Extraordinary Losers 3 (4 page)

“Great. You got him?” A lady's voice sliced through the air. There was no reply.

The hand let go of its grip on Mundi's hair and a female hand took over. He could tell from the jangling bracelets and the overpowering perfume she was wearing. The hand felt cool and a little unsure.

“You'll be all right, boy,” she whispered into Mundi's ear. He gulped in terror. He knew that her words could not be trusted. As she led him, he heard the unmistakable sound of padding paws and overgrown toenails against the ground. It was near him, he deduced. It sniffed in Mundi's direction for a while before launching into a barking fit.

“Shoo! Shoo!” the lady yelled. “Be quiet!” Then came the sound of glass smashing on the ground. It sounded like the lady had thrown something at the dog.

“Eee!” the dog yelped.

Mundi felt more sorry for the dog than he was for himself at that moment. Had the dog been kidnapped too? Just like himself? Since he was let out of the van, he had stopped counting. Mundi started to wonder how this could have happened to him. When Janice told him to get the Milo for Clandestino, he had complied. There had only been two or three students in front of him queuing up for the Milo. Two girls, he remembered. The woman who was handing out the Milo was smiling at the children.

When it came to his turn, her eyes became a little shifty. She was taking some time to find an empty cup. She told him that she was going to the front of the van to get one. Mundi waited, counting the cars in the carpark.

All of a sudden, a man cupped his mouth from behind. He knew it was a man from the hairy arms. He was too small to fight back and all the fear he had of speaking was multiplied at that moment. He didn't even dare utter a squeal. Then next thing he knew, his hands were tied and a smelly handkerchief blacked out his view. He was shoved into the van. Only then did he realise he was in serious trouble.

CHAPTER 5: YOUR SON HAS DISAPPEARED

Mundi, Mundi, where are you? Yoohoo?” Janice screamed. Her voice was so loud that it reverberated through the whole stadium.

“Not so loud, Janice, you'll disturb the whole neighbourhood.”

Janice turned to me and blinked. “I don't care if I wake up the whole neighbourhood, Darryl! He is my friend and I have to find him!”

“Yoohooooooo! Mundi Sakdipa!! Where in the world are you?” She was louder now. To my superhuman ears, it was SUPER LOUD. It sounded like she was using a microphone and her voice was bouncing off all the blocks in the estate.

Clandestino was circling the stadium barefoot. He had been running around madly for the past half hour since we realised Mundi was missing.

“Children, get down here!” Mr Grosse yelled from the grass patch below.

The whole school had assembled on the field and Red House had already collected their trophies but the three of us were still searching high and low for Mundi.

“We can't, Mr Grosse! Mundi has disappeared!” Janice replied. “I think we have lost him!”

When Mr Grosse heard that, he dismissed everyone in the stadium. There was no time to celebrate.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Yes, we are very sure! He has been gone for about an hour already!” I yelled from the top of the steps. Some students laughed when they heard that.

“An hour? You gotta be kidding us! You can't claim someone is missing unless they have been gone for hours!” Leonard said.

“We know that!” Clandestino retorted. “But Mundi is not like that! He would not just run off like that!”

“How do you know?” Leonard sniggered. “Are you part of his nerdy brain?”

Janice's face became redder. She wasn't good with confrontations. “Let's stop arguing! Every second wasted might cost Mundi his life!”

Clandestino whipped out his sleek iPhone 5 like a weapon. “Let me call him!” He dialled and waited. “It is ringing but no one is picking it up!” He ended the call.

“Where is his school bag?” Janice asked.

“Over there,” I pointed to a squarish elephantine bag. A typical Mundi. It was a blue bag with numbers and equations emblazoned all over it. Probably a souvenir from the Einstein Museum. I unzipped the bag quickly. Mundi had all his books neatly arranged even though it wasn't a typical school day. Nerd alert. Then to my surprise, I saw an old Nokia handphone.

“Now we know why he didn't answer,” I said. “His phone is not even with him!”

Mr Grosse and Madam Siti marched up to us with grave looks on their faces. Quickly, Clandestino slid Mundi's phone into his pocket.

“Does anyone here know what is Mundi's home phone number?” Madam Siti asked in a calm voice. “My records are in the office and it is too far to walk all the way there.”

Janice thought for a while. “Yes… wait… maybe…” She took out a little notebook which she kept in her pocket. Then she flipped through the pages quickly, almost hyperventilating. I could hear her anxious breaths going in and out of her mouth. Of course, one could also discern the amount of donuts she had eaten that morning. I could smell tiramisu, strawberry and even garlic? Very weird.
Focus, Darryl, focus!
We peered over Janice. She was taking forever to locate the number.

