the camera, and then, once we got here, she disappeared. Maybe she doesn’t want to look because she’s the one who took it.”
“Why would Sophie take it?” Violet asked.
“She wanted a camera and couldn’t afford one, right?” Jessie answered.
“But if she suddenly had a new camera this afternoon, everyone would know it wasn’t hers,” Violet said.
“You’re right,” Jessie said. “But, she’s acting so strangely, it makes me wonder what’s going on.”
Violet pressed her lips together, considering Jessie’s words. “She does keep on disappearing. Hmmm.” Violet paused. “Okay,” she said at last. “If no one finds the camera by the time we all meet at the monkeys, Sophie Webb will be suspect number one in Blake’s missing camera mystery.”
Chapter 4
Monkey Trouble
Benny, Henry, Annika, and Blake didn’t find the camera at the butterfly exhibit, so they hurried on to catch up with the rest of the group.
“There! That’s where we’re supposed to meet Mr. Newton.” Benny rushed up to a cage where little monkeys were swinging from trees and playing with ropes. “Those are the baby monkeys.”
“Where is the banner that Mr. Newton mentioned?” Henry looked all around. “I don’t see him or the rest of the group.”
Pushing through a crowd of tourists, Henry looked closely at the monkeys. “Those aren’t babies,” Henry told Benny. “They are capuchins. From—” He leaned in to see the sign. “—South America. It says here that the average capuchin weighs no more than six pounds.”
“They’re not babies?” Benny asked. “Hmm. They sure look like babies to me.”
“Figures,” Blake said, pressing in next to Henry and Benny. “We’re in the wrong place.”
“But we can’t be far,” Benny told him. “This whole area is full of monkeys. We just need to find the baby ones. Ack!” Benny jumped back, surprised, when one of the little capuchins swung onto a branch right in front of him. “Oooh, oooh!” the monkey squawked at him.
“He’s trying to play with you,” Henry told Benny.
The little monkey pointed at Benny’s backpack.
“You want my snacks, don’t you?” Benny asked. “Sorry. I’m just an assistant zoologist, so I don’t know what monkeys eat. And I only have people food in my pack.” Benny waved at the monkey.
The monkey waved back, then pointed at Benny’s pack again.
It was like a game. The monkey would point and Benny would wave, and the monkey always waved back.
Finally, Blake said, “We better find the rest of the group. It’s already been half an hour.”
“When we find them, I hope they have your camera,” Annika added, shaking her head. “I really wish we’d found it.” She looked at Blake. “Stop staring at me,” she said. “I can tell you still think I took it.”
“Well, who else would it be?” Blake asked her. “Do you think Benny took it?”
“Me?” Benny asked, eyes wide. “I didn’t steal any cameras!”
His red hair glittered in the
sunlight as Blake gave a little smile. “I know. You had no reason to steal it. The only person who had a reason is Annika.”
At that, Annika turned and dumped her purse onto a nearby bench. She emptied her coat pockets. She even turned her jeans pockets inside out. “See?!” she told Blake. “No camera except this one.” She held up her camera. “Mine. Not yours.”
“I still think—” Blake started, but Henry cut him off.
“Maybe one of the other groups found your camera, Blake,” Henry said.
“Let’s try going this way.” Benny pointed around the back of the capuchin cage. “See ya,” he told his new little friend.
And just then, the little monkey fiddled with the cage door. To everyone’s surprise, the door opened.
The next thing Benny knew, the monkey was sitting on his shoulder, trying to get into Benny’s pack.
“Oh no!” Benny said, trying to pull his pack away. “Help! A monkey broke out of his cage!”
“Hold still,” a voice echoed through the crowd. A zookeeper had been feeding the chimpanzees their lunch in a cage across the way. He heard Benny’s call for help. “I’m on my way,” the zookeeper called.
A tourist holding an ice cream cone was surprised as the little capuchin leapt off Benny’s backpack and made a grab for his dessert. “Get away!” the man shouted.
The man’s wife waved her arms wildly to chase the monkey away. “Don’t let the monkey near any children!” she cried.
The monkey gave up on the ice cream cone and jumped through the crowd.
In the short minute it took for the zookeeper to arrive, the little monkey had stolen a pretzel from a girl and an apple from a boy in a stroller.
The little boy’s mother started yelling. “Help! The monkey’s after my kids!”
The monkey dashed around. The zookeeper was now after him, shouting to the people in the crowd, “Don’t panic. Simio is not dangerous. Stay still and I’ll catch him.”
“There you are!” Mr. Newton came up to where Henry, Annika, Blake, and Benny were standing, watching the zookeeper chase the monkey. The rest of the tour group was with him.
