Who Dunnit?

Young Freddy was an avid fan of mysteries and science fiction. He lived with his Mom and Dad and his older sister Suzanne on a farm on the outskirts of Vancouver. Being a farm boy, the thirteen year old lad had his share of chores to do, including milking the cows. When he milked the cows, he liked to carry his cellphone and listen to music from Spotify.

One fine morning, Freddy woke up as usual and set out to do his round of chores. He reached for his cellphone and it was gone. He looked all over his room. The night stand. No luck. His dresser. No dice. His closet. Hard cheese, Freddy.

He thought maybe he left it in the kitchen and looked there. No cellphone. No earbuds. Well darn it all! He looked at his watch - it was not missing! He couldn’t wait any longer. He would have to do the chores without music today.

After his morning work was done, Freddy went back to his room. He took a change of clothes and went into the bathroom. He took a shower and got dressed. Then he set out to find out where his cellphone and earbuds went. As he went back into his room to throw his dirty clothes in the hamper, he noticed something on his bed. It was a miniature phone booth. A blue one. What the heck?

He picked up the little anachronism - I mean, phone booths are so passé. Where do you ever see one in this day and age. The door on the booth was a working door so he opened it. Inside was a little piece of paper. Freddy unfolded it and read:

Clue Number One

What the hey! The phone booth was a clue? A clue to what? Left by who? Freddy was puzzled.

Freddy went down to the kitchen to grab some breakfast and found his Mom there.

“Hey Mom! Have you seen my cellphone and my earbuds?”

His Mom who fancied herself a wit replied, “ Ear! Ear! Bud! I haven’t seen ‘em!”

“Ha! Ha! Good one, Mom. But seriously, you haven’t seen them?”

“Nope! You can ask your Dad or your sister. Dad’s in the barn. I don’t know where Suzanne is.”

He found Dad moving some hay around in the loft. He also had not seen the cellphone nor the earbuds. Freddy helped his Dad for a while, then went back into the house. He figured he’d just relax for a while and start reading the new sci-fi thriller he got from Amazon.

When he went to his room to retrieve the book from the nightstand, he noticed something on the bed again. Exactly in the same spot where the miniature phone booth had been. It was a pair of glasses - very large lens horn-rimmed glasses. The type of glasses that if you wore them, you would look a bit like an owl. They must have been polarized because they reflected the light cast by the ceiling lamp.

Freddy put them on and they seemed to be ordinary sunglasses. Until he blinked and winked. Messages flashed in front of his eyes. When both eyes were open, they were sunglasses, but if he closed his right eye he saw:

Si nous trouvons pas de choses agréable, nous trouverons du moins de choses nouvelles.

When he closed his left eye he saw:

Voltaire: If we do not find anything pleasant, at least we will find something new.

Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to have these glasses specially made. But what did it mean? The message spoke of finding something. Like his cellphone? Maybe it was another clue!

Then it dawned on him. Mrs. Who’s glasses from A Wrinkle in Time! She had great big glasses that made her look like an owl. And she always quoted something from a foreign language followed by the translation.

Then another lightbulb went off in his head. The blue telephone booth! It was the Tardis! Dr. Who’s time machine! He knew where he would find his cellphone and earbuds.

Freddy rushed down to the den where the television and the bookshelves were. He went to his own section of one of the shelves where he kept his DVD of the Dr. Who series and his copy of A Wrinkle in Time together. Being a bit of a wit like his Mom, he felt Dr. Who and Mrs. Who should be together on the shelf. He pulled both from the shelf and there tucked in behind them was his cellphone and earbuds. He pulled them out. There was a post-it attached to the phone. It read:

Happy birthday Bro! I know how much you love mysteries and how much you love Dr. Who and A Wrinkle in Time, so I created this mystery especially for you. Love Suzanne

Freddy had clean forgotten it was his birthday. And this was the best birthday present ever! Who dunnit? “Who” dunnit!

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