The Case of the Lost Letter

On a gloomy eve, Mack Jones sat at an oak desk, feet up, gum on the bottom of black dress shoes. For a short moment he was alone and at peace. That was before Sally abruptly swung open the door to announce the presence of a new case.

Mack gasped "Geez Sally, you startled me!"

Sally - tall, pretty, but not very smart - was, however, talented at new case announcements. Mack never understood how she managed to make a saxophone play when she entered. What's more, she made Mack's heart jump up and down when she announced new people. Maybe her looks were the cause. Maybe the joy of a new case was the reason. Or maybe because she always swung that door so dang hard. Whatever the source, Mack's solemn frown turned over as he beamed.

"Mack, there's a Lady Jane here to see you."

"Oh, good! Let her..." Mack paused. He was, for just a moment, unable to conjure the word. Oh, yes, that's correct, "enter."

Lady Jane crossed the threshold and brought along an uneasy aura.

"What seems to be the problem, Lady Jane?"

Lady Jane wrung her hands and took a deep breath.

"You're the...sleuth?"

"That's correct. Do you have a case for me?"

"Yes...uh...you could say that."

He was only concerned about her take on the problem; he knew zero facts about her quandary so far. How could he say there was a case?

"But... would you say that?" Mack pressed.

"Would...No...that's not... doable. But you could say that, and that's the purpose of my presence, really."

Perplexed, Mack gawked at the frumpy woman. What was all that about, he wondered.

"All what about?" the lady asked.

She not only spoke strangely, but now she could read Mack's thoughts?

"What thoughts? We heard you speak."

"What?"

"What?"

Mack was confused but needed to save face, so he coughed loudly and moved on.

"Anyway, please, the case- proceed."

"Well have you ...observed... that there are some words today that just won't come to you?"

"Of course, madame," Mack bluffed.

"All the words that have an..." the Lady paused, she was stumped. How could she let Mack know about the lost letter ...sans letter? Mack gazed at her befuddled. Lady Jane gathered herself once more.

"There's a letter ... that's been stolen."

"So there's not a letter, you mean?" Mack chuckled.

Lady Jane rolled her eyes.

"Ahem," Mack moved on, "from where?"

"From... our language."

Mack rubbed the small amount of beard he possessed and pondered. "Understood." But really he couldn't be more lost.

"Yes, lost. Exactly."

"What?"

"The mystery was brought to me by the local...frozen cream man."

"Frozen cream?"

"Yes, you know...the tasty treat everyone screams for?"

"Ah, yes, truly- a treat that has no equal."

"Yes, well the frozen cream man came to me after school, to my classroom. He relayed a tale of woe. Just after lunch, as he opened shop, he became aware that many words on the shop's letter board were damaged. All the words that would usually need the lost letter were, just as you'd guess, absent."

"And the frozen cream man came to you?"

"Yes, because of my employment."

"And what's that?"

"For lack of a better word...Grammar" she remarked, the reverse of a frown broke across her face. "He wanted to know whether the lost letter was also observed by myself."

"And you observed the lost letter's... lostness?"

"Yes. Several moments throughout the day, words just wouldn't come to me or my students."

Mack brooded on these facts for a moment. Then a thought struck Mack on the head, but honestly, what stuck Mack was actually the book Lady Jane threw at the dunce of a man.

"Ouch!"

"Shall we go to my school Mack? You could look for clues."

"Ah, yes, that's just the thought that came to me as well. To the school!"

**********************************************************************

Mack and Lady Jane entered the small classroom regaled by artwork done by small persons; hand turkeys, dry pasta art, and doodles on colored paper.

Lady Jane waved her hand toward the top of the room where the walls and roof met. Along there was a long, slender catalog of letters. But there was one absent from school that day. The one between H and J wasn't merely faded, doodled out or just forgotten. A space was there, but the letter was gone.

"Do you see, Mack?"

"Aye."

"Exactly!"

"What?"

Lady Jane was at the end of her rope. She let out a sound that resembled oxygen let loose. Then she took a breath and suggested "maybe you can unearth some other examples here."

Mack perused the room. He saw desks, cupboards, and those small boxes where you placed your stuff when you were small. What were those called? Oh, no bother. he couldn't stand around and dredge up forgotten words. Next he moved over to a bookcase.

He became keenly aware of one book towards the far left. On the cover was a man. He wore an eyepatch, had a peg leg, and seemed fond of a parrot. The label on the book was one Mack recalled from when he was just a boy. Gold letters spelled the word "Treasure" but the next word was gone.

"Ah! A clue!"

Lady Jane rushed over to Mack.

"See, the other word should be ... you know, the one where a body of water surrounds the land."

"Very good, Mack!"

Mack beamed. He always enjoyed the favor of a teacher.

"Hmm, you know, that's our...theme for the month. Scallywags."

"Scallywags?"

Lady Jane placed her hand on the cover the book once more to help Mack get a clue.

"Oh! You mean buccaneers."

Lady Jane nodded.

"Let's look around some more."

