I enjoyed playing games by myself. My imagination took over the world, and as far as I was concerned, some people would only get in the way. I explored our junk-filled barn for anything. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, just waiting for my imagination to lead me somewhere. I found two giant painted signs from my dad’s previous job. I turned over the signs, and read “detective agency” and I instantly knew where my imagination would lead me. I dragged out the signs to an apple tree in the backyard, and propped them up with a giant stick. I brought several chairs from the patio down under the tree as well. I sat down and waited for business to boom. Then, I thought, I don’t have a door. No one can come in if I don’t have a door! So I went rummaging again, and found a frame to an old wardrobe mirror, and I fastened it tightly to a jump rope. I climbed the tree and tied the other end of the jump rope to a thick branch. The “door” dangled and twirled, blew with the wind, and was barely big enough for me to fit through. It was perfect. My two fluffy and four-legged best friends came along and sat in two of the chairs I had set up. They looked me in the eyes and said “What kind of place is this? It doesn’t have a name?” So I told the cats I would name it after them; Hootie and Rascal Detective Agency. Hootie scattered off at the sight of a bird, but Rascal stuck around; He became my partner in crime-solving.
Rascal and I approached our child-ignorant neighbor, and asked if anything unusual had happened, that they would like to be investigated. She quickly shooed us out of the house, and told me never to bring a cat in her house again. I held on tight to Rascal; I thought he was going to have a temper tantrum because of her loud screeching. She picked up her phone and called my house. I went running to the phone, still grasping Rascal, thinking it’d be something to investigate. But my mother answered, so I had to wait and see. Shortly after, my neighbor stepped outside and told me she had lost her car keys, and she would appreciate it if someone could help her find it. I said no problem, and no need to pay me this time, its on the house. I set Rascal down on the ground, and he fled the premises, in hot pursuit of clues. I shouted “Good work Agent Rascal. I’ll cover the front, you get the back”. My neighbor watched me like a hawk. I tried to reassure her I was going as fast as I can, and that these things don’t just fall into your lap. Hse payed no attention to anything I said.
I had a masterful plan; I got out my sidewalk chalk and started drawing a map of possible areas to search, in and outside the house. I shouted for Rascal to come and see what I had planned out. He didn’t respond, so I knew he was deep in his clues, and I left him to it. I pulled out a pencil and notepad paper from my over sized jacket. I kicked the chalk to the side as I stood up, and just as I went to my neighbor’s door, her sprinkler went off, hitting the patch of grass just alongside the driveway I had drawn on. I dropped my paper and pencil, and screamed. My masterpiece was gone. My plan was ruined. I couldn’t remember the master plan map I had drawn. The colors ran down the driveway, and I was on the verge of tears. I looked up as I heard the sound of a screen door close. My neighbor had been watching this the whole time.
I stood up and ran towards the direction I last saw Rascal. I didn’t find him, but I found Hootie. I snatched him up from his sunbathing pose, and told him what had happened. He said he’d find Rascal and tell him everything. Then Hootie said, You know, I bet she never lost her car keys. There was never a crime. SHE Is the criminal” And I knew it was right. It had to be. No one could be so mean without the intentions of being a criminal, it was so logically clear. Hootie helped me write out a letter of arrest, that said “you are under arrest for being a criminal. It’s not nice”. I took Hootie along with me to my neighbors door, and with a stern look, handed her the note. She read it out loud, so I know she understood it. “Where will you take me?” She asked. I said, to anywhere she liked, so long as everyone was as mean to her as she was to me.