Snakenapped

• Kira Macarthur, Grade 4, Georges River Grammar School
• Short Story
• 2014

Excellence Award in the 'The Text Generation 2014' competition

It was a cold, dreary, wet winter’s night and Sheerluck was lazing in his favourite armchair sipping a cup of steamy hot chocolate when his phone rang interrupting his bliss. Although reluctant, Sheerluck answered. It was Penny and she was in a frantic state. She was devastated that her pet snake Feathers had gone missing and requested the famous detective’s help. Sheerluck rushed over to Penny’s house.
When he got there, he examined the scene of the disappearance. It was clear that Feathers did not just slither out of her pen, she was “snakenapped”. As he was scouring for evidence, he found a small calling card. It read “Heels or flats, choose your style.” This mysterious message baffled Sheerluck. He returned home confused and perplexed.
Early next morning, whilst heading to Penny’s house, Sheerluck was deep in thought staring at the ground. Suddenly he realized something- Shoes! Shoes that people wore had either heels or flats! That was it! It was missing link from the calling card he found at the scene.
Sheerluck rushed home to research more on this clue. He had to look up if there were any shoe factories that had opened up recently. Sure enough, a new one has just opened up in town. Armed with this new information, he quickly drove out to investigate this lead.
Sheerluck called Penny and she was enthusiastic to help. As they entered the shoe factory, a woman called Miss Shoelorous greeted them. They discovered that she was the head of the company. She seemed rather suspicious, so Sheerluck made a mental note to keep an eye on her.
While Miss Shoelorous showed Penny their shoe designs, Sheerluck prowled around. Room after room of searching, Sheerluck found nothing. He was feeling exasperated. He held himself together and looked breathlessly around the last room looking for any clues.
Finally Sheerluck noticed a button. It was different from all the other buttons on the panel. This one gave Sheerluck a weird feeling that it was very unique. As he made a sly reach to it, Miss Shoelorous’ voice suddenly stopped him. She angrily informed him that it was forbidden to press the fire alarm button. Sheerluck did not believe her and made a mad dash to press it.
For the first few seconds, nothing happened, but then a rumble could be heard and a hidden door opened. Behind it was a wall full of cages. In each cage was a different snake!
Sheerluck has stumbled upon her secret and discovered her illegal shoe-making scheme. Miss Shoelorous was using the snake’s skin to make her boots! Miss Shoelorous was furious, she threatened to release all the snakes on Sheerluck and Penny.
Just as the situation was getting rather slithery, the police arrived just in time. Miss Shoelorous was promptly arrested and each of the snakes was properly contained. Sheerluck helped Penny locate Feathers from the hundreds of discovered snakes and happily returned home.
Sheerluck was ecstatic at the results.
Another case closed!