Arc 2: Roots
Page 27
A Crime of Cheerfulness
The morning after Dev's quiet lessons in the garden, the village of Willowmere offered up a new mystery: a ceramic gnome with a red pointy hat had appeared on Mrs. Kowalski's front lawn, and nobody knew who had put it there. Rosie, fresh off solving the Case of the Missing Library Book, was immediately on the scene. She crouched before the gnome with the gravity of a seasoned investigator, pencil poised, tiny notebook open. 'Nobody asked Mrs. Kowalski,' she said, as though this settled everything. Chloe, passing by on her morning walk, suggested that perhaps the gnome was simply a gift. Rosie was unconvinced. 'Cheering someone up without permission is STILL a crime, Chloe.' They walked home together, Rosie scribbling furiously, Chloe watching the sky with a quiet smile. Some mysteries are small. Some are important. Rosie treated them all the same.