Friday, 2 September 2022
Let's Be Monsters
It was a nice, bright, beautiful day at Calypso’s school. For me, it seemed like a dark day as I watched the cockatoos fly overhead in the bush. School was a time to be far apart from Luke, Resus and Cleo. So far apart, that I missed them. Flashbacks swirled and formed in my head like millions of memorising thunderclouds.
“Now you be good for us while you’re at school today, Sybil.” said Cleo. “But I always miss you,” I wept, “What about us? We’re supposed to be friends!” “Friends? We’ll always be!” said Resus. “And I promise that no matter what comes between us whether school or work, whatever our teachers tell us to do, we’ll never leave your side.” As Luke, Resus and Cleo left in the car to go to the big school, I waved, gave a little sniff, turned and walked up the path towards the school, past Snickers who was talking to Calypso, past Mackenzie who was standing alone and past Coco and Indy who were playing a handclapping game.
“Sybil!” I was at once let out of my flashback by some familiar voices. They were Chloe, Honey and Mackenzie. “How’s about we play Explorers?” asked Chloe. “Yeah, there’s no time to sit around moping all day, we’ve got some serious seas to conquer.” said Mackenzie. “Actually, I was thinking about something else.” I said. “You know Luke, Resus and Cleo, my older siblings?” “Everyone knows your siblings,” said Honey. “How’s about I play you’re my siblings?” The three pups agreed this was a great idea. “Right, so, I’ll annoint you, Mackenzie, as Luke. You, Chloe, would be Cleo. And Honey, you shall be Resus. Luke, Resus, Cleo, let’s go wandering!” “Yeah!” cried the pups, and we raced off into the bush.
Through the long grass we waded, laughing and trying to find each other while hiding. This was what Luke, Resus, Cleo and I used to do whenever we played in nature, and now, it has been passed onto these pups that are my friends. “Luke, where are you?” I called. Mackenzie popped out from amongst the grass and made a face. “Cheeky!” I called, and I tried to pounce onto Mackenzie, but he ran off with Chloe and Honey. “Hey, wait up!” I called, and we raced over to the water play area, where Bluey and Mackenzie played Barky Boats once. “Luke, Resus, Cleo, this is how you play Barky Boats.” I introduced. “Barky Boats? I’ve never heard that game before.” said Mackenzie, even though it was clear his normal self knew how to play that game. “You take a piece of bark that is found by the water play area, place it into the water and watch it slide down to the pond!” I placed a barky boat into the water and we all put our hands and paws into the entrance which blocked the river. “That’s good,” I said as the water filled up. “Now…LET GO!” I shouted, and our barky boats came racing down the water towards the pond. We chased after it, squealing and laughing. Just as Mackenzie, Honey and Chloe reached the pond, I froze in my tracks. Another flashback.
In the forest, Luke, Resus, Cleo and I had taken off our shoes and socks (Cleo doesn’t wear shoes and socks) and were paddling in the river. It was a clear Summer day, a day for when no schools were open and everyone was free to do what they want. Luke dangled me over the river and let me splash and squeal myself, letting him get covered in water. He laughed so much! There were minnows in the water too, and they swam up to my toes and nibbled at them like little friendly piranhas. We’d sleep in the shade of the tree, glad we have each other. Muffled noises filled the air.
Those muffled noises happened to be Mackenzie, Honey and Chloe cheering and squealing over the barky boats sailing into the water. I raced up to them. “Sybil, you missed a big victory! Mine won!” cried Mackenzie, but then their moods changed. “Sybil? Are you okay?” I sighed. “Usually my siblings reassure me in these times, but without them, you’re no siblings. Just leave me to mope.” I turned and walked away up the hills. Mackenzie thought while Chloe comforted him. “It’s okay, Mackenzie, just do what Luke would normally do.” “Luke? But I don’t know how to be Luke! You two don’t even know how to be Resus and Cleo!” cried Mackenzie. “Just be yourself and let out your inner wolf.” Mackenzie realised his moment had come. He took a deep breathed, and howled to the sky.
In the distance, atop a hill, I heard Mackenzie’s howling and looked far off. Sure enough, I could picture Luke’s werewolf atop a cliff, a shadow in the burning sun, howling to the heavens. I raced to the wooden boat and leapt inside, howling along with my pictured wolf. After a while, I stopped howling and curled up in the boat, falling fast asleep. Cockatoos flew above me, triggered to fly by Mackenzie’s loud howling. They became blurry in my vision, and then, I closed my eyes.
