What If Statue of Liberty Vanished Mysteriously

So I took a little vacation and traveled to the other side of the country — to New York. Ah, the Big Apple. The city where more than 8 million people live. The home of Broadway, the Empire State Building, Central Park, and the Statue of Liberty. Now, Lady Liberty came to the United States from France back in 1885, in over 300 copper pieces. She came with instructions: “Some assembly required. Batteries not included”. She was a gift from the French people to the Americans. But the receiving party had to prepare the pedestal for her themselves. Hmm.

Instead of New York, the Statue could’ve ended up in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston or even San Francisco. All of these cities were willing to pay for the construction if they got the Statue. But New Yorkers wanted it, too. They started the fundraising campaign and managed to get all the money needed. So, the Statue officially called New York home in 1886, where it still resides. Sorry, Philly. I like your cheesesteaks, though. Anyway, the Statue of Liberty was my first stop, and I was very excited. But I had no idea what was to come next.

Day 1. I arrived in New York City, and first thing, I took the ferry to Liberty Island. I could see her already, far away in the middle of the Harbor. As the ferry approached the statue, all the people started to take pictures with her. I wasn’t an exception. I asked someone to take a picture of me, turned away from the Statue, looked into the camera, and smiled. But the guy looked shocked. I asked him what was wrong, but he couldn’t say anything. He just pointed to the Statue of Liberty. Well, to where it used to be.

Because the Statue was just gone. He said it was there, but the next second, it just disappeared. Other people saw that too and started to ask each other what happened. But no one had any idea. Still, we reached the dock and got out of the ferry. It felt like it was just some trick, but apparently, it wasn’t. The Statue of Liberty was really gone, and its pedestal was totally empty. Of course, there were some people who climbed up on it pretending to be the Statue of Liberty themselves and taking photos.

Very soon, authorities arrived and didn’t let anyone leave the island. They said they wanted to make an investigation and catch the thief since the thief should still be there on an island. As if it’s actually possible to steal the Statue of Liberty. They interrogated every single person on the island. We spent the whole day there, and in the end, they had to let us go. Who had the Statue of Liberty hidden in their pockets? What a surprise.

Day 2. That was one crazy case, so I decided to stick around in New York for a while to watch how the situation would progress. Of course, in the morning, it’s in all the newspapers, magazines, and on TV talk shows. All the Times Square banners are showing photos of the Statue with the headings “Have you seen me?”, “The Statue of Liberty is gone!” and even dramatic ones like “The theft of the century: the Statue of Liberty is stolen”. Well, the whole Big Apple is mourning the loss. There is a crazy number of people colored blue-green, like the patina on the statue, wearing dresses and the souvenir foam crown of Miss Liberty.

By the way, all the local souvenir stores ran out of those, as well as of all the little plastic statues of liberty, too. I’m trying to avoid Instagram or any other social networks. Every celebrity and every single user posts pictures of the Statue with a crying emoji and a broken heart. The Internet turned into one big memorial.
In the evening, the Empire State Building is shining blue-green in honor of the missing statue.

Day 5. New York City is even more crowded now. It seems like all of America came to the city to make sure that the statue is actually gone, and it’s not some Internet hoax. Like we need another one of those. Now, the edge of Manhattan from where the ferry used to go to Liberty Island is overcrowded. There’re many super loyal fans colored in blue-green (who honestly freak me out a bit) who are staying there all day long, waiting for the Statue to, somehow, come back. No one is allowed to go to Liberty Island. All the best detectives in the world arrived there to investigate this case, trying to figure out what could’ve happened.

Day 10. France officially announced that they’ll make a new Statue of Liberty for New York. It is super nice of them, but people keep crying, saying that no new Statue of Liberty can replace the original one, so dearly loved. Do you remember that back in 1885, there were other cities like Boston and Philadelphia that wanted to get the Statue? Well, now they’re blaming New York for losing a 151 ft (46 m) high statue weighing 450,000 lb (204,000 kg), claiming it would’ve never happened had the Statue been set in Boston (or Philly). Which honestly sounds absurd.

Also, did you know that there’re more Statues of Liberty in the world? There’s a smaller version of it, which was given by the US citizens to France a couple of years after the original one was set in New York. This little monument, just 37 ft (11 m)​​​​​​​ high, has been standing near the Grenelle Bridge in Paris. Well, until a couple of days ago. To comfort the Americans, France transported the little copy from Paris to New York, and they put it on the pedestal instead of the one that was gone.

Well, given that this one is more than 10 times smaller than the original, it looks a bit... funny. But I guess New Yorkers can’t imagine New York without one, even if it’s just a replica. Also, there’s a life-sized copy of Lady Liberty’s torch standing in Paris. Well, that one was also transported to New York and set on Liberty Island as a monument. Meanwhile, the folks in Las Vegas at the New York Casino and Hotel are staying awfully quiet for some reason, trying to stay under the radar about that statue ruckus.

Day 20. The world started a huge fundraising campaign to raise money for the new Statue of Liberty. And then it ended. It took just 2 hours and 47 minutes to raise all the $100,000,000 that was needed. Almost 2 billion people from nearly every single country in the world donated. The construction is going to start in two weeks in Paris, France, just like in the good old times. And then, it’ll be transported to the US again.

Boston is still trying to insist that we shouldn’t trust New York with the Statue anymore. But I don’t think they’ll manage to persuade the world, because this little replica on the pedestal still looks funny. I’ll never get used to it. Also, starting today, tourists are allowed to travel to Liberty Island for the first time since the incident. It seems like all of New York wants to visit the island now, so the authorities had to go with the digital queue.

All the tickets for the next two months are already booked, and it happened in less than ten minutes. Well, given the 8 million New Yorkers and more than 250 million tourists New York City welcomes every year, I think I’ll be able to visit the island about... next decade.

Day 31. Crazy news. Can’t believe it. The Statue of Liberty — and I mean the original one — is back. They say it appeared in the middle of the night. The smaller replica is now standing next to the pedestal, and the original Lady Liberty is in its rightful place. I needed to see it, so I rushed to the Harbor. Just like everyone in New York. It actually is back. No one still knows what happened. The great minds of the world still can’t solve the mystery. David Copperfield has an air-tight alibi. But if you ask me, I think that the Statue just left by itself.

Maybe it just needed a vacation. I can picture it chilling on a beach in Central America. Can’t blame it. Standing there for more than a hundred years without a single day off, always being patient with all the people constantly taking pictures of you. That’s not an easy job. I’m glad it took a little vacation. Maybe we won’t lose it for another 15 decades. Hey, we were all worried, and she’s standing there like nothing happened. “Chill out, people. I’m back.”