by Ida Siegal
“I’m so sorry to hear this,” Rachel said.
“The truth is,” Maestra explained, “that drum does create a beautiful sound. The parade organizers told me it is part of the reason why we were chosen to perform. Without it, I’m afraid we may not be able to do our dance routine the way they wanted it.”
Shakira and Sophia and I looked at one another with fear. Did this mean we might not get to be in the parade?
“Oh, no,” said Rachel. “That would be awful. And you all have worked so hard—you are such a wonderful addition to this year’s parade. Hmm. Maybe I can help …”
“Help? Really? But how?” asked Alyssa. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying.
“I’m going to talk about the missing tambora drum in my news report. Can you show me a picture of it?”
“Sure!” said Maestra, perking up. “David, honey, pass me my phone, please.” He did, and Maestra showed Rachel a picture of the drum on her phone.
“My grandfather, my abuelo, was a drum maker in the town of San Pedro,” Maestra explained. “He worked on this tambora so long and hard, everyone said it made the most beautiful music. More beautiful than any tambora they’d ever heard. Look here, see, it’s dark brown, with tan ropes on the side and a tan rawhide skin on top where you hit it. It also has a special flower painted on the side with the Dominican flag. My grandfather said that was for good luck.”
“It’s beautiful,” Rachel said. “I’m going to show this picture on the news. Hopefully someone recognizes it and can tell us where it is.”
“That would be wonderful!” said Maestra.
I was so excited to hear that a real reporter would try to help us find the tambora. But still, I thought, we needed to do more than just show the picture on TV. I looked at Shakira, Sophia, and Javier.
“We have to get that tambora back,” I said quietly.
“Yeah,” said Sophia. “I think that reporter is going to need some help. And I think we can help her!”
“You mean with ‘Emma Is On the Air’?” Shakira asked.
“Yup, yup!” I answered with a smile.
“Let’s start now!” Javier said.
Javier was right. We had to start right away. So I took off. “Ms. Cheng … Ms. Cheng …” I called as I ran over to her on the other side of the studio.
“Hi there. Emma, right? You can call me Rachel,” she answered.
“Okay. Rachel, can I tell you something?”
“Of course. What is it?”
“Well, I’m so glad that you’re going to help us find the tambora,” I told her. “We’ve worked so hard to be in the parade, and we’d be so disappointed if our performance was canceled.”
“Of course. I understand. I hope we’re able to find the drum for you.”
“That’s the thing,” I went on. “I was thinking maybe I could help? Rachel, I’m actually a reporter, too. I have my own news show.”
“Is that right?” Rachel sounded like she was impressed. “That’s fantastic. I’d love to see it sometime.”
“Yeah, I’m actually pretty famous. I solve cases at school, and I help people all the time. The truth is, I’m actually very famous.”
“I see,” Rachel said with a chuckle. Although I wasn’t sure what was so funny. She saw the confused look on my face and said, “Yes, I can see how that would make you famous. Emma, I can use all the help I can get. Here’s my business card.” She handed me a small white card that had her name, phone number, and email address on it. “Call me or email me if you figure anything out. We need to work together to find this drum.”
“I will! Thanks!”
Rachel walked back over to Maestra Soto and shook her hand before she and Christian the video photographer left.
I ran to tell the guys we were officially on the case. Luckily, I had my camera phone and microphone already in my backpack, ready to go. Even though I hadn’t worked on my show in a while, I always kept my reporter equipment in my bag. You never know when a reporting emergency will pop up!
“Okay, guys, step one,” I said to Sophia, Javier, and Shakira. “We need to interview witnesses! Who should we interview first?”
“Ooh, I know!” said Shakira. “We should interview Alyssa, right? She’s the one who lost the drum.”
“Yup! Nice answer, Shakira. First we talk to Alyssa,” I agreed. “Shakira, I’m glad you’re helping with this investigation. We could use another member of our news team.”
“Thanks, Emma,” Shakira answered. She looked proud. “Come on, let’s go talk to Alyssa before she leaves.” Off we went—as a team of four.
