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The day started clear with the sun, a bright shiny disc in the clear blue sky. Virgil slowly woke as it came through his window.
Opening his eyes, he looked at the clock on his bedside table and saw it read 7 am. Usually, he wouldn’t wake up this early, even with the sunlight streaming into his room. But he had gone to bed exhausted after he and his brothers had returned from a complicated and physical rescue.
He hadn’t been the only one to hit the sack early, either.
Gordon had been the first to head off. He had been trying to hide the fact that he was in pain from his back, but both he and Scott recognized the signs. After the debriefing, Scott had gone to the infirmary, grabbed Gordon’s medication, and then barged into his room, demanding that Gordon take it. Virgil was sure he was thankful for it, even though he didn’t sound too appreciative at the time.
Before heading off to bed himself, Virgil had headed out to the roundhouse to collect some painting supplies. He planned to paint the following day to try to relax as there had been a spate of rescues, one after the other, with very little time in between to grab enough rest or sleep. It seemed that almost everyone in the world needed International Rescue, so he was determined to make the most of what little time he may have.
Virgil decided that if he wanted to get any painting done, he needed to make a move. Rolling out of bed, he stripped out of his pj’s and got into the shower. The warm water flowed over his body, easing his muscles, encouraging him to start the day. Dressing in jeans and a t-shirt, he made his way to the kitchen for some breakfast. Upon arrival, his father greeted him, which wasn’t surprising given the hours he worked. What did surprise him was seeing Gordon.
Virgil figured Gordon must have been up early as his hair was still damp, and he smelt of chlorine from a session in the pool. Hopefully, that meant his back was a little better if he was up for a swim. Gordon was one of only two brothers who loved to rise early. For him, it was a habit from childhood, or at least from his squad training days. Those days were long before the back problem slowed him down, courtesy of the hydrofoil accident in WASP. It was good to see him doing what he loved again.
Sitting down, Virgil grabbed the coffee and the cereal. As he did, his father looked from behind his paper.
“You’re up early, Virgil.”
“Yeah, I plan to paint today if possible,” he said, knowing the whole thing depended on whether or not his father received another distress call.
“Well, enjoy yourself,” he said and got up to go to his office to work.
“So, where are you planning to paint?” Gordon asked.
“I’m not sure yet. Why?”
“No reason,” Gordon said and left before there were any more questions.
Virgil couldn’t help wondering why Gordon had asked. He just hoped he wasn’t going to prank him. Virgil wasn’t in the mood for it, at least not today. All he wanted was to spend some time alone before being called out on another mission.
After finishing breakfast, he took some fruit and a bottle of water and went back to his room. He’d brought what he needed for his artwork to his room the night before, but he still had to pack it all. But as he did, he noticed that one of the paint tubes was gone. He checked around the room in case he’d dropped it, but after ten minutes of searching, Virgil couldn’t find it anywhere. Now believing he mustn’t have grabbed it in the first place, he decided to go back to the roundhouse and get the missing color. Virgil wasn’t originally planning to head that way, but guessed he had no choice. He just wanted to get down to his special place near the beach. He liked it and the peacefulness it gave him.
Heading back to the roundhouse, Virgil grabbed the new tube of paint and then decided to stop by the lounge and pick up the sheet music he had left on his piano. He planned to finish the piece later in the day if time allowed. But when he got there, he found that it was missing too. He couldn’t remember seeing it in his room when he was looking for the paint. He was sure he’d left it on the piano.
“Is there a problem, son?” Jeff Tracy looked up from his desk.
“Yes… I mean no,” Virgil was undecided.
“It can only be one or the other son.”
“I thought I’d left my sheet music here. I swear it was here last night.”
“Are you sure you didn’t move it and forgot?”
“I thought I was. It doesn’t matter. It’ll probably turn up. I’m off to do some painting down near the beach if you need me.”
“Okay, son, enjoy yourself,” his father said.
“Will do,” Virgil called back and returned to his room to collect his gear.
The walk down to the area near the beach relaxed him immediately. A gentle breeze blew through the palm trees and tropical vegetation, and the warmth of the sun on him was pure heaven after the hell he and his brothers had been in over the past few days. He hadn’t seen Gordon since he left the kitchen, and he hadn’t sighted either Scott or Alan at all. He knew Scott would probably rise about midmorning as he was always the last to go to bed after a rescue excluding his father. Alan was usually an early riser like Gordon, but that was because Tin-Tin was, and he would do anything and go anywhere she did.
