The game of clue

I rolled the dice and entered the study on the board. “Col. Mustard, in the study with the……” The doorbell rang. I got up to answer it, leaving my wife and kids with the game of clue. I opened the door, expecting a mailman or something. At the door, there was an odd-looking old man, maybe about 99 years old, with five colourful, well worn scarves around his neck. He stood there for a minute without saying anything then suddenly, just as I was about to close the door, he asked, “can I join your game of clue?” I looked at him suspiciously, not knowing how he knew that we were playing clue or why he was even there. “No” I told him then quickly closed the door and locked it. A few minutes later I heard a knock at the door, expecting it to be the same old man again, I didn't go to answer it. À minute later the person knocked again. Getting annoyed, I went to answer it. When I opened the door I saw an energetic young woman sitting on the porch, looking strangely excited to be sitting outside in the cold, pouring rain. She asked me “can I set up my tent outside of your house” I asked her “why on earth would you want to do that, we practically live on a swamp in the middle of nowhere, how did you even end up here?” She didn’t answer. I told her that she could stay there for one night and then she would have to leave and find somewhere else to stay. It was getting late so I decided to put the kids to bed and then clean up the game with my wife. Once the kids were in bed upstairs, I heard a loud honk outside, in the back of the house. The night was already crazy so I didn't think that I could be surprised by anything so I went outside and saw a minibus with a thirteen year old girl at the wheel. That seemed to be the one thing that could still surprise me. She had long blonde hair, tied up into a messy bun and braces. Her van was the most colourful and whimsical thing that I had ever seen. She hopped out and asked me if she could park her van and stay the night in our backyard, in her van. She was just a little girl and I didn't want to leave her outside in the cold by herself in her van, so I offered her the spare room in the attic of our house. She thanked me a million times and then entered the house and let me show her to her room. Once in her room, she looked around quickly, thanked me again and then ran back down to her minibus. She grabbed a huge suitcase and hauled it up to the room in the attic. I left her to install herself and went back down to the living room table to clean up the board game. Just as I entered the room, the woman who had asked to tent in front of our house had already started to clean it up. She screamed when I came in, she then quickly apologized and said “Since you so kindly offered to let me tent in your front yard, I thought I would do you a small favor in return. I had just finished setting up my tent and I saw the board game on the table so I opened the door then came in.” I was furious that she had come into our house without permission, especially since there had been two other strangers there that day. She could have been trying to harm my kids. She apologized again then just as she was leaving the house, I saw her slip her hand into her pocket. I ran out of the house chasing after her. She ran, she could run so much faster than me or anyone else I had ever met. I figured that I would let her go, knowing that there was no way I could catch her running and assuming that she would still be there in the morning. I thought that she would be there in the morning because she hadn't come in any sort of vehicle and she would have to leave in the dark carrying the tent. I went back inside, my wife had gone to bed before all of the commotion in the living room and it was getting really late. I went to bed, leaving the game of clue open on the table. I didn't know how big of a mistake I was making. Once in bed, I set an alarm for 4am, hoping that that would be early enough to catch the tenting woman before she left. At 4am, I awoke with a start, the alarm went off while I was in a really deep sleep. I hauled myself out of bed and went outside to try to figure out what was going on. I got outside and saw the tent, rolled up, abandoned on the ground, she must have gotten away early, was my first thought. I waited a few minutes to see if anyone would show up and in those minutes, I saw a figure on our roof. What on earth was someone doing on our roof. I decided to try and figure it out, I climbed up the drainpipe and got onto the roof. The first thing I saw were 5, colorful, well worn scarves, tied together then tied to the chimney. The man must have been somewhere on that roof but I looked around and couldn't find him. I thought at first that he must have slid down the chimney but he seemed too old for that. I started to slide down the rope of scarves when I felt a tug and the scarves got untied. I fell with a thud onto the cold hard ground. When I looked up, I saw the grinning face of the 99 year old man. I ran into the house and on the way, I saw the woman pick up the tent and hide inside of a fort that my kids had build a few days ago. I went inside and sat down in the entrance. I told her not to run away, knowing that if she did, I would never know what she took. I asked her to show me what she took last night and I would see if she could keep whatever it was. Slowly, she reached into a pocket of her overalls and pulled out the candlestick piece from the game of clue. I was so confused. I asked her “why on earth would you want that?” She told me everything, how she had wanted to find this piece for so long, How it had been a very important piece of family history. Her great great great great great grandfather had travelled so many incredible places and one day he found a cave. There were great treasures in that cave that had never been seen before. Some of them were the foundations of our technology today. In that same cave he found a piece of metal and carved it into a candlestick to symbolize the lamp that lights your way when you are on an adventure or are making a great discovery. Last year she had been on a trip and she stopped at a small town near here. She went to the second hand store to buy some clothing because she couldn't afford new clothes considering that she had no job and almost no money. That candlestick was her one, most treasured possession because she was also an adventurer, just like her great great great great great grandfather. I decided that I was going to call everyone who had randomly appeared at our house, down to the living room. After that, I discovered that every person who had come, had come because of that game of clue. I will never know the full stories of the three people who appeared at our house but I know one thing for sure, the day that I picked up that game of clue at the second hand store was a much more important day than I thought it would be.