The Mystery of the Missing Mangoes

by Jolly Wiggins

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It was a beautiful sunny day in Hampi.

Harrison and Elliot were enjoying a nice and cool refreshing mango lassie when all of a sudden, they heard a commotion coming from the kitchen.

Peter came running out shouting, “The mangoes, the mangoes…they’re all gone!”.

“What!?”, questioned Ganesha, “…all of them?”.

“He’s right”, cried Shammi, “They’ve all disappeared”.

This was a disaster. No mangoes meant - no more mango lassies!

This was a job for the Thirkettle Two and the Dancing Detective.

“What are we going to do?”, asked Elliot.

“Let’s call the Dancing Detective”, replied Harrison.

They reached her on FaceTime.

“What’s up boys?” sung Ripley as she danced about on the screen.

“It’s the mangoes”, said Harrison, “They’ve all gone!”.

“Oh no, all the mangoes have gone… blah blah blah, wah, wah, wah”, mocked Ripley. “Listen boys - you need to get some perspective… but if you really want to fix this problem, you need to work out who took them and where they might be now.”

“Thank you Dancing Detective”, Elliot said, “Your help and dance moves have been most helpful indeed. Harrison, who do you think would want to take all the mangoes?”

“Who… hmmm… or WHAT!?”, suggested Harrison.

“Eh, what do you mean, what?… oh yes, the MONKEYS! Those cheeky monkeys are always stealing things!”, reasoned Elliot.

“The rocks by the lake”, said Harrison.

“Have you lost your marbles?”, Elliot replied.

“Marbles? No, rocks Elliot, the rocks by the lake. That’s where we last saw the Monkeys!”.

“Oh yeah!, you’re right Ha’son”

The three young men from Hampi were intently listening to these most brilliant detective minds and were busy themselves working out how they could help them.

By the time, Elliot, Harrison and the Dancing Detective had begged the question, “But how are we going to get to the rocks? It’s miles away…”, Ganesha and Peter had modified two scooters to fit the two boys perfectly.

“Mini scooters!”, exclaimed Elliot.

“Wow” said Harrison, “they’re amazing! and look, there is a special place for the Dancing Detective on FaceTime!”

“Aweeeeesomeee”, danced Ripley around the shed back in Norwich.

With no moment to lose, the three set off towards the lake and the rocks on their mini scooters.

They had been fitted with super charged baby booster engines by Shammi so they whizzed there in record time.

As they screeched to a halt by the lake, Elliot noticed, “The monkeys! I just saw one disappear over those rocks with a mango in it’s hand”.

“Look - they’re taking them into the jungle”, confirmed Harrison.

“Gooooooo, get them boyyyysss” encouraged Ripley while finishing a double pirouette with aplomb.

They climbed the rocks with ease, and then descended into the jungle below…

They followed a trail of monkey prints to a clearing.

There in the clearing, was a huge pile of mangoes.

“I’ve got an idea!”, Ripley whispered. “We’ll teach those naughty monkeys!”.

Luckily, Harrison and Elliot had learnt how to skim stones the day before and used their new skill to skim the mangoes across the lake to the waiting Peter, Ganesh and Shammi.

They in turn, loaded all the mangoes in their truck and took them back home ready for the next batch of lassies.

The next morning…

When the monkeys, came back to the clearing to enjoy their stolen mango feast, they were unaware of what had happened.

The Dancing Detective had come up with the quite brilliant idea of replacing the mangoes with some small rocks painted green.

“Ooh ooh ohh Owww!”, cried a monkey.

“My teeth ooh owwweee”, howled another.

The monkeys ran away, screaming, “ooohhh nooo, we’ll never steal your mangoes ever againnnn!”

Meanwhile, with help from Ripley - the Dancing Detective, the Thirkettle Two were enjoying their first mango lassie of the day.