My teacher said we have to write about something we did this weekend. But she said we should start by introducing ourselves: My name is Hamish Harry Watson. I am 7 years old and I’m in the 2nd grade. I live in London with my daddy, who’s a doctor. He used to be in the army, he says, but he got hurt and had to come home. My mummy died when I was very young, and I don’t really remember her. But Daddy says she was very pretty and loved me very much.
This is what I did this weekend. Every Saturday, I go to my uncle’s house because my daddy has to work and help make people better. He’s not my real uncle though. He’s called a godfather. Daddy says that means he’s like my uncle but we’re not really related. He’s a detective!!! He gets to have all kinds of adventures, and I like to watch him work when I’m at his house. I want to be a detective one day when I’m grown up, maybe when I turn 13. He never takes me with him on his adventures though. Daddy won’t let him. But this weekend, it was different. I already knew it was going to be a good day because Daddy made me pancakes for breakfast, which are my absolute favorite. Daddy dropped me off at my uncle’s house like always and told him the rules like he always does: no guns, no bodies, no dangerous experiments, and no leaving me home alone. Daddy left, and we went upstairs and my uncle turned the TV on for me like he always does, even though I never pay attention to it. It’s a lot more fun to watch him do detective work. Sometimes he types on his laptop, or talks to himself, or does a science experiment in the kitchen, or texts on his phone. I sit in a huge chair and watch. It’s a lot better than any little kids’ show. This time though, he seemed worried about something. He was walking around a lot and he kept checking his cell phone, like Daddy does sometimes. My uncle has a really fancy phone that has games on it, but Daddy says I’m not allowed to play with it. I asked him what was wrong, but he didn’t answer me. He just started talking to himself.
I didn’t know what any of it meant. Then his phone rang and he answered it really fast. He talked to the other person and he sounded kind of angry or something. I was sure it was very important detective business. Maybe they’d found a treasure, or caught a bad guy! I kept listening, trying to find out what was going on, but I couldn’t. Then he hung up and grabbed his huge black detective’s coat that he always wears. He started to leave so I ran up to him and grabbed his sleeve and reminded him that he can’t leave me alone, it’s against Daddy’s rules. He looked like Daddy does when I bother him when he’s working. He called downstairs for the landlady, who sometimes watches me if my uncle has to go out. She’s really nice and gives me yummy biscuits and lets me play on the computer. No one answered though so she must not have been home. My uncle sighed and told me to come with him. I was so excited! Maybe we’d have an adventure, and find hidden passageways, and save the whole city! I ran down the stairs after him. He called a taxi and we got inside. I like riding in taxis. It’s like being rich and having someone to drive you everywhere. My uncle told the driver where to go, but I don’t remember what he said because I was so excited. We drove to the place and then got out of the car. It was a big tall building that said “hospital” on the side. There was another word before “hospital” too, but it was really long so I couldn’t read it. I’m only in 2nd grade after all. We went inside and went down the elevator. It was really cold. We went into a room with a big metal table with something under a sheet on it. There was another man there, who I’d seen before at my uncle’s house sometimes. My uncle says he’s a detective too, but not a very good one. He looked at me and asked my uncle why I was there. I told him that I was having an adventure. He smiled at me and then took my uncle to the other side of the room where they talked. They both seemed rather angry. They were being boring so I looked around the room some more. I wondered what was under the sheet. Why would someone put a sheet on a table? Maybe it was a tablecloth. But they didn’t clear the table off before putting the tablecloth on so they weren’t very good at setting a
table. Then my uncle and the detective man finished talking. My uncle told me to go wait in the hall until they were done with their detective business. I didn’t want to, but he made me so I went out in the hallway. It was still really cold. I wondered what detective business they could be doing with that sheet over the table. I waited for forever for them to be done, but they didn’t come out. So I thought I’d just look around a bit. It was a very old hospital after all, so maybe someone a long time ago had buried a treasure in a secret tunnel. I went down the hall a bit and then found a door that was unlocked so I went inside. There was a lady there doing a science experiment. It was probably something evil to blow up the whole city, so I snuck in the room to stop her. I crept in and hid behind a big machine. I kept sneaking closer to her and she kept doing her evil experiment. Once I was really close to her, I jumped out and screamed, hoping to scare her into abandoning her plans. She yelled really loud and dropped some sciency thing she was holding. It shattered and looked really cool on the ground. But she didn’t run away. She asked me what my name was and why I was there and how I got there. But I knew better. I told her that I’d never tell because she was evil and going to blow up the city. She smiled and told me that she wasn’t evil, and that her experiment was to help people get better in the hospital. And her name was Molly. She seemed nice so I decided that she wasn’t lying and I told her my name and that I was with my uncle who was a detective but he was being boring with another detective man so I explored. Then she nodded and led me back down the hall to the room where I’d been waiting outside. My uncle and the detective man were outside, and they were arguing again. That must be part of being a detective. I guess I’ll have to practice. They were very happy when Molly and I walked up. Then my uncle and I went back up the elevator where it was a lot warmer and went back to his house. When Daddy picked me up later, I told him what happened but he got kind of mad and said I shouldn’t have wandered off. When we got home, Daddy called someone on the phone and argued very loudly with them. Maybe my daddy’s becoming a detective too!