WE found Alyssa on the other side of the dance studio. She was sitting on the floor hugging her knees. She looked really upset.
The four of us approached Alyssa. Sophia was holding the camera. I let Shakira hold the Emma microphone because she never got to before. And Javier was standing next to us taking notes. Well, he was taking notes in his head. He says he doesn’t like to write stuff down. So I pulled out my purple reporter pad and shiny feather pencil. I figured someone should write everything down!
“Hi, Alyssa,” I said to her in a gentle voice. “I know you’re really upset. But don’t worry, we’re gonna find the drum. I’m going to help Rachel the reporter with the news story. Can I ask you some questions?”
“Sure. I guess. But, Emma, the drum is gone. There’s no way we’ll be able to get it back,” Alyssa replied.
“We can at least try,” I said. “You said you didn’t lock the drum in our closet here in the downstairs studio, right? You locked it in the closet in the upstairs studio?”
“Um … yeah.” Alyssa took a deep breath. “I usually lock it in our studio closet downstairs, but it was full yesterday. There were too many costumes in there. So I took it upstairs. I found a closet that had enough space. I put the drum inside and locked the door. When I went back today to find it, the drum wasn’t there.”
“So the upstairs closet was empty?” Javier chimed in. He was holding one finger to his forehead as if he was taking notes in his brain.
“Well, it wasn’t empty. It still had other stuff inside,” Alyssa said.
“What stuff?” asked Sophia from behind the camera.
“Um, I think there was a pair of dance shoes, a couple CDs, and a duffel bag,” Alyssa replied.
“Hmm. Okay, thanks,” I said.
Javier, Shakira, Sophia, and I walked back over to the side of the dance studio where we left our coats and bags.
“I know it’s time to go home, guys, but before we go, we just have to go to the—”
“Upstairs closet?” Shakira said, cutting me off. She was getting the hang of this.
“That’s right!” I said, smiling at her. “Come on, let’s go.”
We all headed to the upstairs dance studio to inspect the closet. We found it in the far left corner. It was small and looked more like a locker. An old wooden locker. I pulled on the closet door—and it was open. The lock looked broken. That seemed strange.
“Look,” said Shakira. “There are the dance shoes, CDs, and the duffel bag. They’re crammed inside. Just like Alyssa said.”
“But there’s definitely no drum here,” added Javier, who had stuck his head inside the closet. He was right: The drum wasn’t there. It couldn’t be in the duffel bag. It was way too small for the tambora to fit inside.
“This seems funny, though,” said Sophia. “It looks like the lock is broken. How could Alyssa have locked the drum here if the lock didn’t work?”
“Good question, Sophia,” I said.
One of my chocolate pudding Slinky curls had fallen from behind my headband and into my face again. I started playing with it as I always do. I twirled that one loose curl around my finger, and then I pulled it all the way down past my waist. I let go and it sprang back up. Just like a Slinky. But this time, something funny happened. As soon as my curl sprang back up to my head, an idea popped right into my brain!
“Hey, guys, I think we need to check ins
ide the duffel bag,” I told them.
“Okay, but why?” asked Sophia.
“Yeah, why?” add Javier. “The drum is obviously not in there. That bag is way too small.”
“I know,” I replied, “I just want to be sure we’re not missing anything.”
Javier unzipped the bag. It was silver and shiny. We looked inside and saw two dozen paper fans with all kinds of flowers painted on them. It looked like they were used in an old dance routine.
“Aha!” I said.
“What??” Shakira and Javier and Sophia all wanted to know.
“Look at these fans. They’re made of paper. But do they look damaged to you?”
“No,” said Javier.
“Then we know the drum couldn’t have been here,” I told them.
“How do we know that?” asked Shakira.
“Look how small the closet is,” I answered. “In order to fit a drum in here, you’d have to place it on top of the duffel bag and crush the fans. These fans look just fine to me.”
