The Mystery of the Lion's Tail
Page 2
CHAPTER 7
Running Out of Time
The next day, Kafil drove the Briars to the Maasai village. On the way, Ella pulled out her notebook and wrote:
Before we went to bed last night, we saw a leopard in a tree near our lodge. That means we’ve seen four of the Big Five.
We still haven’t seen a lion, though. And today is the last day of our safari! Tomorrow, we’re leaving to go to a place called Lake Nakaru.
Can we find Dr. Alex Broad? Will she help us find a lion? We’re running out of time!
Soon the Briars arrived at the village. They passed a row of low brown huts.
“These Maasai homes are made out of sticks that are woven together. The sticks are then plastered with mud, grass, and cow dung,” Kafil explained.
“Wait, cow dung?” Ethan burst out. “You mean, cow poop?” he asked.
Kafil laughed. “The Maasai are very smart. This is their way of recycling.”
He stopped the car near one of the huts. Some of the villagers from the night before came out and greeted him and the Briars.
A boy and a girl about Ethan and Ella’s age hung back in a doorway. The twins waved to them. The boy and girl waved back.
“Habari!” Ella called out.
“What does that mean?” Ethan whispered.
“It means ‘hello’ in Swahili. Dad taught us this morning at breakfast, remember?” Ella whispered back.
Ethan frowned. He didn’t remember at all. He had been too busy making raisin smiley faces in his porridge.
“Hello!” the Maasai boy replied with a shy smile.
“You speak English?” Ella asked him eagerly.
“Yes. We study English at our school,” the girl said. “I am Amina. This is my brother, Jomo.”
The twins introduced themselves. Then they told Amina and Jomo about their safari and the animals they’d seen so far.
“We really, really want to see a lion, though,” Ethan finished.
“Yes, lions are amazing!” Jomo agreed.
“My favorite is seeing a mother lion with her baby cubs. They rest in caves and dens until the cubs are old enough,” Amina said.
“Aww!” Ella cooed. Now she really wanted to see baby cubs, too!
“Do you know Dr. Alex Broad?” Ethan asked Amina and Jomo.
“She’s a lion scientist,” Ella added.
Jomo nodded. “Yes! Dr. Alex lives in a tent with a lion painted on it. She came into the village a few days ago.”
Ella pulled out her notebook and wrote down the description of Dr. Broad’s tent. It was a clue!
The Briars and Kafil spent the next few hours walking around the village and having tea with some of the families. Before they left, the twins asked Kafil to take a picture of them with Amina and Jomo. That way they would never forget their new friends!
* * *
Back at the lodge, Ethan organized his photos from the day on the laptop. He especially liked the one of him and Ella with Amina and Jomo. The four kids stood in front of an acacia tree. Behind them was a stretch of land dotted with bushes and rock piles.
Something in the photo caught Ethan’s eye. He hit the zoom button to make the image grow bigger. And bigger still.
He leaned forward and squinted.
Could it be?
There was a lion’s tail poking out from behind one of the bushes!
CHAPTER 8
Searching for Charlie
“I don’t get it. Why do you kids want to go back to the village?” Mr. Briar asked the twins the next morning.
“Yes. We do need to move on. It’s a long drive to Lake Nakaru. I want to get photos of the pink flamingos before it gets dark. Thousands of them live there,” Mrs. Briar added.
The Briars had checked out of their lodge and put their suitcases in the back of the car. Kafil was driving them to the famous lake.
“But, Mom! Dad! We really want to see a lion,” Ethan insisted.
Ella nodded. “Ethan thinks there might be one living near the village.”
“It swished its tail at us. It might be the same lion that swished its tail at us at the river,” Ethan explained.
“Wait, what?” Mrs. Briar looked alarmed. “A lion swished its tail at you? That sounds incredibly dangerous!”
“It’s okay. The lion was far away,” Ethan assured his mother.
“Even still. Never underestimate how fast and ferocious a lion can be,” Mr. Briar warned.
“We won’t,” Ella promised. “Can we go look for our lion? Pleeeease?”
Mr. and Mrs. Briar exchanged a glance.
“Okay, well . . . as long as you stay by our sides at all times,” Mr. Briar said firmly.
Mrs. Briar peered at her watch. “And let’s make it quick. Fifteen minutes, okay? Then we have to move on.”
Fifteen minutes? That wasn’t much time!
When they reached the village, Ethan pointed to the bush from the photo. “Over there!” he told Kafil.
Kafil continued driving past the village. He circled the bush.
But there was no lion.
“Look!” Ella burst out suddenly.
In the distance was a tent. It had a picture of a lion on it!
“That is Dr. Broad’s tent!” Ella exclaimed.
“Who?” Mr. Briar asked, confused.
“Just trust us,” Ethan said with a grin.
Kafil drove over to the tent and parked. A woman with a long gray ponytail popped her head out. She held a clipboard in one hand and a water bottle in the other.
