Marilyn's Next Adventure

• Stephen Badger, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2015

Marilyn was walking down Gawler Place, in the heart of the city of Adelaide. It was a quiet afternoon and there were not very many people out on the streets. It was odd in a liveable way, but Marilyn was not looking for details like that today. She was happily waltzing almost down the street. It was going to be a good afternoon, there was so much that she had planned for this wonderful day. She was meeting John at the restaurant in the mall.
Before I mentioned that Marilyn was not looking for little details, but it probably would have helped if she were paying attention to anything. Because as she was nearing the mall, she bumped into someone, he was a taller man, with a very dark complexion. It was interesting that she did not even blink when this happened, but later she would wish she had paid more attention.
After this, she promptly walked into the shopping centre and went to find John at the restaurant. She looked around the restaurant and saw John waving from a table in the corner of the restaurant.
“Hey,” said John, “You actually showed up.”
“Of course I did you big oaf,” she interupted curtly as she took her seat and went to pull her phone out of her purse, when she got the biggest shock of her life.
“My phone is gone!” she said slightly to loud.
“Well did you just leave it at home?” John tried to say before being interrupted again.
“Of course not! I don’t go anywhere without it, and besides, I pulled it out whilst I was walking over here and texted Charlotte with it, then I put it away and bumped into this strange man and now it’s gone,” she said in a rather annoyed voice.
“When you bumped into this man did you feel his hand go anywhere near your purse?”
“No but it is highly possible,” Marilyn answered Johns’ question and started to see the truth in what he said.
It was more than possible that the strange man had taken her phone as he bumped into her. Besides, why had he bumped into her in the first place? The street was definitely not crowded; there would have been plenty of room for him to walk around her.
“So that’s it,” she said.
“Sorry, what’s it? I missed something,” John said.
“The funny man stole my phone,” Marilyn said.
“Well what are you going to do about it?”
“Well I suppose the sensible thing would be to call the police, but I don’t think I need that kind of trouble. I think I’m gonna find him myself.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?”
“Yeah, probably. Are you gonna come with me?” Marilyn asked hopefully.
“Of course, I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he replied, ”I mean we will probably run into heaps of trouble, end up getting questioned by police, probably getting hurt… Yeah, of course I’m coming.”
“Alright lets see where exactly this adventure is gonna take us.”