The Missing Girl

This is a riddle, can you figure it out?

One sunny afternoon, Madoka-chan and her mother went for a walk in the park. As they walked along the path, the mother saw that one of her friends had brought her own daughter to the park also. The two women met up and began chatting as Madoka-chan and the other little girl went off to play.

A few minutes later, Madoka-chan’s mother looked around and realized that her daughter was nowhere to be seen. She began to panic and ran over to the little girl Madoka-chan had been playing with.

“Where is Madoka-chan?”, asked the mother in a trembling voice.

“She was playing in the sandbox with me”, replied the little girl. “Then she said she was going to play on the slides and I didn’t want to play on the slides so I stayed in the sandbox and I haven’t seen her since.”

The mother and her friend searched the park, calling Madoka-chan’s name, but they could find no sign of her. It was as if she had vanished into thin air. The tearful mother called the police and reported her daughter missing. Then, she phoned her husband to tell him the terrible news.

The police searched the area and set up checkpoints, but no trace of Madoka-chan was ever found. Her parents stayed in the playground, searching in vain until nightfall. Finally, disheartened, they left and went home to cry themselves to sleep.

The police assured the parents that they would find their daughter, but after a month, there was no progress at all in the investigation. Six months later, Madoka-chan was still missing and her parents were at their wit’s end. By the time a year had passed, the police paid a visit to the parents and told them that, in all likelihood, Madoka-chan was probably dead.

“I’m sorry”, said the chief of police. “We did our best. We did everything in our power, but we just have to face up to the facts. We will never be able to find her. The only thing we can do now is wrap up the investigation and file the case as unsolved.”

Despite what the police said, the parents refused to give up. In their grief, they resolved to dedicate their lives to finding out what happened to their darling Madoka-chan.

As a last resort, they decided to contact a psychic, hoping to get a new perspective on the case. The parents were put in though with a woman who was, at that time, the most well-known psychic in the country. She had become famous for helping the police with a handful of cases where she had managed to pinpoint the location of wanted criminals and missing persons.

When the psychic arrived, a few days later, she asked the parents to take her to the last place they had seen their daughter. The mother and father took the psychic to the park and waited as the woman sat down in the grass, closed her eyes and went into a trance.

After a while, the psychic stood up and asked the parents to bring her to their home. She walked around the home, touching the missing girl’s clothes, shoes and toys. Finally, the psychic put her fingers to her head and began rubbing her temples. She shut her eyes tight and held her breath. Then, with a deep sigh, she whispered, “Madoka-chan is alive.”

At once, the parents of the missing girl embraced each other, filled with joy and excitement. Then, the mother asked, in a trembling voice, “So where is Madoka-chan now?”

A smile spread across the psychic’s face as she answered, “Her heart still beats and her lungs still breathe.”

The delighted parents clutched eachother tightly.

“I knew it! I knew it!” said the mother triumphantly. “But where is she now?”

“Madoka-chan’s eyes gaze at a luxury home with expensive furniture,” continued the psychic. “Madoka-chan’s stomach contains only fine cuisine.”

The mother exhaled a sigh of relief and begged “So where is Madoka-chan now? Please tell us!”

The psychic hesitated for a moment. Then, her eyes fluttered open and she cried, “She is all over the world!”

For a moment, the missing girl’s parents just stood there, frozen to the spot, their mouths hanging open. Then, they suddenly understood what the psychic meant and collapsed to the floor, sobbing and wailing bitterly.

What happened to the missing girl?