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Rated: E · Short Story · Detective · #2045360
Lisa solves a mystery to further her life's dream to become a detective.
Lisa is a fifth grade student at Sally Ride Elementary in Tampa, Fl. Her dream in life is to become a detective. She looked everywhere for an opportunity to solve a mystery. One day from the clear blue sky, she stumbled on a big mystery.
Her math teacher Mr.Rado who was born in the Hungarian capitol Budapest was a celebrity on campus because he won an Olympic Medal in The Culinary Olympics.. His Hungarian chili was so hot it beat out all the competition. Hungarian food uses a spice called paprika.
One day Lisa noticed that the Olympic gold medal was not on Mr.Rado's desk. When Lisa asked Mr.Rado about the medal he said it got lost. Then a few days later Mr.Rado opened his desk drawer to get out a red marker and there was the medal plain as day.
Why would Mr.Rado lie about the medal's disappearance and keep the medal in his desk drawer? The mystery deepened when Mrs.Swanson the school psychologist introduced Mr.Rado to the new principal. Mrs.Swanson mentioned Mr.Rado's internationally known chili and he instantly shut her up.
A week later Lisa came across some clues. A classmate mentioned that Mr.Rado just got married and a teacher's aide chimed in,
"Mr.Rado is such a squeamish person that I can't understand him marrying an entomologist especially an underemployed one."
Lisa went to the school library to research Mr.Rado's new wife. The medal's exile to the desk drawer happened about the same time as Mr.Rado's wedding. Maybe his new wife didn't like chili.
Lisa's first mission would be look to up entomology in the dictionary. She found out entomology is the study of insects. She also found out that underemployed means someone has a job that requires less education and skills then one has.
Lisa now wondered what Mrs.Rado did for a living. She checked back issues of the school newspaper to find out if they wrote about Mr.Rado getting married. Lisa found an article about The Rado's wedding buried deep in the faculty news section. The article stated,
"The new Mrs.Rado finished a Doctor of Arts in entomology from The University of Wisconsin and is currently a substitute teacher." Lisa still wanted more proof before she could go on to the her next mystery so she decided to interview Mr.Rado Sr.
Mr.Rado Sr. happened to be the school's resource officer so she knew where to find him. Lisa filled him in on her theory that Mr.Rado hid his medal to keep his wife from feeling jealous. Mr.Rado Sr. said,
"You almost solved the mystery. Mr.Rado feels bad about her inability to get a better job."
Lisa smiled and replied,
"Now I just want to know why anyone would want to study bugs."
Mr.Rado Sr. couldn't understand that either.
© Copyright 2015 DB Cooper (dbc666 at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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Printed from https://writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/2045360-Olympic-Medal-Mystery