Amy and the Mystery of the Gold Vault

Once there was a girl named Amy. She hated it when people called her by her real name, which was Amelia. She was a curious 7-year-old girl, and loved to explore the streets of Paris. Everyone knew her — everyone knew the girl who had short, tangled red hair, and big blue eyes. Everyone knew the girl who always wore a long plaid skirt and a ruffled shirt.

It was June 5th, 1957, and Amy was causing trouble again. She lived in a large, fancy apartment building/hotel with a large ballroom, a banquet room, restaurants, and lots of room to cause trouble.

“Amy!” The cry could be heard all over the building whenever Amy was around. On this particular day, she was in the lobby staring at a tall, very fancy woman with ostrich feathers in her hat and all over her long gown. The woman was startled when she saw Amy, looking at her down through her spectacles. (She was visiting from New York and thought that a little pest like Amy should not be tolerated in this very fancy hotel/apartment building.) Amy didn’t care, she curtsied and pulled on the feathers. Hmm, this person’s feathers are VERY suspicious! She thought. She took the woman’s hand and pulled her into the broom closet. She took an electric torch and turned it on in the woman’s face.

“Where were you on the night of the…um, yesterday!?”

“Little girl, you must be joking! I have places to go!” she said.

Amy let her go after five more minutes of interrogation. The woman walked off, muttering things to herself. Amy was seven, so she wanted some adventure. She asked her mother if she could go onto the streets and look around.

“Yes, yes, but make sure Cecily comes with you.” Amy’s mother was always busy with work, so she usually made Amy’s annoying older sister babysit her.

As soon as they stepped out onto the street Amy took off, leaving Cecily in the dust. She knew her way around Paris. She decided to stop at the bank and chat with the people who were there. When she got there with Cecily far behind, panting and yelling, she overheard two people talking. “Jo, I don’t care. I won’t believe it. There is no gold vault behind that door!” one person said.

“I think that there is, Bill. I heard the bank people talking about it!” Jo wouldn’t budge, neither would Bill. Amy knew that she just HAD to interrogate Jo. She grabbed his hand, and dragged him into the alley next to the bank.

“What vault? Tell me tell me tell me! Ahem, I mean what do you know about said vault?” said Amy.

“Kid, leave me alone!” said Jo.

“Hmm, I wish that I had an electric torch…” said Amy.

“Alright, fine. We heard that there was a gigantic vault of gold behind the employees only door,” said Jo.

“Hmm, I suspected as much,” said Amy. She let go of his arm, and he ran off.

Amy was excited. She had a mystery! When she knew that there was no one passing by, she did her victory dance. She skipped back to the bank, where Cecily was waiting to give her a stern lecture. “I am going to tell mom that you ran off and that you were interrogating agai-” Amy passed her a One Direction t-shirt. “Squee! This will complete my collection of fan merchandise!” Aw, that was the last of my merchandise!

(Amy used One Direction when she was in trouble with Cecily. One time she put salt in Cecily’s tea, and when Cecily got mad at her she said that One Direction would hate her if she was mean.)

Cecily ran off to her One Direction temple in her bedroom and worshipped for half an hour, which gave Amy time to escape. Amy ran home — it was almost time for supper. When she got into bed, she told her puppy, Bartholomew, everything about the vault, and how she had tactfully interrogated Jo. Bartholomew told her about how he ate her toy bear by going into Cecily’s room and throwing up. That night Amy dreamed of golden chewed up toy bears.

In the morning she went with her mother to the bank. Her plan was to slip in the door and open the vault with her high tech “open sesames.” But she saw that someone already had that plan. A person in a trench coat had slipped into the employee’s only room. Amy decided to follow him. She turned the knob, and…

“Hey! Hey you! You’re not allowed to go in there!” an employee said. “That’s highly confidential!” Amelia was so disappointed. But she knew that if it was highly confidential (whatever that meant) it probably wasn’t a broom closet! Now she had a clue! She wasn’t exactly sure if it was gold, but it was something! The disappointment started to go away as her mother took her hand and dragged her out of the bank, muttering things that Amy could barely hear.

“You can read, Amelia! I don’t know why you would ever break the rules and go through that door!”

“Sorry. Please call me Amy, mother.”

“You are in so much trouble! And Cecily asked me to tell you that you have to clean up the vomit in her room! It’s your dog!”

“It’s her room.”

“You ruined her One Direction T-shirt!”

“Bartholomew ruined her One Direction T-shirt!”

“Why did you ever choose that silly name!”

“I like it. And why are you being so nice to Cecily! It was my bear that Bartholomew ate!”

“I thought that you outgrew that bear!”

“Bye.”

“What do you mean, ‘bye’?”

Amy took off. She ran all the way back to their apartment/hotel building. “Top floor, please.”

“Yes, ma’m.”

“Guess what, Bob! I found out that there is something amazing behind the employee’s only door at the bank!”

“What, a golden mop?” Bob joked. His name was not Bob, but Amy liked that name ever since she visited America and saw “Bob the Builder” on television. When she came back to Paris she said to Bob (Pierre) that she just had to know someone named Bob. So of course she chose her third best friend. (She wasn’t allowed to name her second best friend because it was a girl and she met Bartholomew before she saw Bob the Builder.) “Thank you, Bob.”

