“Oh, my gosh! No way! It’s free balloon day!” Billy shouted with excitement as he and his nanny entered the store, “Can I get a balloon? Please, please, can I?”

“Yes, if you’re good, I’ll grab you one on the way out,” the nanny explained. They were plain white balloons that said “MEIJER” in red. Billy was so excited to get his balloon, and, sure enough, he was extra good. The nanny lifted him up in his car seat as he hugged his balloon as tightly as he could without popping it.
When they arrived home, Billy rushed into the house and up to his room. He threw open his marker drawer and made the white balloon into a face. He took the black marker and drew hair, the blue marker for eyes, red for the mouth, and forgot the nose altogether. “I’m going to call you…Phineas!” Billy declared. He proudly went downstairs to ask the nanny if the new friends could go to the park.
“Okay,” said the nanny, “if you go get your play clothes on.”
Billy was in awe with his new friend Phineas. When they got to the park, Billy took Phineas everywhere. Billy treated Phineas as if he was human. They played and played, just having a great time. However, Billy saw a seagull eating a cracker. He let go of Phineas and started chasing the seagull. It wasn’t until later that he realized his friend was missing. Billy immediately started to panic. “Phineas? Phineas, where are you?” Billy shouted.
So he took action and walked across from the park to the local police station. He walked through the doors and went to the front desk. “I need a detective, please,” he calmly explained.
They weren’t very nice. With a brief laugh one of the officers answered, “Second floor, first door on your left.”
Up Billy went. “Knock, knock,” he called.
“Come in,” said a brief voice. As Billy walked into the dimly-lit room, he saw a man sitting there, but the detective didn’t look up. He was a scrawny-looking guy, with dark skin and black hair braided into corn rows. All he was doing as his eyes met Billy, was smacking his gum and twirling his corn rows with his index finger. Then the detective finally asked, “Can I help you?”
Billy stuttered, “Umm, my friend is missing. We were at the park, and then he was gone.”
The detective was obviously annoyed. He did not like kids very much, and he absolutely hated the outdoors and walking. So, basically, a park was the last place he wanted to solve a crime. “Okay,” the detective started, “What’s your friend’s name?”
“Phineas,” Billy explained.
“M‘kay, and what does your friend Phineas look like?” the detective continued almost in a slow sarcastic tone.
“Well, he has white skin, black hair, red lips, and big blue eyes,” Billy answered with enthusiasm.
The detective looked at him suspiciously. “M‘kay, where did you last see Phineas?” the detective questioned.
This took Billy a minute, for his five-year-old brain had a hard time remembering anything that happened more than a few minutes ago. “Umm....I don’t remember,” Billy mumbled.
“Alright,” said the detective as he smacked his gum, “we’ll retrace your steps from the park.”
As Billy and the detective left the room and headed down the stairs and across the road, Billy questioned him, “Do you even know my name?”
“Nope, don’t need to,” the detective simply answered.
“Well, can I know your name?” asked Billy.
“Nope,” the detective said again.
“Okay then, can I call you….Mr. Guy?” Billy asked with excitement.
“Sure, whatever, I guess,” murmured Mr. Guy. As they reached the park, Mr. Guy asked, “Where did you first go when you got here, and take me to all the spots you were at in the park from there in order please.”
“Whoot, whoot,” Billy shouted and ran toward the swings. “Come on, Mr. Guy, you have to do everything I do.” So they both started to swing, and then Billy jumped off and ran to the slides. Billy went down the straight slide and Mr. Guy had to go down the bumpy slide. Mr. Guy then followed Billy as he ran toward a spider web contraption. At this point, parents were starting to give Mr. Guy dirty looks as he was climbing up the what-seemed-to-be death trap.
“Any sight of Phineas yet, or do you remember where you last saw him?” Mr. Guy asked out of breath.
“No, not yet,” Billy laughed as he looked at Mr. Guy’s facial expression. “Oh yeah, we went on the merry-go-round next!” Billy exclaimed.
“Oh, geez, this isn’t going to be pretty,” Mr. Guy whispered to himself. As they went over to the merry-go-round, two moms were spinning a group of kids. Billy jumped on first and then Mr. Guy. Now he was getting even worse dirty looks, especially from the two moms. However, Billy and the other kids were loving the fact that an adult was on. They started to hang on him and sit on his lap. After the longest two minutes of his life of going around and around, Mr. Guy was ecstatic when he saw Billy jump off. As he waited for just the right pace of the merry-go-round, he finally jumped off too. He ran a little crooked at first but continued to follow Billy. They went to the sandbox, monkey bars, rock wall, and even to the springy caterpillar and springy duck.
That’s when it hit Billy as he spotted a seagull. Billy cheered, “Mr. Guy, Mr. Guy, I remember, I remember. The last spot I saw Phineas was over there by that drinking fountain because there was a seagull eating a cracker, and I chased it. And I remember now, that was the last spot I had Phineas!” However, Mr. Guy didn’t look quite as pleased.
He whined in his slow sarcastic tone, “You’re telling me that after all that you put me through, the spot you last saw Phineas was by the drinking fountain?”
“Yep,” he said, still happy, not picking up his negativity. So Billy took Mr. Guy by the hand, and they walked over to the drinking fountain. Above the drinking fountain was a big willow tree. It only took Billy a second before he shouted, “I see him! I see him!”
Before he met Billy, Mr. Guy would have been so upset that some little kid wasted his time; yet for some reason, he wasn’t. Somewhat pleased, he realized what Billy was pointing at, and Mr. Guy reached up and pulled the balloon down from the tree. “Here’s Phineas,” is all he could say because he saw how happy Phineas made Billy.
“Mr. Guy, you are the best detective ever!” Billy shouted.

Then Mr. Guy offered to walk both Billy and Phineas home.