When the Forks Forked Off

The forks were all gone. Every one noticed the slow onset of the shortage, but no one thought anything of it. No one said anything. They just trickled away, slowly, methodically. Metallically. Until one day, when Nora was setting the table, there was not one fork in the drawer. Nor in the dishwasher. Nor in the sink.

"Muuuum! Muuuuuuuuuum! There are noooo fooooooorrrrks!"
"Have you checked the dishwasher?"
"Yessssssssss-uh!" Mum came over to have a look.
"Oh. Well, where are they then?"
"I don't know," said Nora.
"Go and look in the living room."

Nora went to look in the living room. She couldn't see any forks. She even checked down the sides of the sofas. No forks.

She looked in the hallway. She looked on the shelves. She looked in the cupboard-under-the-stairs. She looked in the downstairs bathroom. In the upstairs bathroom. In Matteo's room.

"Matteo, have you seen the forks?"
"The what?"
"The forks! They're missing!"
"No. Get out of my room."
"But dinner's nearly ready and we've got NO FORKS!" squealed Nora, not sure if Matteo had grasped the gravity of the situation. He sighed.
"Have you looked in the garden?" he said.
"Why would they be in the GARRRRden?"
"Just go and look." said Matteo with a smirk. He just wanted her to get out of his room, she thought, and left in a huff.

On the way to the garden, she looked in the laundry basket, the dog basket, and the bread basket. No forks.

Once in the garden, Nora looked around her. What would forks be doing in the GARRRRden? She thought. And then she saw a flash of silver lying in the grass.

She ran over to where she'd seen it. She found three forks, arranged in an arrow shape...

To be continued...