Ah, the outback. A magical place at the bottom of the world where the mystery of nature springs into life in unexpected places. This was where Luke, Resus, Cleo and I like to hang out. We live among the gumtrees in the rocky plains of the outback, and have a picnic outside every Tuesday. Every time we do, a pair of cheeky lorikeets all pink and white would come flying down and scoff one or two of our sandwiches. We don’t mind the lorikeets eating our sandwiches, we always invite them to share our tea anytime. Lorikeets are extremely fond of peanut butter sandwiches if you ask me, although they taste a bit rubbery in their mouths. Every day in our outback home, we’d bounce with kangaroos and see how high we can jump. We’d play with emus and learn how to stick our heads in the ground just in case of any danger. We’d run from frill-necked lizards when they ran across the plain screaming. We’d drink water from the watering hole with two sly-looking wildcats. Life was sweet in the outback, even though it was extremely hot.
One day, we went to a School Of The Air in Alice Springs. If you don’t know what a School Of The Air is, it’s a radio station that teaches children who live too far from school. “Today’s visitors are here to tell us all about the joys of Australia - Luke, Resus, Cleo and Sybil!” said the teacher. “Hi!” we all said. “So, Sybil, about your life here in Australia. Do you enjoy it as much as your siblings do?” asked the teacher. “Of course I do. Precisely speaking, I never thought of this myself, but Australia is a very hot country. This is probably why people go swimming on the beach all the time, and did I forget to mention there are kangaroos jumping about? Why of course, yes, because there are loads of them where we live, by the way as we sit on the front porch we could always see kangaroos bounce past every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…” I went on and on about Australia. So much in fact that the teacher, my siblings and the listeners listening fell fast asleep.
“...and did you taste all the vegemite there? I’m not particulary fond of vegemite, it gives me terrible diarrhoea, and sometimes it makes me vomit too, that’s why we don’t stock up on vegemite in the house, and…” “Okay, okay, slow down, you’re making it hard for the other passengers to concentrate.” I looked around. I was on a plane with my family to Australia. Luke, Resus, Cleo and their parents were all asleep, while other people were sitting quietly in rows and rows along the plane. “We must be very high up.” I said. “High up as in on a plane, you mean,” said Mum. “At least you didn’t scream that we’re going to crash this time. I think you must be very excited about our visit to Aunt Marie’s beach house in Queensland.” “Yes, Mum!” I smiled, “I’ve been thinking about that trip all year!” Aunt Marie lived in a lovely house on the coast of a beach in Queensland. She looked exactly like my mother - friendly and young, with dark blonde hair.
The effects of the flight was making my eyes feel heavy, and my ears pop like little balloons in my eardrums, but I had to stay awake. I’ve fallen asleep multiple times on car journeys to see relatives like Aunt F and Six. One time, I felt sick in the car and Cleo had to comfort me. Here’s hoping I didn’t get sick on the plane too. I looked out the window at the clouds that passed by. Then I looked down at the ocean far below. Some small grey dots were bouncing about in the water. I looked a bit closer, then realised something. They were dolphins! Actual, real live dolphins! “Mum! Mum! Look! I see dolphins!” I cried. “So I see,” said Mum, “Dolphins are very common here in Australia. There are even sightings of them on the Queensland beach. At least, that’s what Aunt Marie told me.” “I wish Luke, Resus and Cleo were able to see this,” I hoped, looking over at my sleeping siblings.
When the plane finally landed, I shook my siblings awake excitedly. “Wake up!” I shouted, “We’re here! Luke! Resus! Cleo! Get up! We’re here!” “Wha…what?” asked Luke. “We’re finally here, in Australia!” I said. Luke, Resus and Cleo gazed out the window. They were at an Australian airport. We were so excited we just had to high five each other. We’ve never been more excited. However, as we got off the plane we felt our legs shake and shiver, as if cold air had just been applied to the heat pressure on the plane. “Mum, my legs are all shaky,” I said. “Don’t worry, darling, it’s just the effects of an international flight.” “I think mine are too,” said Resus. “I feel like we’re going to fall off the plane any minute,” groaned Cleo. “Well, you’ll get your energy back when you see Aunt Marie.” laughed Mrs Watson, patting Luke on the back. “Hey! Not too hard,” moaned Luke.