“Can I help you folks?” she called out in a friendly voice.
“Are you Dr. Broad?” Ethan asked.
“Yup, that’s me,” Dr. Broad replied, coming out of the tent.
“I’m Ethan. This is my sister, Ella. Our grandfather is Harry Robinson,” Ethan said quickly.
“I remember your grandparents! I met them on a safari a long time ago,” Dr. Broad said with a smile.
“Oh my! You know my parents? Really?” Mrs. Briar said excitedly.
The twins told Dr. Broad about their search for a lion.
When they had finished, Dr. Broad nodded slowly. “You saw a swishy tail? Twice? I think that’s Charlie,” she said.
Charlie?
CHAPTER 9
The Lion Cubs
Dr. Broad got into the car.
“I know where to find Charlie. Head that way,” she told Kafil, pointing.
As they drove, they saw some giraffes munching on tree leaves. In the distance, a herd of gazelles pounded across the plain at rocket speed.
“See that fig tree with the claw marks? Charlie and the others like to use it as a scratching post,” Dr. Broad remarked as they passed a thick, gnarly tree.
The others? Ethan thought.
A short while later, the group reached a field of tall pink and brown grass.
“Hey, Charlie! You have visitors!” Dr. Broad called out.
The twins sat straight up in their seats, waiting with anticipation.
“Chaaaarliiieee!” Dr. Broad sang.
The grass stirred. A golden tail swished.
Ethan took a deep breath. This was the big moment. Did the tail belong to a lion? The same lion from before?
A moment later, a magnificent lion with a dark, bushy mane strolled out. His amber eyes scanned their group. His tail swished again.
“Hi, Charlie. Nice to see you! How’s the family?” Dr. Broad asked him.
Swish, swish.
Charlie turned and strolled over to a rocky cave. Dr. Broad told Kafil to slowly follow the lion. Kafil parked the car near the mouth of the cave.
Ethan and Ella craned their necks to peer into the cave. Inside was a female lion. And with her were two small cubs!
The twins couldn’t believe it. The cubs were so cute!
“The mom is Sunflower. I haven’t named the little ones yet. They’re about four weeks old,” Dr. Broad explained. “Lions are very protective of their cubs, just like human parents are very p
rotective of their children.”
Mr. and Mrs. Briar smiled and each put an arm around Ethan and Ella.
One cub nipped the other cub’s ear playfully. Sunflower licked them both. Charlie settled in next to his family and closed his eyes.
Dr. Broad gasped. “I just came up with the perfect names for the cubs,” she announced. “Ethan and Ella!”
The twins beamed.
This was the best day ever!
* * *
When the group returned to Dr. Broad’s tent, they found Jomo and Amina waiting there.
“We saw your car!” Jomo said excitedly.
“We wanted to say good-bye before you left,” Amina added.
The twins told their friends about seeing the lion family. They showed some photos they had taken too.
“We brought some presents for you,” Jomo said. “I drew this,” he added, handing Ethan a picture.
Ethan studied the picture. In the center was a lioness with her cubs. Nearby, a male lion stood guard. Above them, a hawk circled the sky.
“Wow. You’re a great artist. Thanks!” Ethan said happily.
“And this is for you,” Amina told Ella, handing her a beautiful beaded necklace.
“This is so pretty. Thank you!” Ella pulled the necklace over her head and admired it.
Ethan gave Jomo one of his comic books. Ella gave Amina a jingly bracelet she had made back home. Then the four friends hugged.
“Please come back and visit us again!” Jomo told the twins.
The Briars said good-bye to Jomo, Amina, and Dr. Broad. As they drove away, Ethan and Ella turned around in their seats and waved.
Just then, they passed a bush.
A golden tail swished.
“Charlie’s saying good-bye to us too!” Ethan said.
He and Ella laughed.
GLOSSARY
Karibu Maasai Mar a = Welcome to Maasai Mara
Habari = Hello
*All words are in Swahili
“This is the coolest castle I’ve ever seen!” Ethan Briar exclaimed.
“It’s not a castle. It’s a palace,” his twin sister, Ella, corrected him. “It says so right here in Dad’s guidebook. ‘Taj Mahal’ means ‘crown of palaces.’ ”
Ethan shrugged. “Castle, palace, whatever. It’s still awesome!”
“An emperor named Shah Jahan built it in memory of his wife back in the sixteen hundreds,” their dad, Andy, explained.
“It’s become one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world,” their mom, Josephine, added. “Millions of people visit it every year.”
“Wow!” Ella stared in awe at the white marble building. It was really beautiful—and really big, too!
The Taj Mahal was the latest stop on the Briar family’s trip across India. So far, they’d visited a tea plantation, a desert, and a snow-capped mountain. They’d ridden on a small, old-fashioned train called a “toy train” that chugged up steep hills. They’d seen lots of temples, including one shaped like a giant stone frog. Tomorrow morning, they were flying to the city of Mumbai, which was on the Arabian Sea. The Briars had never been there.
