The Mysterious Disappearance of Grandad Moses June 2026

THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF GRANDAD MOSES  JUNE 2026.

Common Sense Isn’t As Common As You Might Think! As she read the book’s title aloud, she found herself drawn to its sense of rightness. Already her mind had flown to the question, was is a trueism? Then she heard a quiet voice in her mind asking. Is that why I treasure my friends who share this quality? She wondered to herself. In agreeing with her inner self, when the voice said yes quite clearly.Then its rarity certainly made for the upsideness that the world she lived in nowadays exhibited was her only conclusion. Or perhaps it was just that she was looking at life through the “glasses of older age” , those ones that are not rose-tinted or round with the wonder of youth? She wondered. Either way, she finally concluded, that a great deal of that precious commodity would be most useful to solve her current dilema? Where was the body of Grandad Moses?

The fact that Grandad Moses had not been seen by anyone for three days, not in his local neighbourhood, pub or visiting the park down the road or the school playground had cranked up the sense of panic that had come upon her when he had not answered when she had called on Friday night. She had thought that perhaps he had run into an old friend and decided that he was too tired to make the journey back to his own bed. Or maybe he had made a new friend and been invited to share their supper and they enjoyed themselves so much that a bed for the night had become neccesary. However, when one night turned into two she had taken action and scoured to locale asking everyone she met if they had seen him. Everybody knew him, of course, at least by sight. All ended up by shaking their heads or scratching them, either trying to recall when they had last seen him or where. By the eorning she was resolved to report him to the local police as missing. She was that worried and scared.

She was up at six o’clock and by seven she was knocking on the village police officer’s door at home. It doubled as the local police station and in times past, as the village jail. George Crick glanced at the clock as he pulled his uniform jacket on while walking towards the side door. The offcial police entrance. He opened it wide and on spotting Miss Crimble, he promptly invited her to come in and sit down. She chose an old wooden chair situated between the long wooden bench on the right hand wall and the wooden counter that acted as his offical desk. Instead of lifting the hinged section of counter up to allow him to place himself behind its security, George simply sat by Miss Crimble on the shiny bench. It was well polished by bottoms over the many years of use in the police station and when it had been in service in the small chapel at the other end of the village prior to that. The wood was now glowing with a rich patina in the early spring sunshine now streaming in the window. However, he could see that Miss Crimble was upset and now was not the time for thoughts of glowing wood.

Now what can I do for you on this bright morning? He asked gently.

“Well its Grandad Moses, he’s missing.” She stated bleakly.

Are you sure he hasn’t simply wandered off? Perhaps to visit a new lady friend?

Well in that case I feel sure that someone would have seen him. The elderly lady reproached him.

The calm, kind man that George was tried not to grin at the image of Grandad Moses hiding behind the bushes somewhere while Miss Crimble went around in circles calling out his name. He knew that Moses had a michieveous streak and loved to keep others on their toes. He was not malicous but loved to get the better of those who tried to keep his nose firmly out of their business. His approach was to ask what she had actually done to trace his whereabouts. Making a note of it in his trusty small black notebook. She slowly and clearly presented him with a summation of her actions since Grandad Moses had for come home.

1. Called for him every half hour from 6pm on Thursday evening until she tired for the night at 10pm.

2. Got up at 7am on Friday morning and made Grandad Moses’ favourite breakfast and placed it on the table near the french doors in the kitchen and went and called him again and again.

3. From 8am until 9.30am she had placed her kitchen chair by the garden gate onto the footpath and asked every child and person walking by if they had seen anything of him. The unanimous answer had been “No”.

4. At 10.45am she had taken a walk along the road to the school playground ans stood at the railings and asked the children playing there if they had seen him. They in turn had asked their friends but the answer was still “No”.

5. At 11.15am she was in the play area of the park asking the parents of the younger children if they had seen him. “No” yet again.

6. She had returned home and discovered that he had not been back to eat his favourite bacon and cheese breakfast in her absence.

7. She had gone next to ask at the Post Office if he had been seen.

By now there were tears of sadness as she told her tale of endevour. George could not bear to see the old lady so distressed by the absence of her dear friend. He told her that he would personally try all Moses’ favourite village haunts once more and do the tounds asking about his whereabouts. Promising that he would let her know as soon as the old character had turned up. Then he walked her to the door and saw her on her way home for a little rest.

George Crick was a man of his word and did his due diligence but he could find no man, woman or child in the whole village who had seen Grandad Moses since he was spotted sitting on his favourite his bench on the village green watching the world go by. He hadn’t made his usual morning round of village friends on Thursday morning. But that was not so unusual, as he would pehaps been stopped by the postman and diverted from his path to accompany him for a while on his rounds, thus breaking with his routine. However, he had not met up with Mr. Hall and his companion Bobby Joe for his evening stroll either! George had confirmed this with them when he ran across them in his search for a clue to Moses’ disappearance. When he had exhausted all his channels of enquiry George had forced his steps up the path to Miss Crimble’s cottage door. It stood wide open and he called out a cheery “Anyone home?” The lady responded quickly and appeared in the hallway shortly after her voice.