“Oh, wow! You’re right!” Sophia said, excited. “These fans are in good condition. There’s no way the drum was here.” She pressed record on the camera phone and started shooting video of the closet and the un-crushed fans. Just then, a girl from the upstairs ballet class walked in the studio. It looked like she had come back inside to grab her sweatshirt. I thought I knew her from school. A fifth grader.
“Hi!” I said to her.
“Hi,” she said back.
“You’re Gabriella, right? Do you take ballet up here after school?” I asked.
“Um … yeah?” She sounded confused why I was asking.
“I’m Emma. I just wanted to ask you something really quick for my news show. It’s called an interview.”
“Oh! I know about your show!” she said. “Sure, what’s up?”
Sophia pointed the camera in her direction and Shakira held the mic just under her mouth.
“Did you leave right after ballet class yesterday?” I asked Gabriella.
“Actually, I did. But then I had to come back right away because I forgot my sweatshirt,” she explained, pointing at a sweatshirt draped over a nearby chair. She grabbed it and looked down at her shoes. “I forget things a lot,” Gabriella added, looking embarrassed.
“That’s great!” I said.
“My mom doesn’t think it’s great …” she muttered.
“No, no,” I said quickly. “I meant it’s great for me! You might be able to help with my investigation. What I need to know is, did you see our dance assistant, Alyssa, up here yesterday? She said she was here putting our drum in that closet over there.”
“Hmm. I didn’t see her,” answered Gabriella. “I don’t think she came upstairs. I was here for a while, looking for my sweatshirt. Then my mom came up to help me. We didn’t see anyone.”
“That’s what I suspected,” I said.
“Oh, and that closet is broken,” said Gabriella. “The lock doesn’t work. No one uses it. The stuff in there has been sitting there like that for months.”
“That’s what we thought!” Shakira shouted suddenly. We all giggled a little. “Oops. Sorry, Emma. Keep going.”
“Shakira’s right. It looked like the lock was broken. Thanks, Gabriella! Nice meeting you.”
“No problem. Can’t wait to see your news show, Emma. I’m a fan!”
Wow! A fifth grader was a fan of my show! I wanted to smile and laugh, but instead I pretended like it was no big deal. It was more professional that way.
“Thanks, Gabriella. See you at school.”
I pulled out my purple reporter pad and my shiny feather pencil. I found the first empty page and wrote The Case of the Missing Tambora. Then underneath I wrote,
Clue #1: The closet in the upstairs studio has a broken lock.
Clue #2: The paper fans were not crushed.
Clue #3: Gabriella says Alyssa wasn’t in the upstairs studio after dance class. The drum couldn’t have been in the upstairs studio closet.
“But, Emma, what does it all mean?” asked Javier. “Was Alyssa lying?”
“Why would Alyssa lie?” asked Shakira.
“I don’t know if she was lying or not,” I said. “But I do know that her story doesn’t make sense. That tambora drum was never here.”
ONCE I got home from dance class, I headed straight for my room. I wanted to get started on my news report right away. But first I had to grab my green velvet blazer with elbow patches and my white pearl necklace. Then I hooked my camera phone up to the computer so I could transfer all the interviews and video we shot at dance class today.
Once everything was ready to go, I wrote my script, arranged my pudding Slinky curls so they weren’t falling in my face, and pressed record.
“Hello, everyone! This is Emma and I’m on the air!” I said, staring straight into the camera on my laptop. I told the viewers all about the missing tambora drum. I told them we might not be able to perform in the Thanksgiving Day Parade without it. Then I played the interviews with Alyssa and Gabriella and showed them video of the broken lock and the un-crushed paper fans.
“The investigation continues tomorrow,” I said into the camera. “In the meantime, there is a special treat on the real news tonight! A real news reporter named Rachel Cheng is doing a story on our dance group, Las Palomas. In fact, Rachel and I are working together to find the tambora drum! Her report will be on tonight! I hope you like it. That’s all for now. I’ll see you next time on ‘Emma Is On the Air’!”
