Hey guys,
I am new to Replay Poker, having joined the company one month ago. This is my first post on the forum and I just wanted to say “hi” to all and have a go at writing a story. I hope you enjoy it and good luck at the tables!
Being a school age detective was tough and the toughest assignment I ever had was to track down a mystery woman with black hair and a red coat.
Reaching for my backpack and adjusting my cap to a backwards angle, I headed towards the gift shop at the Eiffel Tower. Armed with a photo, I approached the checkout to see if she had been here.
“Does anyone here speak English?” I asked in my formal, child detective way.
“Alright geezer” came the traditional South London greeting from the cashier. “Alright…” I responded hesitantly.
“What can I do for you mate?” he enquired, I reached into my Pokemon trainer jacket and pulled out the crumbled picture. “Do you know if she has been here?” I enquired. “Ah that jacket geezer, i’d recognise that anywhere!”. The distinctive red Mackintosh was not worn by most people without nefarious intentions.
“Is she here?” My heart pounded. “No geezer, she said she was travelling on.” “Oh, any idea where?” I asked. Relying on evil people to reveal their grand plans as part of the ego attached with getting away with it was a common thing, but I did expect my target to fall into such a simple trap.
The shopkeep looked blankly at me. “Any…Idea…Where?” I asked again. He looked up at me and smiled, “She’s in Giza, geezer”.
Firing up my personal Hot Air Balloon always took time, but it was worth it, to travel in comfort and style, and not have any crying babies. I had not had much luck with traditional aviation methods and was glad that the kick starter for my detective agency had been overfunded.
As my balloon started to descend on the pyramids, I realised I was on a crash course with the Sphinx. Not wanting to further damage the structure, I took evasive maneuvers. Although I did manage to avoid the sphinx, my balloon came crashing down on the gift shop roof.
“Well that’s going to take some fixing” said the mystery man in the green fedora. I was not sure if he meant the gift shop roof or my balloon’s basket. He had an air of authority about him, and I figured he was a good place to start.
“I’m looking for her…” I started to say as I reached for the picture in my pocket. “Try Match.Com” came the reply. Helpful as it was, it was not that “her” I was looking for at this moment in time.
“No, No, for her!” I stated as I raised the photo into his eyeline. His face dropped. “Her! Her! You do not want to find her, she is the Devil!”. I explained to him about my mission, and the importance to the safety of the planet if she was not captured.
“She was here, she said the Sphinx was “an overrated cat” and then disappeared into a cloud of smoke. She then reappeared as if she had messed up her grand exit, cursed a god I have never heard of and took an Uber to the airport.”
“Do you know where she went?” I asked, not expecting a reply. “Well, funny you should ask that as my brother, Terry, was her driver!”.
“And…….”
“And she’s gone to China”.
After helping me to repair my balloon, I was off. Thirty minutes of travel and I was in China (people underestimate the speed of a hot air balloon in stories).
After three hours in the wrong queue at the airport I was finally on mainland China, but it was too late. After showing the picture to a group of Internet Detectives in an internet cat cafe, I was told that she was here, in the cat cafe itself, looking for a Sphinx like cat to make her point to the Egyptian tourist board.
I’d missed her again. The internet detectives went through the computer she had used and had found a ticket, this one to New York.
“New York? Why would she go there with a cat that looks like the Sphinx, instead of returning to Egypt?” I thought aloud.
It was clear. The world was in peril. I had to act fast.
The balloon ride to New York was turbulent to say the least, and the inflight entertainment sucked. However I finally arrived as the sun was setting over the horizon.
My balloon landed perfectly on the crown of the Statue of Liberty. Aesthetically it looked wonderful, but from a practical point of view, getting the balloon up again would be a challenge. You might call it a win/lose situation.
Disembarking from my balloon, I noticed a red jacketed figure closing a door and running down the stairs of the statue.
952 sets of stairs later I was at the bottom of the statue, if I had parked my balloon at the bottom of the statue, I would have been there already.
Knowing my target’s penchant for gift shop items, I strode in with my photo in hand. “Has anyone seen this woman?” I demanded to know. There was no time for niceties.
Finally a squeaky voice at the back replied, “She was just here, but she left with a miniature version of the Statue of Liberty”. Unsure of what this trinket would prove to the Egyptians, I asked “Do you know where she went?”
“I don’t” came the reply, “I am sorry”.
I muttered to myself……”Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?”