Missing (The Ink Well Fiction Prompt #151)

This is an entry for The Ink Well's fiction prompt "bicycle". Here is the post where you can find the details for making your post as well links for reading some great stories by the many talented writers in this community. Both pictures included in my story are AI creations made by me at the website called Mage.space and it is free to use for anyone. Here is the story:

MISSING

“Urk! Get off that human contraption, I told you about the consequences of bringing back gadgets from the Other Side.”

“But Gamma, this one is just so useful! See how I can fly along, much faster than running on these stumpy legs. And I can get messages over to Hillberth in half the time. Which gives US more adventure time. You’re just jealous because you didn’t get one while we were there.”

Johnny stood quivering in front of his red-faced father nervously watching the belt swing back and forth from his father’s meaty hand.

“Son, don’t lie to me. You know I can’t abide a liar. Now how did you manage to lose the bike your mother and I scrapped and saved for all winter?” Little sister Emma peeked up from her hiding place under the table, lip trembling slightly, tuned to the threat of drama in the air.

“But-but-but, Dad, I swear, I rode down to the creek and went wading. When I came out, it was just GONE!” and Johnny burst into tears. He knew he was telling the truth, but it made no sense. There had been no one else around - how did his bike just disappear?

Johnny’s mom appeared out of the laundry room, drying her hands on her apron and looking sternly at her husband. “Now Jacob, put that belt away. We can get to the bottom of this without jumping straight to punishment.” She continued into the room and put her hand over his belt-wielding fist while giving him that slightly curved lip smile that she knew he couldn’t resist.

The tension popped like a pin-pricked balloon as Jacob shook his head and slowly threaded his belt back into his khaki work pants. “You’re spoiling the boy, Carol. There have to be rules and kids have to have respect for their possessions. Are you going to let him get by with this Just Gone cockamammy story?”

Jacob left the room and headed for the living room to watch some of the local news broadcast before supper. Emma left her hiding place under the table, stopped to give Johnny a quick hug, and scampered into the living room to crawl up into Jacob’s lap. Everyone in the family knew that Emma was the peacemaker and she hated to have any kind of trouble in the house.

Carol knelt in front of Johnny and dried his tears with her apron. “Now son, I know how much you love that bike. You just need to tell me what happened to it. Was it bullies that stole it? Did you wreck it and don’t want to tell us? Did you maybe get turned around down at the creek and forget where you left it?”

Johnny looked at his mom with wide solemn eyes and hitched in a big breath. “But Mom, I’m telling the truth. It was parked right there on the path. I sat on that big flat rock and took off my shoes to go wading. I went upstream looking for frogs and turtles until my feet got too cold and I went back to the rock - hey wait! My shoes weren’t on the rock where I left them, they were in the water. Do you think somebody was there? Somebody stole my bike?”

Urk and Gamma sat in their cave and planned another excursion to the Other Side. Although it was forbidden, that made it all the more fun. But the argument still ensued over returning the bike to its home.

“Urk, you know you can’t keep the dang thing no matter how useful it is. What happens when one of the elders spots you with it even though you keep it hidden and only use the back trails to get to Hillberth and back? I’ve already heard rumblings about how you’ve been completing your assignments so fast.”

Urk looked forlorn at the thought of losing his new gadget. And at all the extra wear and tear on his claw feet if he had to go back to hoofing it along the trails. If only those foot coverings the human had left on the rock had fit his feet, he could have taken those as well. But then he thought about what had happened to Flinder when he had been caught with a box of small wrapped food bars that he had shared with friends and made everyone sick. That was a sight that he didn’t want to think about, or want to happen to himself!

“All right,” Urk admitted grumpily. “I guess we’ll have to take it back. Let’s get it down to the portal site and get this over with.”

After school the next day Johnny decided to go back to the creek and look around for any clues. Maybe whoever had stolen his bike had left at least a footprint or dropped something useful. As he rounded the last bend just before the creek he stopped in incredulity, threw up his hands, then sprinted to the final yards.

There was his bike, parked pretty much in the same spot he’d left it yesterday. The thief had a change of heart? That hardly seemed likely but Johnny wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He walked slowly all around his treasure looking for any damage but everything seemed in order.

But wait, what was this? Stuck in the right pedal there was a long curved claw. What a story this would make for the family - a bear had stolen his bike!

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