Finally losing himself in the beauty of the clearing and the spectacular view, Virgil spent all morning either painting and or making sketches. Once it was early afternoon, he decided to head back to the villa. Virgil had to work on some engineering designs for Tracy Enterprises that couldn’t wait as there was only so much painting and relaxing that anyone could do. After dumping his stuff in his room, he went into the kitchen to see what Kyrano had made for lunch. Virgil expected to see someone still eating or at least something left for him, but there was nothing. He shrugged and made himself a sandwich and a side salad, deciding to eat it in his room while he worked.
After working throughout the afternoon, he decided to call it a day when the sun began to set, and the clock was showing 6 pm. He got up from his desk, leaving the engineering designs to be dealt with later, and headed back out to the kitchen, where he joined his family for dinner. Then after a quiet evening playing pool with Scott, he headed off to bed, happy there had finally been a full day’s break from emergency calls, dangerous situations, and rescues.
The next few days were also quiet; no rescues, with John checking in regularly to keep them informed what was happening, or in their case, not happening around the world. If only he could say, the past three days had been quiet for him… far from it. He was slowly beginning to think he was going nuts.
The missing paint had reappeared in his room after he’d gone down to breakfast the following day. Granted, he thought he’d forgotten to pick it up in the first place or had just misplaced it, but now he wasn’t sure. The next to turn up was his mislaid sheet music which he found on his desk amongst the engineering designs. Other personal items had also started to vanish when he knew where they were. Things kept disappearing and reappearing, but he seemed to be the only one who noticed. When he mentioned it to others, they just joked around and put it down to him being overworked. He knew he didn’t imagine it. It just upset him that the others thought he was overtired. No, he was more than upset. He was hurt and even a bit angry.
After three more days of peace and quiet, John finally called with the news of a rescue situation in some caves in Colorado. After a welcome break, Virgil was raring to go, but he hadn’t bargained for the rescue to be so difficult. That was because they couldn’t use the Mole to dig down to the trapped people in the caves. Owing to the subsidence in the area, they had to make their way down physically. Then came a spate of smaller minor rescues leaving little or no time for him to spend on his art, music, or the engineering project. During this period, he began to notice that his belongings were no longer disappearing and reappearing. Everything seemed to be staying where he left it. His suspicions grew.
After another two weeks’ worth of back-to-back rescues, the world took a welcome break from disaster, and it was finally quiet again on Tracy Island. Of course, the first thing Virgil saw was that one of the books he had been reading had disappeared, and before long, the cycle started all over again.
‘Oh no, not again,’ he thought.
Things began to disappear and reappear again precisely as they did before, and as usual, he seemed to be the only one who noticed, which didn’t make him happy. He was starting to get peeved off.
Deciding the only thing left to do was to lie in wait for the culprit. He informed everyone he would be holed up in the roundhouse for a couple of hours, touching up a few paintings if they needed him.
“Then I’ll be in my room working on my engineering design.”
Doubling back from the roundhouse as soon as the coast was clear, he went into his bedroom to wait. Whoever they were, he knew they couldn’t help themselves.
‘We’ll see who can’t keep up,’ he thought to himself as he squeezed into the bottom of his closet. “It had better not be Gordon; that’s all I’ll say.”
A few hours later, Virgil woke up with a sore back and aching muscles. He hadn’t realized he was still tired from all the rescues and had fallen asleep about half an hour after hiding out. Naturally, several of his items, including his watch, cell phone, a book on design, toothpaste, toothbrush, as well as a sketchbook, were all now missing.
“Ahhhh,” Virgil said out loud. He was mad at himself for having fallen asleep and letting whoever the sneak thief get away with it again.
He had to hand it to them. Whoever they were, they were good. Giving up this quest to try and find the culprit, he wandered out to sit and attempt to relax by the swimming pool.
Gordon, Alan, and Tin-Tin were already there laughing and tossing a ball around.
“Hey, Virgil! Why don’t you join us? It’ll be more fun playing two aside than two on one,” Gordon called as Alan and Tin-Tin ganged up on him.
“No, thanks, I’ll just sit here and watch,” Virgil said a bit harshly, not in the mood for any fun.