I posted my report on the school website bulletin board and headed downstairs for dinner. We had my favorite Dominican meal: roasted chicken, white rice, red beans, and—best of all—tostones! Tostones are like Dominican french fries, but they’re not made of potatoes; they’re made with plantains. You say it like this: “toe-stone-es.” Yum!
When we were done eating, Papi said, “Okay, Emma, it’s time. Put your plate in the sink and head to the living room.”
I zipped through the kitchen and ran to the couch. The news was on, and Rachel’s story about my dance class was about to begin!
“Here I am!” I said, panting as I leapt onto the sofa. Mom was holding baby Mia and sitting next to Papi.
“Careful,” Mom said, but she was giggling.
“Sorry,” I said with a smile.
I could tell she was excited, too. This was the first time I was gonna be on real TV! Papi was playing with the remote to make sure we were recording the news. Just as he hit record, Rachel came on.
“There is no shortage of color and flair when this group of boys and girls are performing,” she said, talking into her official reporter’s microphone. “This is called the mangulina dance. It is a traditional folk dance from the Dominican Republic, and this group is called Las Palomas.”
Then I saw myself on TV, explaining what Las Palomas means! I squeezed Papi’s arm and started giggling. It was so funny seeing myself on real TV!
When the part with all of us dancing was over, Mom and Papi looked over at me proudly.
“That was wonderful, honey!” Mom said with excitement.
“¡Esa es mi niña!” Papi said. “That’s my girl!”
“Hold on,” I told them. “The story’s not over yet and there’s an important part coming up.”
Rachel showed the picture of the missing drum.
“Las Palomas desperately needs this drum,” she said into the camera. “So if any of you have seen it, please reach out to us as soon as possible so we can get it back to them.”
“See, I told you guys. We’re in big trouble.” I’d told Mom and Papi all about the missing drum at dinner.
“That does seem serious,” Mom said.
“Papi, I know you said I shouldn’t work on ‘Emma Is On the Air’ while doing the mangulina rehearsals … but Rachel said we could work together on this case! And it’s so important. Look, she even gave me her business card! Can I, Papi? Can I? Please?”
“Hmm …” Papi said. “I’ve met R
achel Cheng before. She’s a very good reporter. I’ll reach out to her in the morning to see if they found anything yet.”
“Thank you, Papi!” Papi grabbed her business card from me. “Does that mean I can continue my investigation?”
“Continue your investigation?” Papi asked with one eye brow raised.
Oops! I hadn’t exactly told Papi that I’d already started the case.
“Um … well …” I stammered. “I kind of already got started. But we had to! We have to find this drum right away!”
“Okay, okay, mija. I understand. Next time, ask first. Okay?”
“Okay!” I agreed.
Thank goodness Papi said yes.
“Emma Is On the Air” is back, baby! I heard that on a pizza commercial once. They said, “Pineapple pizza crust is back, baby!” Now we’re back, too! And we’re better than pineapple pizza crust. Ew—that sounds super gross. Ha!
THE next day at school everyone was talking about Las Palomas. Now that we were on the real news, we were even more famous than before! Even Melissa G. saw us on TV.
“You were … okay. I guess,” Melissa G. told me at lunch.
“Gee, thanks, Melissa,” I said back. I didn’t mean to be sarcastic, but I couldn’t help it—I still didn’t trust her.
“Well, I know what it’s like to be on real TV,” she said. “Good thing you didn’t cave under the pressure,” Melissa said.
“Um, I guess,” I replied. I looked over at Sophia sitting next to me, and she just rolled her eyes.
“Anyway, I hope you find the drum,” Melissa G. added. “Rachel is a real reporter. A professional. She’ll expect a lot. I hope you don’t let her down.” Then she walked away smiling. Ugh. She makes me so angry sometimes!
“Just ignore her,” Sophia said.
“Yeah, you know how she gets when she thinks other people are more famous than her,” added Javier, pushing his night-vision goggles up on his head.
“Javier, why are you wearing night-vision goggles during the day?” Lizzie asked him. Shakira and Lizzie were sitting at our lunch table, too.