The Secret Recipe

I never thought the family would come back, not after what they did. But then I saw them driving up the street. And what was worse, they were pulling up in front of the rental house next door!

I remember when ma Bessie-Jo, ma beloved Shetland pony went missing. She was a mighty pretty pony. Her tail was two toned; it was black with a white tip, right on that there end. We were on vacation, in the south Appalachian Mountains on the boarder of Mississippi and Alabama, for the Telluride Bluegrass Festival when we got the call from the pet nanny, Zoe. She’s the youngest daughter in the family. She looked after all the pets in our quiet, innocent town. And while we were on tour with ma Daddy’s band of hillbillies, The Bluegrass Boys and their hit new single, O Brother, Where Art Thou? Zoe was lookin after ma Bessie-Jo. But that call broke my heart. Ma little Bessie-Jo was gone.

The family moved into our little, country town, back in ‘92 and started up the most popular hamburger joint for 500 mile. They used secret ingredients. Everyone wanted to know what was in them ‘amburgers but the family would never tell about their thirteen secret ‘erbs and spices.

Animals started to go missing all over the town. Everyone blamed Billy Kavalaris’ lost anaconda but I had another suspicion. And when ma best bud Lester Flatt came to me, he had a similar suspicion. He travels with us and Daddy’s band to the Bluegrass festivals cause, he’s the buckdancen, flatfooton champion of Kentucky.

Lester told me that day, that he’d been at The Mighty Meaty, the family’s burger joint. And he was having one of them most famous burgers, the three meat combo with chipotle sauce. He was enjoying his combo until a piece of dental floss got logged between those big, bunny, buckteeth. When he went to remove it, he realised it wasn’t a piece of Oral B, it was a piece of my beautiful Bessie-Jo! He had found a strand of hair from ma pony’s tail in his combo! He was positive it was Bessie-Jo’s because of the colour; black with the white tip.

That night Lester arrived at ma house, in his usual full combat uniform. We decided to suss out what was goin’ down round here. Lester had his suspicions, so we were bustin into the family’s back shed. Lester’s nocturnal ninja-ness comes into play at night. It all started after he lost a bet with Vinnie Gargano and had to sleep out in the cemetery, next the grave old man Yankens. And for years after he’s coordinated the full moon cemetery sleep outs.

I’ll never forget the moment when Lester swung open that shed door and shone his Indiana Jones torch on the walls of the family’s shed. There hung all the skins of the town’s missing pets, including Billy Kavalaris’ lost anaconda and my Bessie-Jo.

Ella Cahill, Year 7 (Female), St Catherine’s School