It was a lovely Saturday evening. Five-year-old Maria was in the park with her parents.
After breathing in the fresh air, her parents decided to go to the mall to buy some groceries and something for Maria.
While Maria’s parents were walking around, they didn’t notice her wandering off.
Maria smelled something delicious and walked around until she found the source of the smell – the bakery. She decided to go in and have a look.
The owner of the bakery saw Maria and called out: “Well, hello there, kiddo. Where are your parents?”
Maria hadn’t realised her parents were nowhere near and started to cry.
The owner quickly walked over to Maria and offered her a cookie to calm her down. Maria ate the cookie while sniffing, slightly comforted.
“What’s your name, kiddo?” asked the owner.
“Maria.” replied the child.
“That’s a lovely name. I’m Anne Laurens,” said the owner as she led Maria to the back room of the bakery to give her some privacy.
“Do you know where your parents are, Maria?” asked Anne.
“No,” replied Maria, still sniffing.
“Okay, have some more cookies while I try to find your parents,” said Anne, who put down a plate full of chocolate chip cookies.
While Maria ate the cookies, she started to feel sleepy. The last thing she heard before she fell asleep was, “You’re just cute that I could just bake you into a cookie.”
Maria’s parents searched frantically for her. After an hour, they walked into the bakery and met Anne’s assistant.
Maria’s parents asked her if she had seen their daughter and she replied: “I’m sorry, but I haven’t. I’ll keep a lookout for her.”
The parents thanked her and decided to buy some cookies because they knew Maria loves cookies and she would be hungry when they found her.
They checked in with the police to get updates and were told there was nothing new to report. They continued to walk around the mall but couldn’t find Maria anywhere.
The police told them that they would contact them if they found anything and sent them home.
Once home, they decided to eat the cookies because they didn’t eat anything while searching for Maria. They were too exhausted and sad to cook.
They opened the packet they bought from the mall – ‘Maria’s Chocolate & Strawberry cookies’.
“What a lovely name,” they thought. “We have to save some for when we find Maria.”
What they didn’t know was that they were actually eating their daughter!
To give the younger generation an avenue to express themselves, Twentytwo13 now has a dedicated space called Young Voices. If you are a young writer (aged between 12 and 17) and would like to have your article published on our news website, send your contribution to editor@twentytwo13.my.
All articles must be accompanied by the young writer’s full name, MyKad number, contact number, and the mobile number of the young writer’s parents/guardians for verification purposes.