“Anytime, Amy.”

She hopped out of the elevator and into her apartment. Her family was very rich, so they owned the whole floor. She wanted the penthouse, but her father said that they shouldn’t spend their money on some foofy penthouse.

“I hope that you are here to clean my room,” warned Cecily.

“Nope. I want to speak with father,” said Amy, annoying Cecily. Amy ran to her father’s study. “Father! Can we go get bagels? I have a mission!”

“Did evil Mr. Squid come back?”

“No silly, this is real! I need as many danger sesames as possible!”

“Wait, I never heard the whole story of Mr. Squid!”

“Oh of course, you must hear! It was quite a battle. It was last month. I was sitting on my chair, and suddenly, Mr. Squid was in battle armor. I thought that he might have been playing dress up with Mr. Octopus, but I was wrong. He was getting ready to attack! I got ready. I ran to you, and asked for a dozen sesames. We bought them, because when I was little I had tons of charm.”

“I thought that this was last month!”

“Oh, but that is so long, cherie! Do not interrupt! Now where was I…ah, yes. I came back to my bedroom. Mr. Squid was in battle stance. I got into battle stance. I uttered the command. ‘CHARGE SESAME!’ I threw the bagels swiftly. They flew like bullets toward Mr. Squid. They hit him. Mother charged in. ‘Young lady, Mr. Squid is not a bowling pin,’ she said. I knocked her out of the way just in time for Mr. Squid’s ketchup packet bullets to whiz by. Mr. Squid was rushed to the infirmary by Mrs. Octopus, Mr. Octopus’ mother, who was a nurse. I defeated him in triumph. That is how the story goes.”

“You are very brave!” said father, laughing and clapping. “Yes, we will get the bagels.” Amy and her father walked down to the American shop, where they sold great bagels. They ordered a dozen sesame bagels.

“I’ll take it from here,” said Amy.

“Alright.” Amy’s father trusted her. “Now I must get back to work, dear.”

Amy went to the bank. The person in the trench coat was not there, but the employees only door was open, and in the progress of swinging shut! She made sure nobody saw her, and slipped in. What she saw did not amaze her. Aw, It’s just a dumb vault. She thought. But she slowly realized that the gold must be in the vault! The door was slightly open. The person in the trench coat had forgotten to shut it completely. It wasn’t enough to see inside, but it was open. Amy pushed as hard as she could on the gigantic door, and finally opened it enough to slip inside. There was one piece of gold.

“The person in the funny coat!” she said.

The next day Amy went to the bank early, before anyone was awake. She had her bagels ready. No one was in the bank except for the woman behind the counter, but she was in the back. But the employees only door was open again. Amy slowly walked in. The man in the trench coat was in the vault, just making sure that he didn’t forget anything. Amy fingered the piece of gold in her skirt pocket. She threw a bagel at him.

“Hey!” For a second he just stood there in surprise. “Ah! I’ve been shot! I’m getting weaker and weaker…hey…a 6-year-old angel…”

“I’m seven! And you just got bagelpulted!”

“Wait, what?” He bent down and picked the bagel up. “Hey kid! What’s the big idea?”

“You’re a thief! I’m telling!”

“If you tell,” he whispered threateningly, “I will shoot your brains out.” He pulled out a gun.

“A bagel gun?” Amy said.

“No, ya stupid kid, a lead gun.”

“Is that a kind of bagel? I only use sesame as a weapon.”

He pointed the gun at Amy. She screamed and ran out. He ran out the door into the streets of Paris. Amy followed. He ran to a sewer. He climbed in. Amy followed. There were thirty-nine other bandits. The sewer was overflowing with gold.

One of the bandits said, “Hey! There’s a little girl! Look!” Everyone looked at Amy.

“Hey kid! You’d better get out!” said the trench coat person.

“I know a song that gets on everybody’s nerves, everybody’s nerves, everybody’s nerves I know a song that gets on everybody’s nerves, here is how it goes, I know a song…” Amy sang.

“Kid get out and if you tell anybody I’ll shoot you!” said funny coat Bob, as Amy called him.

“Funny coat Bob, please don’t shoot me with your lead bagel gun! I’ll leave!”

“H-how did you know my name was trench coat Bob?”

“Oh, I thought it was funny coat. But anyway I’m psychic, so bye.” Amy left.

At dinner, Amy’s mother asked, “What did you do earlier, Amy? I haven’t seen you all day!”

“I solved a crime! I am going to go see the police and tell them.”

“What crime?”

“Trench coat Bob says that if I tell he’ll shoot me with his lead gun which he told me is not a bagel gun.”

“T-trench coat Bob? Oh my, I’m so glad that you’re okay! People have been trying to catch him for months! He is from Venice, and — oh! Tell me everything!”

“What about his not bagel gun?”

“He won’t shoot you behind bars, honey.”

“Okay, so there’s a gold vault behind the employees only door and he stole the gold and he put it in a sewer with other bandits, I think that there were a lot, and I guessed his name.”

The next day Amy and her family went to the police office. They told the whole story, and Amy showed them the sewer where the gold was. She showed the the piece of gold that she found. “You’ll be sorry, little girl!” trench coat Bob screamed as he and the other bandits were dragged along to prison.

 

The End

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