The Missing Picture

On December 15, 2108, my great granddaughter will look through a box of old family things and discover my school photos.

Her name is Abby Ming, III. She called her brother - my great-grandson Sebastian Ming, Jr. to come up and see. Abby pointed to our class picture. "Look! Our great grandmother's class picture when she was in third grade, like us!" Sebastian peered at it. "Wow!" he whistled softly. "I wonder which one's great-grandmother Amy?"

Abby grinned. "Good question! Let's find out!" Sebastian carefully took out the picture from its envelope. Then, they studied it. "Hey," Abby said, " how come some people are so short?" Sebastian shrugged. "They're probably in a 2nd & 3rd grade class, like us."

Abby looked on the bottom, with the names, while Sebastian looked on the top, with the pictures. He wrinkled his nose, "Wow, they dressed so old-fashioned! And I can't believe the picture doesn't pop out. Ours always does."

"Look!" Abby exclaimed, simply ignoring him. She pointed to me in the picture. "There's Amy! Top row, right corner."

Sebastian examined it closely. "Yup! What weird last names they had!" Abby rolled her eyes. "Dude! You've go to chill out! They're not all Chinese, like we are." Sebastian shrugged.

"Kids! It's Wednesday- a school day! Get your things ready." my granddaughter Abby Ming, II called. "Okay, mom!" Sebastian called back. "C'mon! Let's go!" he said to Abby.

Abby cried, "Wait! Let's bring this picture to school for Show-And-Tell! It'll be worth a fortune!"

Sebastian grinned. "Great, I repeat, great idea!" then, he carefully slid the picture back into its envelope.

They quickly gathered their stuff and set off.

They got the teleportinator (which teleports you to wherever you want) and teleported themselves to school.

When they got to school, Sebastian met his friend Michael Wang. Abby met her friend Angela Lee. They played until the first bell rang. Michael and Angela lined up at Mr. Tang's class while Abby and Sebastian lined up at Mrs. Huang's class.

A minute later, Mrs. Huang came out and led the class inside.

When everyone was inside and seated, Mrs. Huang clapped her hands twice, "Class, I have exciting news. On Friday, we're going to the little space museum and learn about astronomy!"

Lots of kids cheered, especially Warren Chang, the smartest kid in class, age 9. But Issac Wu, the class bully just snorted. "Ha! Astronomy is boring!"

Mrs. Huang gave him a strict look. "We're in school. We're not here to fool around. We're here to learn and improve your education."

Emily Tang frowned at Issac. "It'll be fun!" she protested. "Anyway, our science unit this month is about the depths of outer space." Issac frowned.

"Anyway, let's begin our day with Show-and-Tell!" Mrs. Huang suggested. "Who would like to go first?"

Lots of kids raised their hands except Issac who called out, "Me! Me! Me!"

Linda Chen, a 2nd grader raised her hand politely. "Linda." Mrs. Huang said.

Linda smiled and skipped to the front of the room while clutching a bag in her hand. "This," she explained, "is a volcanic rock. I got it when I visited Hawaii in the gift shop." Linda pulled out a rock about the size of a wristband.

Issac laughed and blurted out, "You went to a gift shop and visited Hawaii? Hawaii is too big to fit in a shop, dummy!"

Linda's face grew red. Mrs. Huang's lips formed a thin, white line. "Mr. Wu! Your are staying in for recess. I will not allow bullying in this class. Apologize to Linda right now."

"Sorry," Issac muttered under his breath.

"Okay, who would like to go next?" Mrs. Huang asked as she wrote Issac's name under RECESS. Several hands shot up. "Okay, how about you, Sebastian?" Mrs. Huang asked.

Sebastian replied, "Abby and I are sharing our show-and tell. Is that okay?" Mrs. Huang smiled, "Sure." Abby jumped up and walked to the front of the room while Sebastian carefully took the envelope and joined her.

Abby cleared her throat. "This class picture was from the year 2008, a hundred years ago."

Sebastian nudged Abby and pointed to me. "This is our great-grandmother."

The class oohhed and ahhed. "I bet that's worth a lot of money!" a 2nd grader named Isabell Yu exclaimed.

Abby and Sebastian nodded proudly. "Yup!" Abby put it back in Sebastian's leather book bag and returned to her seat.

After Show-And-Tell was over, they did a little math. Then they went out to recess.

When Sebastian was getting his snack, he noticed that the picture was gone. He also checked Abby's pack but it wasn't there either.

Sebastian tapped Abby. "Where did you put the picture?" he whispered. Abby whispered back, "In your book bag. Why?" "'Cause it's missing!" Sebastian cried.

Mrs. Huang overheard Sebastian yelling "'Cause it's missing!" and she asked, "What's wrong?"

Sebastian began, "Our-" but Abby interrupted, "Our picture of great-grandmother's class picture from third grade."

Mrs. Huang nodded slowly. "I can see why it's possible for someone to take it since its' so valuable. We'll look after recess."

Abby shrugged and headed out to recess with Sebastian following right behind. They played for about 20 minutes before the bell rang. Michael was testing out his new speed watch. it can make you run as fast as you can. Lot's of kids were watching him. You would too, if that had been invented already.

When they got back in class, Mrs. Huang got everyone's attention, including Issac's, when she flicked the lights on & off.

"Class, we are sad to say but Sebastian and Abby can't find their photo. Please empty out your desks and backpacks to see if it got misplaced." announced Mrs. Huang.

People started to empty out desks and backpacks except for my great-grandchildren who waited patiently. Unfortunately, the kids didn't find it.

Sebastian and Abby sighed. "We'll be busted! I told mom about the picture this morning all bout it."

The rest of the day was a real drag for Sebastian and Abby. Finally, school was dismissed but Abby and Sebastian took a bus instead of the teleportinator because they would be afraid of what their mom will say.

While Sebastian was emptying out his leather book bag for his homework, he found the photo! It was just in the outer layer instead of the inside.

He felt reeeally foolish like Alan did in the story The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. He told Abby and everything was just fine.

THE END