Chapter – 1 Mystery of the Missing Glasses

Summer started only a week ago. Mia was really excited to come back home after the long term. She went to a boarding school about 60 miles away, because there weren’t many secondary schools in their tiny village.

She’d just woken up, the weather was lovely outside. She sat up with a smile and reached out her hand to the bedside table. She was unfortunately among those few unlucky people who had to wear glasses at all times. So when she couldn’t find them there, she panicked. She gave the table a ones over, but her glasses weren’t there. Her vision was lousy without them. Still sleepy but very worried, she searched the table and everywhere else she could think of.

Half an hour passed, and she was no closer to finding them. The day was off to a bad start. This was a difficult task, finding her glasses when she couldn’t even see. Barely a week home and she’d already lost her summer hat, her favorite pen and now, her glasses. Great, just great.

“Mom? Are you here? Mom? Mom? Where are you? Mom? MOM!” Yelled 12 year old Mia. She was anxious to get her glasses.

“What’s with all the screaming Mi? If you were calling me, I am upstairs, in the attic.” Her mom yelled back.

“Mom, did you see my glasses anywhere?” She was really worried.

“What? I can barely hear you Mia. Come up here!”

“Fine, give me a minute.” Usually she’d be upstairs in a jiffy but without her glasses, it was dangerous and messy business. Dangerous because the steps to the attic were spiral with no railings and on top of that, she could barely see 3 feet in front of her, and messy, because their attic wasn’t the cleanest one around and the plants that line the stairs always tried to trip her. After being away for over 5 months, she had to get used to this.

Just as she predicted, the steps were challenging and she stumbled a lot.

”Mom, did you happen to see my glasses somewhere? I kept it on my bedside table, like always, but now its not there!” Finally upstairs, she sat down with a heave, rubbing her little toe that she had stubbed on her way there.

“You lost your glasses? Again? I thought you stopped loosing that ages ago! How many times have I told you to take good care of your belongings? You can’t just forget where you keep things you use daily! And that room of yours! Always messy. You’ve been home for barely 5 days, and just look at that! How can you find anything there?” Her mom had spent the morning and all last night sorting out the things in the attic while trying to find their old fishing string and was in a grumpy mood.

“Mom, I kept it on the table, I told you. I searched the entire room as best I could. It’s not there. And I didn’t even come upstairs! .”

“Fine, we’ll find it. But you’ll clean that room once we find your glasses, Okay?”

“Fine fine. Now, my glasses.”

Mia wasn’t a very organized person. Quite the opposite actually. Her room was always messy and her mother hated it. But that couldn’t be helped. She’d tried being neat for a while, but she simply couldn’t keep up. She found it much easier to find things when they were disordered.

Her mom called her dad, and together with his help, they set about trying to find Mia’s lost glasses. By noon, they still hadn’t found any trace of it. Finally they stopped their search.

They sat down for lunch. Mia was frustrated.

“Dad! Somebody must have stolen it! I know I kept it there last night. It can’t walk away by itself! ”

“Mi! You can’t just assume someone stole it. You probably just misplaced it somewhere. Let us check if we covered everywhere, huh?” Her dad was the opposite of her mom, cool and funny.

“Hmmph, alright.” She grumbled.

“Ok, so did we check the drawers? “

“Yes”

“Kitchen?”

“Yes”

“Bathroom? Dining room?

“Yes, Yes.”

”What about the living room? The laundry basket?”

“Yeah, we checked all that.”

“Where else? Outside? In your tree house? Inside the fridge?”

“Daaad..Inside the fridge? Seriously? I’m not thaat crazy.”

“Oh no, you’re beyond crazy, I know you.”

Just to be sure, Mia even checked in there, but no such luck.

Finally…

“I am sorry kiddo, it has to be around here somewhere. You’ll have to make do without it for a while, until we find it.” her Dad looked apologetic.

She sighed, nearly wanting to cry. “This is tragic! There goes the rest of my vacation. What will I do without my glasses? I can’t hike, read, climb, Or fish, not even play properly! And when Anne, Jack and Susan come over next week, I probably won’t be able to go to the movies with them and we’ll probably have to cancel that camping trip, or they’ll have to go without me!” She was hysterical.

“Mia darling, its alright, we have time. It’ll be here somewhere, we’ll find it, ok? Come on! Lets go have some of your favourite strawberry tart, that I made, just for you.” Her mother soothed.

“Come on girl! Cheer up! Its just your glasses. At least you didn’t loose some of the things I did… the Car keys, my wallet, the Remote… I’ve lost lots of things kiddo. I’m surprised, your mom still let me stay here.”

That made her feel a lot better. At least, she wasn’t the only one always loosing things. Whether it be her glasses or her dignity.

That day, was one of the worst days of her life. Loosing one’s glasses seems like a trivial thing to most people, but only those with horrible eye sight who once lost their glasses will understand how truly horrible it is, how helpless and vulnerable you feel without them. Seeing her so miserable, her dad took her outside, and helped her climb the tree house. Mia and her dad made it together years ago. The sturdy little thing was still there after all these years. It brought back lots of memories and this is where she always came when she needed some time alone. He spent the morning with his daughter, and then left to the village to get the groceries.

 Mia just sat there, listening to some music from her radio. Her grandfather’s last gift to her, before he died. It was one of her most valued possessions. She was feeling much better and had lost most of her sour mood. She closed her eyes, leaning against the thick banyan tree in which the tree house was made, peeling an orange and slowly sucking the juice before eating it.

She reckoned this was not too bad a way to spent one’s vacation.