“Have you found Moses?” She asked him anxiously. “Have you any news?”

I am so sorry Miss Crimble but he has certainly vanished from the village. I am at a complete loss as to where is or what could have happened to him. However, I shall be putting up posters and notices around the whole village to make sure everyone knows and is alert to the need to find him. George assured her.

“Is there anything more that I can do to help?” She asked forlornly.

Well actually there is something that I thought you might be able to help me out with. George explained that he could do with a recent clear , full-figure photo of Moses for the posters.

The lady positively leapt out of her chair and crossed the room to her bureau. On its top, in a particularly nice silver frame, was Grandad Moses to the life standing in his familiar place by the garden gate.

May I borrow this, please? I’ll take good care of it and return it to you personally by the end of the day.

“Of course, of course, anything to help find Grandad Moses.” She told him as she saw him on his way once more.

By the end of the next day the evening the local newspaper had run a front page headline, “What has happened to Grandad Moses?” An enterprising schoolboy having visited the newspaper office and told them that Grandad Moses had been missing for three days. Which , in turn, had boosted his pocket money by quite a lot.

It took another visit to the pub before George was able to solve the mystery of Grandad Moses’ disappearance. George had accidently bumped the elbow of the new vet as he was trying to pass by on his way to his usual table with his shandy.

“Thirsty?” The young man had asked. George had then old him that he had been kept busy on the mysterious disappearance of a local character and needed to have something to fortify him before breaking the lack of news to the lady who had reported him missing.

“A devoted couple are they?” Joseph Adkins asked. To which George had responded that she was certainly very upset about him being missing.

“You see I have been witnessing a very fine example of devotion over the past few days, a very example indeed!” He informed George.

George perked up at the mention of this and asked to be told the whole story. The vet, recognising a geuinely interested listener, regaled him with his tale of a poor tabby cay who had been brought in by a driver who had accidently knocked her down when rounding a very tight corner near the surgery. The vet had agreed to see what could be done for her but was not at all sure that she was worth trying to save. However, the man had offered to pay him for his best care and so he had worked hard to clean the small animal up and tend her wounds but secetly he was still not confident that she would make a full recovery. However, when he walked into the waiting room after everyone had gone home at the end of the day, he had found a cat sitting patiently on the bench seat. He had gone over and petted him and asked what he was doing there, as he appeared to be a fine specimin of the feline race. The cat had mewed and jumped down and began walking to wards the door into the back room, where the vet’s patient lay anethetised in her quarters. At the door he had stopped, turned, looked at the vet and then back at the door. He obviously wanted to be allowed through it to the room beyond.

What did you do? George asked the vet in wonder.

“Opened it and let him in.” The vet replied with a chuckle. “I followed him as he toured the room until he found my tabby patient. Then he simply sat himself down and waited.”

Didn’t he do anything else? George instantly queried him.

“Oh yes, indeed he has!” The vet told him. “He has washed her, stroked her and encouraged her to drink and eat by bringing little dainty morsels from the bowl I laid out for her. In fact I would say tht he has been the perfect feline nurse. Also, since he did not see any progress that first night he mewed until I opened the door and let him in with her. Then he lay down gently beside her and kept her warm. The next day he would not even take a drink of water until she had come round enough to open her eyes. Then he tended her until she fell back to sleep and afterwards he would clean himself, drink a little and eat a little before going back to lie by her side once more. In fact, I am only here now because I know that he is standing guard over her. However, I shall have to go back and check her over before I can go upstairs to my flat above the surgery.”

George asked him if he would mind him acompanying him back to the surgery to meet this amazingly selfless animal. Nothing loath, the vet agreed to introduce him to his lodger ad he called him. The two men walked quickly along the footpath and crossed the road to reach the surgery within a few minutes. The young vet unlocked his front door and ushered George into the waiting room. Then asked him to follow him into the back room where the overnight patients stayed. In the light of a dimmed lamp George was urged to come forward and intoduced to a very thin and heavily bandaged tabby cat and found himself stroking the bowed head of a very quiet Grandad Moses.

A short while later George was readily allowed to use the surgery telephone to summon Miss Crimble, to enable her to identify “the lodger” as the missing Grandad Moses. It was to be a very happy reunion. Moses was very happy to purr at his mistress as she stroked his bowed head. However, he would not leave his “patient” to go home with her. No way would he abandon the tabby to the vet’s sole care.

In fact, it was to be two long weeks before Grandad Moses was to be seen walking, head held high and a definite “smile” on his face back to his home. The shopkeepers came out to welcome him back into the fold, the children kept stopping him to pet him and tell him what a super hero he was. By the time they finally made their procession past the neighbours waiting at their gates to welcome him home quite a crowd had tagged along behind them and Policeman Gearge was kept busy ensuring that they all stayed on the pavement and that cars passing took a wide berth around those celebrating the arrival of Moses and his new friend, now named, Grandma Moses, at their home.

George could now declare the case of the Disappearance of Grandad Moses well and truly closed.