The 2009 Children's Fiction Writing Award WINNERS

‘The Mystery of the Red Hand’ by Noa

One day as she was watching television, Maria saw an interesting news flash: "Today the gem once belonging to Queen Elizabeth the first was stolen from the British Museum in London. All the police could find was a red handprint on the glass case. Police in other parts of the world have reported items missing from museums that also had red handprints on the glass cases."

Maria quickly shut off the TV. She ran over to her friend Maddie’s house. Maddie’s real name was Madeline, but she liked being called Maddie. Maria knocked on the door really quickly and loudly and Maddie opened the door. It creaked. "Hi Maria, what’s up?" said Maddie cheerfully. "Maddie, how could you say that?" said Maria very frustrated. "The gem that used to belong to Queen Elizabeth the first was stolen and there was another red handprint on the glass case."

"Whoa, slow down girl," said Maddie.

"Anyway, Maddie you better start thinking with your big brain, because that makes the fifth red hand on a glass case in two weeks. This time the police also found a clue: a note scratched into the handprint."

"What should we do? My brain says that we are not old enough to buy tickets to go to London," said Maddie. "Well, think of something else, big brain," said Maria. Just then Maria’s cell phone went off: Old McDonald had a farm E I E I OOO! "Oh fiddlesticks," said Maria as she answered her cell phone. "Hello, this is Maria Rondegez. What? I won? All right! I’ll be right there, bye!" Click, Maria hung up. She was so happy she said everything in one word, "OhmygoshIwonticketstolondon!"

"Well, that takes care of everything," said Maddie with a sigh. But before you could say "bah hum bug", Maria was off like a race horse.

In front of Maria’s house was a plump, short man. "Oh, gimme gimme gimme," begged Maria.

"Not so fast," hissed the plump man, "first you must tell me what sort of school you go to."

"School? Not me," giggled Maria. "If you are a true business man you should know that the government hired some kids to be spies, and I’m one of them!"

"Oh really? Well I have no interest in spies, so here’s your prize," said the plump, short man.

"Thank you, sir," said Maria politely. Then, in a mad dash, Maria sprinted over to Maddie. She was sitting down at her favourite curb, underneath her favourite stop sign reading her book. "Maddie, get packing quick! This was no contest for ordinary people; it was tickets from the government. They made a contest for the spies to find out who would be the first group to finish the mission. The winners will be the group who does all the dangerous missions!"

"Oh wowy, wow, wow!" shrieked Maddie.

"Get packing ‘cause the plane leaves tonight!" said Maria. She was so happy she was crying. "Meet me at the WestJet check-in, but don’t check in!" she added in a whisper. "What time and what wear?" questioned Maddie. "Eleven p.m. and suit number four; you know, the one with the black stretchy shirt and pants and a black swim cap and see-through black goggles," answered Maria. "Pack one separate suitcase for all your spy gear, including all fifty suits."

That night the two girls met just as Maria got a text message. It said:

Look out agents, there are other agents who are teens like you in the airport who work for the thief. They think it is fun to play with the microchip system that is buried underneath the airport. This is dangerous because if the chips are moved all the flights to London will crash. Right now four agents are playing monopoly with the old microchips. They are at the airport to stop ALL flights to London. You’ve got to go underground and stop them or else all planes to London will crash into the ocean!

Maria text messaged back: We’re on it, sir. Then a new text appeared: Great. Do the exam we gave you last month. Maria looked up to Maddie and cried, "Put on the slipthrough suit!"

Maria and Maddie slipped through the floor and slid down a pole. Once underground, the girls saw the discs; they looked like Frisbees hanging from the ceiling. "There is a chip for each of us, but which one?" said Maddie.

Maria pulled a small microchip off a disk. "Found one," she said happily as she slipped it into the computer.

"How many planes did you save?" asked Maddie.

"Fifty," said Maria.

"How did you find the microchip?"

"Super goggles number forty-eight searcher," said Maria simply.

Maddie put them on just in time. She saved the remaining fifty planes.

"Great, now tap that mossy brick five times and whisper your agent name," said Maria. Maddie went up to the brick, tapped it five times and whispered, "Captain chocolate chip." The entire wall opened up and she ran in.

A couple of minutes later Captain Mint a.k.a. Maria came in. "Now all we have to do is a normal check-in with Spy Jet Canada," said Maria. So they checked in, but Security, instead of checking that they didn’t have liquid, checked to make sure they DID have liquid. "Oh my," said Maria, "our own private jet."