“Okay,” Gordon shrugged. “By the way, we haven’t seen much of you today. What have you been up to?” Gordon asked.
“Not much, just trying to get some work done on my designs,” Virgil said, knowing if it were either Alan or Gordon, they would know that he was lying. “Where’s Scott? He could join you.”
“Don’t know. I hadn’t seen Scott since this morning when he was talking to Dad.” Suddenly a big splash hit Gordon in the back of his head. “Hey!” he yelled.
”Come on; you’re wasting time,” Alan complained.
“No, I’m not!” Gordon shot back and went after his younger brother.
Virgil watched as Gordon and Alan proceeded to try and dunk each other, forgetting all about the game they had been playing. Seeing she had been abandoned, Tin-Tin decided to exit the pool and let the two brothers go. Grabbing a towel, she joined Virgil to watch the two youngest Tracy boys try to outdo each other in the water.
“Do you think they’ll hurt themselves?” Tin-Tin asked.
“Nah, they need to let a little steam off to relax after all the rescues we’ve been on lately. They’ll stop soon.”
“If you say so, what about you? Have you done anything to relax?” she queried.
“I usually try to paint or write music, but I don’t seem to be able to get my head around it today.”
“Why don’t you take a walk down to the beach? It might help.”
“I think I might do that. Thanks, Tin-Tin.”
“You’re welcome,” Tin-Tin replied. “If those two don’t stop soon, I’ll get Scott or your Father to break it up.”
He laughed. “I’m sure you won’t need to do that.”
Leaving the pool area, Virgil went down the track to the beach, wondering if Scott might be around. Scott often walked the sand alone to help to clear his head or get away from things for a while. When he wasn’t there, he assumed he was probably doing some work on “his beloved bird,” which also helped him relax. Virgil also tended to do that, but not today. Brains had sent him away earlier in the morning to rest while he worked on the systems.
Walking alone on the beach, Virgil thought about what had been happening to him. Someone was trying to play mind games with him, but which of his brothers was it?
John was out, as he had been up on Five when his things had started disappearing and reappearing.
Alan was another story. He was Gordon's partner in crime when Gordon’s pranks required a willing accomplice. Though Alan was keeping close to Tin-Tin these days, thanks to the Eddy Houseman incident, there had been other suitors that had popped up since then. No, he wasn’t the one either.
Gordon was high on his culprit list. He should have considered him first. Gordon was always the one for pranks, usually physical rather than mental. Maybe he had decided to try something new. Thinking back when the first item, his paint tube, had disappeared, Gordon had been in bed after taking his medication for his back. So if it wasn’t Gordon, who was it?
That only left Scott; he wouldn’t be responsible. Scott was a victim more times than he wanted to remember. But he was running out of ideas on who it could be. Nobody had seen Scott much during the time the items had started to disappear and reappear, and when Virgil had commented to him, he just rolled his eyes and shrugged it off. Virgil knew Scott was under a lot of pressure recently, not just as Field Commander of International Rescue, but also for the critical role he played in Tracy Enterprises. Maybe Scott had snapped, and the outlet was him watching Virgil question himself and his sanity. But he didn’t think Scott would do that to him. Alan maybe, definitely Gordon, but not Scott.
He knew Kyrano and his Grandma weren’t the ones either. If Kyrano had been pranked, he’d never mentioned it. Not that anyone would but with a prankster on the loose, it was still a possibility. His Grandma had been pranked once, and boy did they all get to know about it. As far as he knew, Grandma never got pranked again. Something told him his father had had words with the one responsible.
That only left one person on the island, his dad, and he wouldn’t have the time for pranks. He was too busy with work for Tracy Enterprises or International Rescue. He’d been pranked many times himself, though he never mentioned it. Everyone knew he had when Alan or Gordon ended up with the more glamorous jobs like cleaning Thunderbird 2 or Thunderbird 1 after filthy rescues that involved oil and caked-on mud.
He concluded that he had no idea who was responsible. Virgil headed back up to the villa. Then after dinner, they were called out to another rescue. On returning, he found all the missing items returned.
Days, weeks, then months went by, and Virgil’s belongings stayed where he left them. Other pranks had been played, with Gordon as the chief culprit as usual, but nothing else. Whoever had been taking his gear had now stopped.
He had no idea who it may have been, and he guessed he never would.