As we went to the arrivals area, we saw Aunt Marie waiting for us amongst a crowd of people waiting for their relatives. “Sybil!” she screamed. “Aunt Marie!” we yelled back, as we ran to the woman who looked just like my mum. She grabbed us in a bear hug, but she had to let go when we started moaning and our legs started shaking. “Oh dear. You must be very creased after flying all the way over from the UK to see me,” she said. “They’ll get used to it. They are on holiday after all, and they’re very far away from the UK.” said Mr Watson. “Cleo felt it too, but I don’t think that happened to me,” said Niles, “I don’t have the guts.” Everyone laughed. “No puns please,” groaned Cleo. “We feel tired enough as it is.” I moaned. “You see, Marie, Sybil and her siblings are just tired because they’ve been excited about this trip, we had a hectic morning getting ready and taking off to fly around the world to Australia, and now they’re just…well, tired.” Aunt Marie chuckled. “Never mind, they can fall asleep as soon as we get in.”
We caught the Airport Express bus to Aunt Marie’s beach house. As we sat and looked out at the views, we tried hard not to fall asleep, but it was hard with the sounds of our parents laughing and joking. I felt something in my stomach churn around, like milk being mixed with butter to make cheese from the cows. In fact, we felt like cows, groaning and moaning as we felt our stomach acid bubble and fizz, pop and gurgle, twist and turn, almost like a milk machine. Imagine a cow’s stomach acid. It’s so thick and creamy, and sometimes a bit smelly from producing so much milk, that you might have a hard time learning in school about where your dairy products come from. Well, if they come from a cow’s smelly belly, you might be so grossed out you could get out a barf bag that you took to school for the lesson and vomited in sync with all your classmates. Oh my god, the agony!
We finally approached Aunt Marie’s house. The inside was neat and tidy, and the scent of vanilla and spiced apple filled the room. The walls were coloured brown, as if someone hammered wood into them. The carpet was deep red, and you should see our bedroom. It was cream coloured and spotless, there were velvet curtains letting the sun shine through, and our bed was patterned with pictures of roses and butterflies. A soft toy of a kangaroo lay on the bed for us to see. Above the bed was a really strange picture made using spots. “That’s my pride and joy,” said Aunt Marie, “My Aboriginal dot art dingo painting. I was given this painting by the Australian Museum as a thank you for donating my prized didgeridoo.” “Nice story, but we feel a little tired after travelling on a plane, then a bus, and now our eyes are really heavy,” said Resus. “You must be exhausted. I feel you should need a rest after travelling so much.”
So we unpacked our pyjamas and my favourite stuffed animals, Longears and Pink Teddy. We squeezed into our pyjamas, which were soft and comfortable - save for Cleo, she doesn’t wear pyjamas - and turned to gaze at the dingo picture. The dingo was made of a million spots, but according to our vision, it got wobbly and the thousands of dots turned to hundred-thousands, then thousand hundreds. Our legs began to shake again, and our stomachs were still churning like those of cows’, and we felt like we really should go to bed. So we got under the covers and snuggled down under the soft, serene sheets, the sweet scent of pink roses filling our nostrils. “This dingo picture is so amazing,” I groaned. “Is it indeed,” said Resus, “I feel like it’s coming to life as we speak.” “Well, I feel like there’s an actual dingo on the beach right now as we speak,” said Cleo. We laughed weakly. “No dingo would set paw on the beach next to Aunt Marie’s. Why would we even bother to let it come in and steal our food? We do need a good, long…”
But we yawned and settled down to sleep under the covers. Everything was quiet, save for the wind blowing outside the sunny windows. We felt so sleepy, that instantly, we drifted into a wonderful dream…
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