The mysterious sounds in the basement – Yippee and Dino crack the mystery

The mysterious sounds in the basement – Yippee and Dino crack the mystery 

One day on a lazy summer afternoon, when the whole Giant Land seemed to be in a slumber, there came a strange screeching sound from the basement of the house. Yippee’s room was just above the basement and the sound was a loud screeching sound, the kind that comes when someone uses the chalk on the board 

“Oh my God, what a horrible sound that is” screamed out Yippee. Dino got so upset with the sound that she scampered under the bed!

Yippee rushed around the room looking for his earmuffs. But were do you find earmuffs readily on a warm summer afternoon? Mamma had efficiently packed all the winter stuff and kept it away.

Dino figured out that hiding under the bed made the sound even worse so she decided to rush out into the garden.

Mamma and Papa who were taking an afternoon nap did not seem to get disturbed by the sound at all and they kept on sleeping and snoring .The loud snores “kho……zzzzzzzzzzz” were probably keeping that sound away from them!

Yippee did not know what to do. At one level he was a bit scared. “What could that sound be”, he wondered. “Could it be some scary monster who happened to come into their basement last night and was now hungry and so was growling in anger?”, he thought

The very thought of a monster in the basement made him shiver with fear. He felt a chill down his neck.

But at the same time, he remembered that Mamma always says, “There was no such thing as a monster”. So may be this sound was not being made by a monster. But what is this sound. How he wished that he could solve this mystery and make this sound go away.

He thought and thought and thought. Finally he had an idea. He called up his buddy Tippee . “Tippee we have a mysterious sound coming from the basement and I need your help to figure out what is it,” he said

 Illustration by Gauri Ghosal

Tippee loved mysteries. The moment he heard there was a case to solve, he picked up his detective hat, his magnifying glass, his notepad and his black long coat and he rushed to Yippee’s home.

 Illustration by Gauri Ghosal

Yippee in the meantime could not bear the sound any longer and had two pillows covering his ears to make the sound go away. So when Tippee called out to Yippee, there was no reply.

Tippee wondered, “Do we have two mysteries now – one of the sound and the other of the missing Yippee”

Tippee called out to Dino. Dino rushed and hugged Tippee. “Thank God Tippee you are here . We are so scared of this big bad monster that has made the basement his home. Very soon I am sure he will call out for food and he would love to have me for dinner because I have so much meat”.

Tippee could only smile. “Dino you are running away with your imagination. There are no such things as monsters. There must be a reasonable explanation for these sounds.”

“Let me investigate .”

Dino went in search of Yippee and very soon a very reluctant Yippee and an enthusiastic Tippee went into the basement to look for the monster

“The plan is that I will go ahead with my torch and you will follow me Yippee”, said Tippee

Yippee was very happy with the plan. He would have of course preferred to not go at all but the fact that he was not going in first also helped

Tippee went into the basement with much excitement. The sound now was louder and screecher than before.

Suddenly ,Tippee tripped and the torch fell from his hands. The darkness did not help. Tippee who was never ever a fan for the dark felt scared by this turn of events.

And then suddenly Tippee felt something touch his foot. He screamed in terror, “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh….help…..the monster is going to eat me” Yippee who was coming right behind stopped “ Where ….is the monster”, he asked Tippee in a trembling voice

By this time Tippee was a nervous wreck. The only thing that he wanted to do was run out of the basement. But how could he find his way out in the darkness, he wondered

And to make things worse the sound continued and in fact seemed to be moving closer.

Just when there seemed to be no escape for Yippee and Tippee from the monster, the basement was flooded with light. Dino had followed both of them and she had switched on the lights.

With the lights on. Tippee felt like a fearless detective again! Ready to solve any mystery

They all looked around to figure out the reason for the horrible sound. 

The reason for the sound took them by surprise!

It was Bruno. She had some how got into the basement chasing a mouse. The door had got shut and she did not know how to come out.

She had looked around in the basement and found an old chalkboard and some chalks and had decided to make some drawings to pass time till some one found that she was missing and looked for her.

 Illustration by Gauri Ghosal

She was so glad to see all of them that she simply jumped and licked the face of each one of them. But the wettest face was that of …… could you guess? Dino, of course!

Tippee, Yippee and Dino were never so glad to see Bruno, as they were that day. “I told you there are no such things as monsters”, said a beaming Tippee