Haunted Jungle

• Peta Tonkin, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2007

There once was a girl named Jennifer and her dog Buffy. Jennifer loved solving mysteries like Nancy Drew. Her and Buffy also likes watching her movies.
Jennifer and her family (including Buffy) were going on a holiday to the jungle. The only reason Jennifer was happy was because of a mystery. The mystery was about accidents happening for no reason at all. Some people believe it was a ghost! Earlier that month the golden monkey was stolen. The golden monkey isn’t a monkey made out of gold it was their mascot Cheeky.
But her parents said that she couldn’t do any more mystery solving while there on holiday! Jennifer got to choose the house that they stayed in for their holiday. She chose a house that was connected to the Haunted Jungle. The house was owned by a man who died mysteriously in the jungle. His name was Alex Height.
The first day of their holiday she and Buffy set out to have a look around. She was fascinated about this mystery. She found foot prints on the floor of the forest so she decided to follow them but Buffy always got nervous when following foot prints because she knew that there will always be something at the end of the trail. At the end of the trail they found a man who looked like Alex Height! Jennifer was surprised, Buffy was scared.
It was Alex Height!!! He chased Jennifer but he didn’t see Buffy! Buffy quickly looked around his camp and found... smelly old socks on top of a chest with holes in it! Buffy tried to open it but she didn’t have thumbs.
Meanwhile Jennifer was trying to get rid of Alex. He didn’t want to be seen because people think he’s dead so Jennifer was trying to lure him out onto the streets were people were but he just kept running in the shadows of the forest.
Buffy caught up to Jennifer and Alex and bit him on the bum!!! Then lead Jennifer back to the camp and showed her the chest. She tried to open it but it was locked. She took a bobby-pin out of her hair and used it to pick the lock. She broke the first one but was successful on the second try. Inside was… Cheeky!!! The golden monkey mascot.
Alex was arrested and taken to geol. Jennifer was interviewed and so was Buffy. Whom they didn’t really understand. Her mum and dad were angry but at least this time she didn’t get into the life threatening situation.
For the rest of the holiday they all enjoyed it until Jennifer found another mystery!