One day, when the sun was up and hot, Ali the snake was slithering in the desert as usual. Right then, he heard that the latest book was coming out and it had only one copy! He slithered straight to the library only to see that everybody was leaving. Ali asked somebody what had happened. He said, “The latest book that just came out was bought but the person who got the book said he dropped it but doesn’t remember where. Nobody found it after that.”

Then, Ali thought that if he found the book, he could buy it for free. He first started with finding the name of the person who sold the book to know who had bought the book. So Ali found the person who sold the book and his name was Fred. He had black hair, was about 5 feet tall, and had a red jacket. Ali asked Fred who he sold the book to. Fred replied, “The man didn’t say his name but he was in his teens ,had red hair, and had a grey jacket. Pretty easy guy to recognize but rumor is that he is hiding.”

Ali said thanks to Fred and he said, “No problem.” After that, Ali set off to find him. He just saw him but he ran away and Ali just couldn’t catch up to him. Just then, out of the corner, somebody crashed into the man who was running away. Ali caught up to the man and said, “What is your name and where did you know you dropped your book?” The man answered,

“I’m Jack, but I guess that I just dropped the book.”

Just then, a small bucket fell on Ali and Jack started running away. Meanwhile, Ali didn’t like tight spaces so he tried to wiggle out but the bucket was too heavy. Then, somebody lifted the bucket. It was Fred. He said, “I saw the whole thing but I was too far away to do anything. Oh, I forgot to tell you about the book. It had a big gem in the middle surrounded by tiny gems.”

Just then, a gem fell out of somebody’s bag. Ali couldn’t see the man who dropped the gem because he was running. Then, he spotted a trail of tiny gems and followed them to the missing book! Then, Jack and the man who dropped the gem came out of a corner and Ali hid. Jack said to the man who dropped the gem, “Did you get the book, Bill?”

Ali suspected Bill was the man who dropped the gem. Bill had brown hair, brown sweatshirt, and peach skin. Ali got an idea. He made a shadow of a King Cobra and Jack ran away but Bill picked up the book and tried scaring Ali away. Just then, somebody jumped out of a bush and grabbed Bill. It was Fred, but Bill didn’t even think about looking. He dropped the book and ran away as fast as he could. Ali grabbed the book from the ground. Then, he asked Fred, “How did you know I was here?” Fred replied, “I saw the crystals and they led to Jack and Bill. Then, I realized that they were working together and saw that you tried to scare them and I tried it too. First, I sneaked up on them. Next, I waited for you to scare them once, then I scared them the second time. So that’s how I found you.”

Finally, they both returned the book and Fred gladly sold it to Ali. The tiny crystals on the book were put in a red and blue pattern. There was also a very big gem in the middle. It was half red and half blue and felt very smooth and soft. Ali started reading the book. The title was “The Missing Book.”