Realistic Art – Someone in Mount Hope is showing a lot of interest in local artwork…

“Check this one out,” Aditya said and pointed to a sand sculpture. “It looks like a triceratops.”

“How did she get the horns to stay put like that?” Om asked.

“Is that even possible?” Ételle added.

“It’s all about the right mix of water and sand,” a voice said behind them.

“Hi, Yovi,” the three of them said when they saw it was Yovi, the artist who was making the sand sculptures.

“Hello, kids,” Yovi said. “What do you think of my artwork?”

“It’s awesome,” Aditya said.

“I love the detail,” Ételle said.

“How come you don’t teach us any of this stuff in class?” Om asked.

“Because we’re not there yet,” Yovi said. “Besides it’s only a summer class, it’s supposed to be for fun and light stuff.”

“Why are you doing these again?” Aditya asked.

“Its part of a campaign to attract people to Mount Hope,” Yovi explained. “I’ll be doing a bunch of different animal designs over the next few days. All of them will be right here on the Mount Hope Public Beach.”

“They’re really cool,” Om said.

“So dinosaurs today?” Ételle asked. “What are you doing next?”

A group of boys of laughing loudly interrupted them.

“Navi and his idiot friends,” Aditya said.

“These are so stupid!” Navi said. “Look at this one.” He pointed to the triceratops. “What kind of rhino is that?”

It was the turn of the kids to laugh.

“It’s a triceratops,” Aditya rolled his eyes.

“A dinosaur,” Ételle added. “In case you were wondering.”

“Yeah,” Om said trying not to laugh. “You can find them in the north of Mauritius.”

The three of them laughed as Navi and his friends scowled.

“Don’t be mean kids,” Yovi said.

“Whatever,” Navi said. “They all suck.”

With that Navi and his mates walked away.

“What’s his problem?” Yovi said. “His mom is one the people sponsoring this event.”

“He always has a point to make,” Aditya said.

“What do you have planned for tomorrow?” Ételle asked.

“You’ll have to wait and see!” Yovi winked at them.

***

The next day the three friends made their way to the Mount Hope Public Beach, where they found Yovi and a number of people standing around the triceratops. They all seemed upset.

“Look,” Yovi said when she saw them.

The triceratops was missing its two legs. It looked as if someone had kicked it.

“What happened?” Aditya asked.

“We don’t know,” Yovi answered. “I came in this morning and this is what I found.”

“It can’t be the tide,” Om said. “You’re really far from where the water comes in.”

“No,” Yovi said. “We had checked out how far the tide comes in before we started.”

“Do you think it was done on purpose?” Ételle asked.

“No idea,” Yovi said and then sighed. “I’ll have to put all back together again. Whoever or whatever did this also damaged the T-rex.”

She led them to a sand statue of the T-rex.

“You see.” Yovi sat down on the sand and showed them part of the T-rex’s leg which was also damaged. “I spoke to the police, they say they’ll send a patrol by at night. I better get back to work guys. I’m doing a herd of deer. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Aditya asked.

“That’s nice of you dear,” Yovi said. “But I’ll manage.”

The three of them watched Yovi walk away.

“You guys thinking what I’m thinking?” Aditya asked.

“Navi,” Ételle said.

“But we have no proof guys,” Om added. “We can’t just accuse him. What with his mom being the sponsor and all.”

“Then we need proof,” Aditya said. “We’ll have to keep watch tonight.”

“Yovi said the police will send a patrol around,” Ételle said.

“Yeah, but they won’t keep watch throughout the night.”

“Besides all they have to do is set up a lookout who can warn the others when the cops show up,” Om said.

“Exactly.”

“So we come here tonight then,” Ételle said. “Where do we hide so we can observe the statues?”

The three of them looked around to see if there was a good vantage point.

“There.” Ételle pointed to a building right across from the beach. It had a fire escape on the side. “We just have to climb to the roof and we’ll be able to see the whole beach.”

“Perfect,” both Aditya and Om answered at the same time.

***

“See anything?” Aditya asked as Om leaned over the wall that was on the roof.

“Nope,” Om replied.

“From this vantage point nobody will be able to come onto the beach without us seeing them,” Ételle said.

“And with the moonlight we won’t be able to miss them.”

“I just hope the folks don’t find out we’re not home sleeping,” Aditya said.

“As long as we’re back before sunrise we should be fine.” Om pulled out a water bottle from his back pack.

“Good thing it’s a Friday and no one’s about,” Ételle said. “What time is it?”

“It’s almost midnight,” Aditya said.

“We’ve been here for an hour and nothing yet,” Om said. “I bet they’re coming soon. We should take turns keeping watch.”

“Okay,” Aditya said adjusting his binoculars. “I’ll take first watch.”

His two friends leaned against the small wall that was at the top of the building.

“I wish I had night vision,” Aditya said.

“You can see fine with the moonlight,” Om said.

“Wake us up if you see anything,” Ételle added.

“Sure.” Aditya said and took a sip of water.

Aditya could see Turtle Bay in the moonlight, as well as the waves’ white crests as the open ocean hit the reefs that surrounded the bay. Although, it was far he could even hear the sound of the waves crashing.

It’s so quiet that I’ll be able to hear Navi and his friends even if I don’t see them.

Aditya didn’t see much except for a police van that stopped by the sculptures. An officer stepped out and shone his torch around the sculptures before going back into the van and driving off.

“I see something!” Aditya whispered to his friends.

Om and Ételle woke up.

“What?” They both whispered back.

“Oh, sorry for waking you guys up,” Aditya said. “It’s just a dog.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Om said. “Let me take watch now. You guys sleep.”

Aditya made himself comfortable against the wall. He saw that Ételle was back to sleep. Om was looking through the binoculars.

***

“Aditya, Aditya, wake up.” Ételle’s voice came to him dreamily. Aditya woke up and rubbed his eyes.

“Did you see something?” He whispered.

“No,” Ételle said. “Nothing. The sun is coming up. We need to get home.”

“Okay,” Aditya said feeling disappointed.

“Let’s meet back here at around 9,” Om said. “That’s 4 hours from now.”

They made their way down the stairs where they grabbed their bikes and went home, where they all went to bed.

***

“I can’t believe it!” Aditya said looking at the sculpture of a deer with its hind leg missing. The three of them had come back to the beach at exactly nine.

“I know,” Yovi said. “It happened again!”

“How is that possible?” Om asked.

“We didn’t see anything!” Ételle

“What do you mean?” Yovi asked frowning.

The three friends told them of their vigil.

“That was sweet of you guys,” Yovi said. “But you shouldn’t have done that! You could’ve gotten hurt or something.”

“You’re not going to tell our parents are you?” Aditya asked worried.

“No, but never do that again!”

“Okay,” they answered together.

“Also Navi isn’t here, he’s been with his mom at some hotel in the north since we last saw him.”

“Then who?” Aditya asked. “Unless.” Aditya got on all fours. Looking at the sand. “I got it!” He started to crawl away.

“What are you doing Aditya?” Yovi asked.

“Dude?” Om said.

“I think I know what Aditya’s spotted,” Ételle said and she followed Aditya who walked around the life-size sculptures of the deer herd.

“There’s your culprit!” Aditya pointed to a dog, one of the many strays that hung around Mount Hope.

The dog was trying to bite the leg of a fawn.

“I saw what looked like bite marks on the other deer and then the tracks on the sand,” he explained to his friends.

Yovi shooed the dog away. Who ran off looking back longingly at the fawn.

“Well done, Aditya,” Yovi said. “The problem is how do I keep them away from the sculptures?”

“Maybe you should only do sculptures of vegetables!” Aditya said making them all laugh.