Choosing Not To Know
Mira talked to her older brother, Jonas, that evening.
"How do you not solve a mystery?" she asked.
Jonas thought about it.
"You stop looking at the clues."
"But the clues are everywhere. The parcel. The whispering. The calendar."
Jonas shrugged. "Then you decide that not knowing is more fun than knowing."
Mira thought about that all night.
In the morning, she made a deal with herself.
She would not look at the calendar on Papa's desk. She would not listen at the kitchen door. She would not look in the bag in the cupboard that had not been there last week. (She had already noticed it, but she would not investigate it.)
She wrote at the bottom of Case 10:
*Closing the case voluntarily. Detective off duty until Saturday.*
She went to school. She thought about other things. The day went slowly, but it went.
Thursday went. Friday went. Mira lasted. She was very proud of herself.
By Saturday morning, she had no idea what was going to happen. (Well — she had an idea. But she had refused to let the idea harden into a case.)
Her parents came in singing. They had a small wrapped present and a bigger envelope.
"Happy birthday!"
Mira opened the present first. It was a pair of riding boots — small ones, just her size.
She gasped. She was genuinely surprised.
She had not known. She had let herself not know.
She opened the envelope. It was a card with a horse on it. Inside