Finally, she announced, “There! Cutest Geek – Home. It's 655… ”

Mr Grosse raised an eyebrow. “Okay,” he said as he punched the keys on his handphone.

Then he whispered into Madam Siti's ear, “Someone might want him for his brains.”

“Or maybe he just got lost,” Madam Siti said, trying to be optimistic.

While the phone was ringing, I leaned over to Janice. “If Mundi is named Cutest Geek, then what names did you give Clan and I?”

She snapped the book shut and beamed bashfully. “Well, you, Darryl, are Dreamy Dude and Clandestino is Handsome He… oops. Nothing.”

“Handsome?” I repeated.

Clandestino spun around. He wasn't sure if he had heard Janice correctly. No one had ever called him handsome before. Not with his drippy nose, itchy skin and oddly chopped hair. He smiled and then looked away, pretending not to hear our conversation. I was sure he had made a mental note to check with Janice again.

Just then, our conversation was interrupted.

“Hello? Is that Mrs Sakdipa?” Mr Grosse asked swiftly. “Yes, your son, Mundi, has well… sort of… well… disappeared from the sports stadium. No fault of ours at all. We are usually careful with our students. Anyway, is he at home already?”

Then there was silence. He seemed to be receiving an earful from Mundi's mother.

“Uh huh. I see.” He nodded. “Hello? Hello?” Mundi's mum had ended the call. Mr Grosse's face took on a strange pallor. He looked at Madam Siti and then at all of us.

“Mundi's mother is very distressed. She is coming to the school. Apparently, she has just received a call from a Chinese man saying that they have Mundi and they want $100,000. If not they would… they would…”

“They would what?” Janice was hyperventilating. “What would they do?” She jumped up and down.

Mr Grosse knew it would traumatise us if he told us the truth, so he turned to Madam Siti and whispered, “They would kill him.”

Madam Siti shifted her tortoise-shell spectacles, pretending to keep her cool. But I had heard every single word. It was too much for me to stomach… I felt like I was about to throw up my Milo.

CHAPTER 6: THE VAN THAT NEVER EXISTED

Thanks, children,” Madam Siti said. “Now, it's time for you to go back to your class! Mundi's parents are on their way here.”

Mr Grosse eyeballed all of us. “Any other information you may have? If not, we'll take it from here.”

“But we think we can help to find Mundi,” I said, refusing to leave.

“Yes, we really can!” Janice pleaded in desperation. “Please, sir?”

Mr Grosse pondered for a while and said, “No, you have to go back to class. And Clandestino?”

“Yes?” Clandestino sniffed.

“Please wear your shoes!”

“But they have glue on them,” Clandestino said.

“Glue?”

“Yes. Glue. Someone tried to sabotage me during the race. I believe it was Leonard and…”

“Okay, okay,” Mr Grosse interrupted. “You can tell us about that later. AFTER we have found Mundi.”

Madam Siti agreed. “This is not the time! We have to look into Mundi's case! Go and wash them and wear them. I don't want you walking around barefoot in school.”

We watched Clandestino flick his socks wildly and slip on his shoes reluctantly. We accompanied him to wash his shoes. He decided that he was going to wash only one shoe to appease the teachers, but would keep the other as evidence. Anyway, the glue had dried up by now and it wouldn't really affect his walking. Janice waited outside the boys' toilet while we cleaned the shoe.

After half an hour of loitering in the toilet, we decided to return to class. Unfortunately, all that time-wasting had only caused us to miss one lesson. There was still time for the last period. Just as we were going back, we saw a silver car pull up at the carpark. A lady in a dark blue sari rushed out of the car, looking distressed.

“Look, that's Mundi's mother. Let's say hi.” Clandestino ran towards the car and we followed suit.

Behind the woman, another man stepped out. Mundi had mentioned that his father was on an overseas business trip so it couldn't be him.

And this man did not resemble Mundi in any way. In fact, he was the handsomest man I had ever seen. With his chocolate-black wavy hair and mesmerising brown eyes, he looked like he came right out of Bollywood. His sharp Roman nose complemented his perfectly chiselled cheekbones. A peppered stubble framed his manly jaw. As if this wasn't enough, this masterpiece of a face stood on broad wrestler shoulders.

I thought I saw Madam Siti arrange her hair a little when she saw him. Was this her chance to finally meet Mr Right? Even Mr Grosse began to straighten his shirt in nervousness.

We stopped right in front of the car to greet the two distraught persons.

“Hi… er, I am Mr Grosse.”