Ron and Sally investigate the mysterious disappearance of Gareth Green, who was last seen diving into the ocean on a cold day. After their initial searches are unsuccessful, they interview local residents and learn that Gareth regularly dove into the water. They take a boat out to the spot where Gareth dove in and discover an underwater world of mermaids, including Gareth and his daughter who was thought to have drowned. They realize Gareth was actually a merman who found solace and belonging in the underwater kingdom.

1. 31/05/11
WALT: Write creatively for enjoyment.
Mystery Writer Activity - Mystery Story
Brief Synopsis
Beginning:
One day someone goes missing after they took a walk on the beach.
Nobody has any idea where they have gone.
Middle:
Attempts to find the missing person are unsuccessful, but some kids work out what happened.
End:
They find the missing person is actually a mermaid.
Story:
I watched closely as Gareth Green walked along the sea shore, staring blankly at the waves. Many
people had told me he was a mad man, ever since his daughter had drowned at that beach, he
walked along there everyday. There was something about him though that made him seem quite
mysterious, different from everyone else, he seemed almost spooky.
Just as I was looking away, about to place another log on the fire, I noticed out of the corner of
my eye that Gareth had jumped into the rolling waves of the surf. Puzzled, I decided to take a
closer look.
From where I was sitting, it looked like he was just going for a swim, but with black clouds
hovering about the sky and the air temp outside a grand total of five degrees, that seemed quite
unlikely.
Slightly baffled, I kept watch on the surf, waiting for Gareth to resurface. But, after ten minutes of
watching, and with no sign of Gareth, I decided to investigate.
Hoping that Grandma wouldn’t notice, I snuck into the hallway, pulled on an overcoat and some
gumboots and ran out the front door.
I continued running along the sea shore, my nose red with the cold, until I got to the spot where
Gareth had dived into the water. The swirling grey water did not look nice. There was nothing
there though, no sign of Gareth. The water wasn’t that deep, but no way was I going to dive in for
a better look. Instead, I started calling his name. Many thoughts crossed my mind. Had he
drowned? Were my eyes playing tricks on me? Did he get out of the water when I didn’t see?
‘I dunno,’ I said aloud. Just as I was turning to walk away, somebody started bellowing my name.
‘Sally, Sally! Come here! Sally!’ Turning around, I noticed that it was Ron, a ginger haired boy,
about my age, running towards me from the opposite side of the beach. Likewise to me, he was
staying with his Grandparents for the summer holidays. He was quite a nice guy.
‘Oh, hey Ron!’ I yelled back him.
‘Hi!’ He replied, as he stumbled the last couple of metres to me in his over large gumboots.
‘What did you want?’ I asked.
‘Well, I was wondering if you saw Gareth Green dive into the water just before. I did, and I
noticed he hadn’t resurfaced. Had you?’
‘Yea same. I was watching him from Grandma’s and you’re right, he hasn’t resurfaced. I was just
thinking about the different possibilities, maybe he drowned or something. What should we do?’ I
asked Ron.
‘Well, I have no idea. Gareth did seem to be the swimming type, I mean, my Grandma said he
was an excellent swimmer back in the day. She said he spent his life in the water, as though he
was in another world! Maybe we should go to the Police?’ Ron responded.

2. Somehow, going to the Police didn’t seem like the right idea, I mean, they would end up doing all
those investigations about murderers or whatever. That didn’t seem right at all. Somehow, I had
this feeling the Gareth Green was still out there somewhere. I just couldn’t put my finger on
where.
Some days passed, and, even with my and Ron’s watchful eyes on the surf, there was no sign of
Gareth Green. Somebody reported his absence to the Police and Search and Rescue, but neither
the Police or Search and Rescue could work out where Gareth had gone. Ron and I just sat on the
beach, watching boats float along the water, scouring it for any evidence of Gareth’s absence,
with people diving off the sides, cameras at hand so they didn’t miss any action.
About a week later, everyone, even the Police, gave up and Gareth Green was categorised as
‘MISSING’.
Ron and I thought that this was extremely pathetic, so we decided to take matters into our own
hands.
Our first step in what we called the ‘Green Investigation’ was to ask other people living along the
beach if they had seen Gareth dive into the water at any stage.
Most of the people we visited gave us weird looks, but one elderly woman named Perri
concluded she had seen Gareth Green dive into the water, but she said that was nothing out of
the ordinary, he did that everyday.
That was news, I mean, how many people do you know that dive into the same spot of water
everyday? Not many I suspect.
Anyway, this news from Perri made Ron and I even more curious about Gareth Green.
As we walked out of the little seaside bach in which Perri resided at, Ron and I agreed to take our
investigation a step further. We were going to investigate the water, but more thoroughly than
Search and Rescue. Firstly, Ron and I were going to need a boat, and the only way to do that we
decided, would be to hire one of the catamarans from Charlie. Charlie was an old man that hired
out catamaran boats to people. His boats were pushed up on the beach next to the pier, a walk
that took about 5 minutes from Perri’s. Firstly, we walked to my Grandparents house. After Ron
and I told Grandma that he and I were going snorkeling in the freezing weather, she agreed to
lend us scuba diving gear and wetsuits. Ron went back to his Grandparent’s house to get changed
and get their permission to go “snorkeling”. I got changed into my wetsuit, and snuck granddad’s
camera into a bag, and some money for the boat hire. Ron and I had agreed to meet at the pier
to get the catamaran from Charlie, so I started making my way down there.
About 15 minutes later, Ron and I were happily sailing the catamaran along the surf to get to the
spot where Gareth had descended into the waves. Well, to say happily was probably an
overstatement as it was freezing cold weather, and the sea salt stung your eyes. Anyhow, it took
Ron and I about half an hour to sail from the pier to get to our destination.
Once we had chucked this anchor type looking thing from the boat and into the choppy grey
waves, our investigation of Gareth Green’s disappearance was underway.
We both scoured the water from the catamaran, then, with a deep breath, jumped into the
freezing waters below.
But there was nothing but blackness, and I got that awful feeling that there was something
watching me, you know? And it wasn’t Ron. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the water, I
could make out the outlines of people. Yes, people. I turned and looked at Ron. The look of
bewilderment on his face indicated that he had noticed something I hadn’t. And, it was then that
I noticed every person under the sea had a tail, a fish tail. They were mermaids. Not only that,
the sea water had miraculously changed to an aqua blue, exposing a large underwater castle and
township. Different multicoloured fish glided in schools around the castle, as though they were
trying to paint a magnificent picture. It was like another world altogether.
At the entrance to the glorious underwater castle was Gareth Green. His arm around a young girl,
who looked mysteriously like his daughter, that apparently drowned.

3. Reaching down to the belt tied around my waist, I pulled the underwater camera of Granddad’s
out and started taking photos, shaking as I did so. A sudden beeping let me know that my air tank
was nearly empty, so I carefully made my way back up to the boat, as did Ron.
As Ron and I pulled ourselves up onto the catamaran, we were too shocked to say anything. But
everything started to fall into place. Gareth Green was a mermaid - well, a merman I guess. His
daughter, who looked very similar to Gareth, had ‘drowned’ but actually, she was a mermaid too.
That also explained Gareth’s regular swims in the sea, even on freezing cold days. And you know
what? I think Ron’s grandma was right. For Gareth Green, when he was underwater, he was in
another world.