Mrs. Briar was a travel writer for their hometown newspaper, the Brookeston Times. Her job was to write articles about interesting places all over the world. The Briars had already been to Venice, Italy; Paris, France; and Beijing, China. Their last adventure before India was a safari in Africa! While Mrs. Briar worked, Mr. Briar homeschooled Ethan and Ella in their second-grade lessons.
Mr. Briar pointed his camera at the twins. “Let me get a photo of you kids standing on the steps. Wait. How come I can’t see anything?”
“You forgot to take off the lens cap, Dad,” Ethan told him.
Mr. Briar laughed. “Right! Okay, here we go! Smile!”
Click! Just then, Mrs. Briar’s cell phone rang. She answered it. “Hello? Yes, this is Jo Briar.”
She spoke to the person on the other end for a few moments. When she hung up, she said, “That was Mr. Deepak Singh. He is a very old friend of Grandpa Harry, and he lives in Mumbai. He invited us to dinner tomorrow night.”
“Is he an archaeologist like Grandpa Harry?” Ethan asked.
“No. He’s a spice merchant,” Mrs. Briar replied.
Ella looked thoughtful. “You mean he sells spices? Like the ones in the grocery store?”
Mrs. Briar smiled. “Not exactly. In India, spices are very special. They are incredibly pure and delicious.”
“Deepak is going to call me back later with his address and directions,” Mrs. Briar went on. “He had to get off the phone rather suddenly. Apparently, there was some trouble going on at his spice store.”
“What kind of trouble?” Ella asked curiously.
“I’m not sure. Maybe we’ll find out tomorrow night.” Mrs. Briar pulled a notepad out of her pocket. “Let’s go walk around the Taj Mahal before it gets too late! I want to jot down some notes for my article.”
Ethan nudged Ella as they trailed behind their parents. Ella knew what her brother was thinking. Sometimes “trouble” meant “mystery.” And the twins loved mysteries!
* * *
The following afternoon, the Briars checked into their hotel in Mumbai. They were tired after their journey but excited to be in the big city.
Ella set her suitcase on the floor of her and Ethan’s room and glanced out the window. There was a lush green garden with a row of feathery palm trees. Just beyond were the gentle blue waters of the Arabian Sea. She could make out a row of skyscrapers in the distance.
Ethan plopped down on one of the beds and opened up their dad’s laptop. After a moment he announced: “We got an e-mail from Grandpa Harry!”
Ella sat down next to him. The twins always looked forward to Grandpa Harry’s e-mails. He lived near Brookeston, and they hadn’t seen him in months.
To: ethanella@eemail.com
From: gpaharry@eemail.com
Subject: Welcome to Mumbai!
Hello, my dears. Mumba’ī mēm āpakā svāgata hai! (That means “Welcome to Mumbai” in Hindi!)
Mumbai is made up of seven islands, including one called Old Woman Island. There are islands outside of Mumbai, too, like Elephanta Island. When I went there, I explored its ancient caves and dug up some very old coins.
My friend Deepak owns a spice store in the Kamala Market in Mumbai. His father used to own it. I hope you get a chance to visit the store.
Love,
Grandpa Harry
PS I believe Deepak has a younger brother named Tufan. I’m not sure if he still lives in Mumbai, though.
Ethan reached into his pocket and pulled out his lucky gold coin. Grandpa Harry had given it to him just before the Briars left Brookeston. It had a hawk on one side and a globe on the other.
“I wonder if Grandpa Harry found my coin on Elephanta Island,” Ethan murmured.
“Maybe!” Ella got out her purple notebook and opened it to a blank page. The notebook had been her going-away present from Grandpa Harry.
Ethan smiled to himself. His sister was always writing down notes about everything.
Ella found a pen and wrote:
Visit Deepak’s spice store.
Deepak has a brother named Tufan.
Ella closed her notebook and gazed out the window. In the beginning, she and Ethan had not been too happy about going on a trip around the world. They hadn’t wanted to leave Grandpa Harry or their friends—especially their best friends Hannah and Theo.
The twins still missed everyone. But their trip had been pretty great so far. In fact, they’d had amazing adventures in every place they’d visited.
Ella wondered what adventures awaited them in Mumbai!
HARPER PARIS
loves to travel. Her favorite cities in the world are Paris (like her name!) and New York City. She has collected many souvenirs on her travels, including a good-luck coin from Japan and a reindeer-horn pendant from Sweden. She also loves mysteries. When she was a kid, she read Hardy Boys and Nanc
y Drew books after bedtime with a flashlight. She now lives with her family (including two cats and a bunny, who are not good travelers) in Ithaca, New York.
MARCOS CALO
has worked as a professional artist for more than fourteen years. He has worked in different fields: illustration, animation, and comic books. He lives with his wife and daughter in A Coruña, a small Spanish town by the seaside.
Little Simon
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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