The Pearl Thief

Tia was sitting on the veranda of her grandparents' house, which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. A small town with no supermarket, no movie theater, no gym, and no parks. But real yards with trees and flowers, the warmest and friendliest people, vast open sky, immense green fields.

The call of her mother broke the acoustic silence of the morning. Tia rushed inside to get the idea of what happened. Mother claimed that she had put her favorite pearl earrings on the dresser the previous night however in the morning one earring was missing. She had searched for it everywhere but was not successful. Grandmother opined that though the window was open had grills that were impossible to navigate. Grandfather declared he knew everyone in the neighborhood and nobody will do a thing as stealing. But then the question remained where did the earring disappear?

Tia had read many detective stories, she entered the room without touching anything and closely inspected it. Scrutinized the dresser and went to the window, the grill was intact. She surveyed outside, the previous evening was windy fallen leaves and dust was outside. She thought even if someone had come the crackling sound of dry leaves would have been heard or footprints left on the dust visible. She scratched her head, then a thought sparked in her mind. She asked her father to accompany her outside. Her mother and grandparents watched in bewilderment as father climbed on the mango tree and pulled out the mother's pearl earring from the hollow between the branches. The surprised family praised Tia and urged her to tell them how she knew the earring was there and who might have kept it there. Tia explained when she looked outside from the window squirrels were climbing on the tree and something shined from the hollow. It was obvious that squirrel might have got inside and taken the earring as no human thief would take one and leave the other one.