리틀팍스

 Aliata Percerin, who was 13 years old, was a very decent girl. Not only she was very polite and pretty, but she was very smart and attractive too. She was an only child, and got everything she wanted since she was a baby, including love. Her mother, father, uncles and aunts all loved her. She also got toys, books and stationaries as many as she wanted. However, she wasn't spoiled at all. She was sent to an private school by her father, and it was winter vacation now. And even though it was winter vacation, her father hired an tutor for her; every day except Sundays, 5 hours a day. There were 4 different tutors for English, math, geographic and biology, and French. Aliata was sick of the tutors. They gave very many homework, leaving Aliata to sleep almost at 1 o'clock, and they spoke very coldly - that was, except Aliata's English teacher. The English teacher's name was Miss Joann. She smiled often, and didn't giveout too much homework when Aliata wasn't feeling too well or had too much of other homeworks. Aliata liked Miss Joann, but she could only meet her on Mondays and Fridays. That is why she always waited for Sunday to come for her freedom. She was always very polite and mature, but she was still a 13 years old child. She never got to play on weekdays and Saturdays, so she always played on Sundays. Sometimes she drew, sometimes she watched movies, but her favorite way to play, was to play board games. Almost everyone in the house was busy, except just 1 person - Uncle Cedric. He didn't have a job, and lived on his brother, Thomas, or more likely, Aliata's father's money. He was often drunk, but he usually didn't drink at Saturday nights or Sunday mornings after Aliata had asked him to play board games with her. They did that almost every Sunday, including the first one of January. Aliata woke up, and jumped out of bed. It was 7 in the morning, and everyone in the house was already awake. The Percerin family went to sleep early, and woke up early. Aliata knew Uncle Cedric would be having breakfast down-down-downstairs, on the first floor, and after Aliata had had breakfast too, she could play with Uncle Cedric. She went downstairs, but couldn't find Uncle Cedric. She guessed he had drunk wine a little and would be sleeping for a while. She fixed herself a breakfast of peanut butter sandwich, ate it, and went to Uncle Cedric's room. Her aunt was drying her hair in there. "Aunt Hannah,' she called, but her aunt didn't hear her. "Aunt Hannah!" she shouted, and Aunt Hannah spotted her. She turned off the hair dryer.

 "Oh, I'm sorry, Aliata. Is there a problem?"

 "Could I know where uncle Cedric is?"

 A worried cloud came over Aunt Hannah's face. "He hasn't come in yesterday night... but I'm sure he'd come back in an hour. This happened a few weeks ago too. If he doens't come back until 9, we'll have to start searching for him. Don't you worry, he'll be back soon."

 So Aliata waited and waited as she read. No one seemed to notice Uncle Cedric's vacancy, since they all had a job and there were very many people in the house. When it was 9 o'clock, she strolled back to Aunt Hannah's room.

 "Aunt Hannah, it's nine!" she called.

 Aunt Hannah looked as if she was about to cry. "Yes, Aliata... could you please tell your father about this?"

 And this is how the trouble had begun. Aliata never realized how much danger she was in.