Lukas Van Schuyl, Private Eye

This story by Shruti was selected for publication in the 2008 edition of the Anthology of Short Stories by Young Americans. Congratulations to Shruti. Here is the story for your enjoyment.

Van Schuyl and Son
62442 Detective Street
Berlin, Germany

Lukas Van Schuyl, Private Eye

CASE FILE #123978: Mystery of the Missing Mechanism


1/25/2007, 4:00 pm; the Ritz-Carlton, Paris

Hello, I am Lukas Van Schuyl, age 14, private detective. The information in this file is secret. Please don’t repeat this to anyone, especially Karl Van Holdt.

An ancient mechanism invented by Kaaren St George, a little known inventor, has been found and is being shown at the Louvre tonight. I am invited and will be there.


1/25/2007, 7:30 pm; the Louvre, Paris

The dinner party is exceedingly boring (as all of these dinner parties are). I often wonder why they were created. Is there a reason? I’ll ponder over that when I return to Van Schuyl Place in Germany. Look, there’s the announcer!!!!!

“The mechanism invented by Mrs. St. George so she could cross time and space has been found in her childhood home and will be displayed tonight! How exciting…” he said with an American accent.

“Get on with it, person!” exclaimed Karl Van Holdt, my sworn enemy. “You, lift the curtains!”

The Curtains parted, revealing an empty glass box.

“It’s gone?” the rich celebrities and aristocrats yelled, unhappily thinking of the money they'd spent to come there.


Later that Evening, back at the Ritz-Carlton:

I called home and Marius, my 10 year old brother, answered the phone.

“This is the Van Schuyl residence, Marius Van Schuyl speaking!”

“Marius, it’s me, Lukas. Can you and Marcus [Marius’ twin] arrange for my transport? I need to get to Italy, fast!!”

I think Friedrich wants to talk, dude," he said and handing the phone to Friedrich, my youngest brother, he resumed his duties.

“Hey Freddy, what’s up?" I said.

“Can you come home now??”

“I’ll try, Freddy. Give the phone to Marcus or Marius, okay?”

“I miss you Lukas…” he said and broke into tears.

“Hello?” I said. When no answer came I put the phone down.

I understood how Friedrich felt. Ever since Father disappeared, I have been the man of the house and Friedrich needs me as a brother and a dad, too.

I knew what to do next. I had to go see Aloysia, the prophetess.


1/25/2007, 9:30 pm; 62442 Rue Del Prophetéss, Paris

I walked up to the door, noting the absence of security gadgets, and knocked three times. Aloysia believed the correct way to do things was in sets of threes.

“Lukas, my, you’re so tall! Come in! Come in!” she said, apparently surprised. “Have the police found your father?” she asked.

“No”, I replied, trying to remember when I had told her about Papa.

“Are you wondering when you told me about your Papa?” Aloysia asked. This lady was legitimate. No doubts about that.

“I need some help finding a machine. It belonged to Kaaren St George. You can use it to pass through space and time. Can you help me find it?” I said.

“I’ll need a picture…” she said.

”Wait, I’ve got one…” I rummaged through my pockets and found a crumpled picture of a doorway illuminated by dancing multi-colored lights. The lights were swirling in a beautiful pattern.

“That looks nice,” she said. ”Positively marvelous.”

I felt that was a serious understatement. When I looked at that picture, I felt calm and like I was in a place with my family. But in a place where no one could hurt us, not even Karl Van Holdt.


2/8/2007, 4:30 pm; 62442, Via Del San George, Milan, Italy

I nervously shook in my brand new Armani suit. Although I had met famous entities before, I was very scared about meeting this woman. The door creaked open and a middle-aged, brown-haired, mother-like figure peered out of it. She saw me and said, “You must be Lukas, why don’t you come in!”

As I walked in, I noticed more about Kaaren. She seemed like a nice woman, so I tried to start a conversation with her.

“Um, excuse me, Mrs. St. George?” I said out of the blue, “Can I ask you a question?”

“Yes, Lukas, you may,” she replied.

‘’Your machine is missing and I want to know if you know where it is. Do you?”

“I can tell you the exact location: “Two words for a cliff in Scotland. The first word starts with a ‘B’ and ends with an ‘N’, Second starts with a ‘W’ and ends with an ‘S’…. Can you guess, mio piccolo?”

“I got it!” I cried. “It’s in Ben Wyvis!”

“Thanks, Lukas. I’ll need that teensy bit of information to find the Dimension Traveling Glass.” said a boy’s voice from the shadows. "Some detective you are, Lukas. You failed to perceive that I was in the room? Ha! ... Kleiner Verlierer, sollte der ganzer detective Arbeit mich überlassen haben!” he muttered in German.

[Translation: “Little loser, should have left all the detective work to me!]

"Little boys like you should be at home with their mommies, while big boys like me, should do the detective work. Okay, Little Lukas?” said what I now knew to be Karl.

“Never!” I cried and put on my invisibility cloak and disappeared.


2/8/2007, 7:48 pm; Summit of Ben Wyvis; Scotland, Great Britain

As I stood on the summit of Ben Wyvis, I felt the same feeling I felt when I looked at the picture of the Glass. I knew that it was near; I just had one of those hunches that we detectives so often risk our lives on. I climbed around a crag in the mountain and came face to face with a red and gold, shimmery scaled European dragon! It was staring right at me!

“Okay, you’ll be all right, Lukas, you’ll be fine, just as long as you can outsmart it. Lukas, you know you’ll be fine,” I reassured myself.

“Here, take this,” I said and opened a box of Mentholatum™ (my grandpa, Georg Van Schuyl, late dragonologist, says that menthol makes dragons sleepy and this even had menthol in its name!).

Immediately I located the Glass and lunged for it. For a brief second I held it in my hand and turned around to make my getaway, but found Karl behind me, snarling.

“Little idiot, you don’t know anything about life! You think it’s all just ‘solve a mystery, get the prize money and you’re set for life’! No way! At least that sort of thing never happened to me, I was always skulking around after you solved mysteries that I had come so close to solving but never did. Lukas, please, please, give it to me!” he said and grabbed my hand.

I kicked him in the groin and broke away from the grip he had on my hand. I quickly climbed into the waiting Lear™ Jet that had been sent from Van Schuyl place. As I climbed into the jet, I looked back, one last time, at Karl clutching his groin and groaning. I smiled and climbed up the remaining steps. For a couple seconds, our eyes met. He mouthed clearly, "You will pay for this, Van Schuyl! You will!!!”

I had notified Marius, Marcus and Freddy about my trip to Scotland, so they sent the jet. Then I saw a ragged man sitting in a seat. He lifted his head up when he saw me.

"Lukas, my son, it’s Papa. Come to Papa!” he said and held his arms out to me. I ran into them and thought that maybe, now that we have Papa back, the Van Schuyls could be a normal family.

Then again, maybe.

End of CASE FILE #123978: Mystery of the Missing Mechanism