When they arrived in London, Maria took a gadget with a button out of her pocket. She pressed the button and a car came speeding down the road. The car was a jet black limo that was big enough to take seven people. Maddie pressed a button on her Sherlock Homes suitcase and a driver got out. He bowed his head, put one arm on his heart and indicated the car door with the other one. And then he said, "Ladies, this way please!"

"Never forget good old Fred," reminded Maddie. At the museum a police officer said to another, "You know, we could have done this job, because right now two seventeen- year-old girls are doing it!"

"What do they look like?" said the other gruffly. "Well, one has light, wavy, blonde hair and brown eyes, and she’s extremely shy. The other has straight, brown hair and blue eyes, and she’s Spanish."

"What are their names?" asked the other man. "The Spanish one’s named Maria Rondegez, the other is named Madeline Chezzeric." All of a sudden a LOUD limousine pulled up. Out came two cheerful girls and the one with blue eyes said, "So when do we start checking evidence?"

Maddie went inside without anyone telling her to go inside and check the evidence. Maria looked at the case with her magnifying glass. The code was 983.

Within a few minutes Maddie said quietly, "I cracked the code. The thief’s name is Sam."

Maria said, "How did you do it?"

"Mastermind book number seventeen. Crack codes is what it’s called. This code is made by the months: nine for September eight for August, and three for March. S-A-M." "Great," said Maria, "All we have to do is search on our Supercomputer and see which hotel this guy is staying at." Maddie exclaimed, "That will never work. Do you know how many people named Sam live in England?"

Just then the police came in with news. Someone had seen a suspicious looking man with a big bag board a rented yacht. His name was Sam! "Maybe we should search for someone named Sam who is on a rented yacht," said Maria. "Okay," said Maddie happily.

Maria was the first to find Sam on the Supercomputer. "He’s sailing towards the Bahamas on boat number one, zero, seven, eight."

Maddie said, "How are we going to get to the Bahamas? We don’t have any money for another spy jet flight." "Actually, we are in luck. My parents were going to go on a second honeymoon to the Bahamas, but they seem to have changed their minds. Guess who was smart enough to grab their unused tickets?" said Maria.

"Great thinking, Maria," said Maddie very cheerfully.

"Let’s hurry. Boarding time is in one hour," said Maria breathlessly.

Maria pressed her gizmo that brought out her super limo, the shiny black one of course, and Maddie pressed her Sherlock Holmes suitcase button and Fred the limo driver appeared. Maddie said really loudly and quickly, "Fred, take us to the London docks and put the limo in super speed." "I’ll drive you there as fast as I can, my lady."

"Thank you, Fred," said Maria gladly. At the London docks Maria handed in her tickets. As they boarded, there were lots of reporters taking their pictures and trying to interview them. Maria and Maddie ran on deck very quickly. "So," said Maddie, "What class are we in, anyway?" Maria answered very positively, "First class, room number seventy-six, the biggest room on the ship."

"Great, now I can have my nap!" said Maddie with a yawn.

Seven hours later, Maria woke her up. "We’re here, Maddie. We’re at the Bahamas."

"Really?" asked Maddie, "I was just getting into my dream."

"What were you dreaming about, Maddie?" asked Maria curiously.

"I dreamed that we became the spies that do all the dangerous missions and that we brought Sam to justice."

"Well, we cannot do that right now," said Maria, "but we can stay the night at that small hut near those two palm trees." They grabbed their luggage and disembarked. They asked the owner of the hut his name. "My name is Sam," said the man. "That’s my rented yacht over there, number one, zero, seven, eight."

Maddie whispered to Maria, "This is our guy. We need to arrest him now." "Sam," said Maria, "You are under arrest for stealing Queen Elizabeth the first’s gem." She pulled out pink handcuffs from her special spy bag, put them around his wrists and locked them.

"Well you see, girls, I sort of stole the gems because I needed the money. Things down at the market by the river cost a lot these days. You need a hunk of gold just to buy a carton of milk."

"Well, Sam, you’re still under arrest," said Maddie. They walked Sam over to the ocean and Maria threw in a small piece of gum. The gum instantly transformed into a yacht. "We’ll ride in our super spy yacht and we’ll bring him to justice in Canada," said Maria.

Maddie said, "Where in Canada?"

"Oh, Vancouver," said Maria. "The boat could travel all the way to Vancouver in one hour, it is so fast."

They brought him to court in Vancouver, and Sam was found guilty. Now Maddie and Maria could do all the dangerous missions that the government was unable to do on its own. The government sent them a text message on their super spy phone: You may take the whole month off. That is, unless we get another mission soon.

Maddie and Maria groaned at the same time. "Another mission!"