Both of them wandered the room. They found more and more of the same lost letters; a lost letter above the door to leave the room, a lost letter from the book center, and the area meant for pens and paper. But the clue that helped them the most was the empty treasure chest. All of the chocolate currency was stolen.

Mack shouted "buccaneers! To the nearest port!"

"Hold on, Mack. Don't be hasty. Don't forget about the frozen cream man. Let's stop there." Jane shook her head.

"Sure, sure...that's on the way."

"On the way to where?"

"The port!"

Lady Jane smacked her head, but she and Mack left for the frozen cream shop and then, apparently, the port.

**********************************************************************

The frozen cream shop was a small, rugged, hut near the wharf. Mr. Blake was out front. The shop's letterboard seemed to be Mr. Blake's focus as Mack and Jane approached.

"Mr. Blake?"

"Oh, yes?"

"May we take a look at your shop?"

"Yes, please do. Looks as though some vandal got bored."

Mack and Jane stared at the letterboard and found several places where the lost letter had been removed. For starters, the top of the board just had the word cream. Then there was no flavor made from beans, no flavors that held small chunks of chocolate or that green stuff, and lastly, no smooshed baked dough stuff.

"That's not all," Mr. Blake shared.

"Show me."

"One tub of frozen cream was looted to boot."

"Oh? What flavor?"

"Swashbuckler's Bounty."

Mack gave a smug glance to Jane but she moved back toward the letterboard.

"Look, Mack! What's that?"

On the letterboard where the letters had been removed, there were deep scratches.

"Maybe a dagger?"

"Maybe a hook!"

"No, Mack..."

"The chocolate currency, the swashbucklers bounty. Come on."

Jane exhaled, "Ok."

"To the Port!"

**********************************************************************

The sea was choppy. The boats bobbed up and down next to the dock. Mack and Jane took a look at each vessel as they walked by. One was the Sea Shanty, One was named Seas the Day, but the next one caught Mack's eye. That one was "Aye before Sea."

"Huh."

Jane and Mack approached the boat carefully. Some sand had accumulated on the dock. There was enough there for Mack to spy a drag mark that led to the boat. The mark was small and most assuredly not from a boot, or foot.

"The mark appears to be from a cane."

"Or a peg leg, Jane!"

As they walked closer to the vessel, they found another clue. A small gold colored wrapper rested next to the rope that held the boat to the dock.

"Chocolate Currency!"

Mack and Jane hopped aboard.

There they found a soggy bucket of Swashbuckler's Bounty on the deck, frozen cream now melted.

"Ut oh, somebody better swab the poop deck," Mack muttered.

"Shut up, Mack."

"Oh and what do my eyes behold? Look Jane an enormous red letter X. And as we all know an X marks... what?"

Jane muttered under her breath "the spot." She couldn't accept that Mack's scallywag theory could be correct.

They both moved toward the X, Mack pranced, and Jane trudged. The X was marked on the wood of the deck and appeared to have a leather loop to pull, located at about the center. Mack pulled as hard as he could. The floor became a door to a secret compartment. There the two found a chest.

"Help me?"

"Yep."

They both reached down and pulled up the treasure chest.

"How can we check out the loot?"

"Seems we need to bust the lock ...or use one of those sharp, small, metal..."

"You mean a bobby...fastener?"

"Yes, that!"

Mack was a pro lock unlocker and had the lock free fast.

"Ready? Here we go," he announced.

The two removed the top of the chest. They both gasped, stunned by what they saw. There, before them were numerous lost letters. Letters torn from papers, letters torn from flyers, even lost letters caught by speech bubbles.

"Why would somebody do such a..."

Just then, a groggy "Arrggg" came from below deck. Mack grabbed for the gun he strapped on everyday. A moment later a man approached. He had a large floppy hat, a hook for a hand, and yes, a peg leg too.

"Why are you scoundrels on me boat?"

"No, you Buccaneer," Mack glanced proudly toward Jane. "Why do you have all these...lost letters?"

The man stared at Mack. He had one good eye, the other was covered by a patch.

"You took them, yes?"

"Aye!"

"Yes, that's correct, the lost letter!"

"No, Aye!"

"Oh, why?"

"Because" he touched the patch. "Me eye!"

"Oh you wanted an eye?" Jane and Mack both laughed. What a fool!

"That's not the same! We need those letters! You're under arrest, scoundrel." Before the buccaneer could grab a weapon, Mack was faster.

For a moment he had the marauder dead to- well, red handed. But then the Scallywag bashed a lantern on the way to the dock. Flames engulfed the boat fast. Mack and Jane rushed to the dock but the scoundrel broke free from Mack's grasp and then dove overboard. As Mack and Jane sat just out of the catastrophe's reach they watched the stash of lost letters burn away forever. The darkness surrounded them as Mack reflected.

"Funny. Often we take for granted the small stuff but the small stuff adds up."

They wondered about the road ahead, the challenges the world would face now, sans the lost letter. At least he and Jane had a day to apply the new norm. Now they were pros.