When I opened my eyes again a few minutes later, Calypso was looking down at me, her friendly face and shining eyes a bit blurry at first, but when I got up, my vision was better now. “Calypso? What are you doing here?” “You’ve neglected your friends because they don’t know how to be Luke, Resus and Cleo.” she reassured. “I know,” I sobbed, “Every time I try to make anyone in this dog shelter act like my siblings they never know how to!” “Luke, Resus and Cleo can’t be with you for a while, but that’s okay,” said Calypso, “There’s still a second chance. Calypso turned and walked towards the large tunnel that Mackenzie once walked through, thinking it was a black hole. “Come with me!” she called. I ran after her, and then once I caught up with her I took her paw and approached the tunnel. There was a light at the end of it. It made me feel shy, I never went through that tunnel before. “Go on,” said Calypso gently, “Don’t be shy.”
I finally stiffened up and showed a brave face as I went into the darkness. I heard low, muffled voices chanting. The low voices were muffled so I couldn’t hear a word they’re saying. As I approached the light, I saw shadows. Familiar shadows. The shadows looked scary, but I had to hold onto myself. The low voices became higher and higher, until they sounded like…children. The chanting was more audible now, it was “Scream scream scream when you get to Scream Street!” As I emerged into the light, I saw Mackenzie, Honey and Chloe, all chanting that phrase together. “Chloe! Honey! Mackenzie!” I ran towards them and hugged them, tears in my eyes. “Oh my god, I knew you’d get an understanding of my friends from Scream Street!” I lifted my head to the sky and howled. The pups howled along with me too.
A little while later, we returned to the wooden boat to play Explorers again. As we were about to begin the game, something was flying in the wind. “Incoming!” called Chloe, and I jumped up to catch it. When I looked at it, it was something I could not believe. It was a photo of me, Luke, Resus and Cleo, smiling away, me holding Longears and Pink Teddy in my arms. Honey, Mackenzie and Chloe all approached me and looked closer at the photo. “Where did that photo come from?” asked Honey. I gulped and was silent. Then I spoke: “This photo is a memoir I can cherish forever. It’s not about where the memory comes from, it’s how it stays with you forever.”
When it was hometime, I saw Luke, Resus and Cleo waiting outside the school gates. “Luke! Resus! Cleo!” I cried, and I raced towards them. They raced towards me. And then they held me up and hugged me tight. “I missed you!” I shouted. “We missed you too, Sybil.” laughed Luke. “What have you been up to?” “I’ve been playing with Chloe, Honey and Mackenzie to pass the time while you were at the big school.” I looked over to Calypso talking with Chloe and her mother, Mackenzie telling his father about his day and Honey racing up to her parents to receive a bear hug. Mackenzie, from the distance, winked at me and gave me a thumbs up. I did the same thing back.
At home, Luke, Resus, Cleo and I lay on the grass in the garden and looked up at the clouds in the sky. In the background, Dig and Lulu were barking and hissing as they chased each other. I remembered when Calypso made me go through the tunnel, when I played Barky Boats with Chloe and her friends, and when we played in the long grass. “You know, it’s nice to have friends to play with at school,” I told my siblings, “But no matter how many times I make my friends you guys, you guys will always be the one Luke, the one Resus and the one Cleo I’ve always wanted in my entire life.” “Aaaawww,” my siblings sighed, and they all gave me a hug. I was crying as I hugged them. “I’ll always be your best sibling ever. I’ll never leave you, not even when I’m at school. Always remember me.”
THE END.
Thursday, 1 September 2022
When You Pretend To Be Lars Climbing On Top Of His Mother In The Little Polar Bear's The Egg...
Spirit Riding Free Birthday Party
Wednesday, 31 August 2022
Chuck E Cheese Halloween Boo-Tacular
https://kimberlygelin.com/chuck-e-cheese-halloween-boo-tacular/
Palm Springs Pool Party
Australian Aboriginal Dot Painting
Travel Sickness
Luke, Resus, Cleo and I were very excited. We were travelling to Australia to meet our Aunt Marie. Our family is coming along too. We love visiting Aunt Marie at her Queensland seaside home. She always spoils us, and it’s fun to take warm baths with lots of lavender bubble bath every day and spend time down on the beach. Australia is paradise to us, and we couldn’t wait to spend our holiday with our aunt. When the plane arrived at the airport, we got out, our legs all shaky from being in the plane a long time, but excited to find ourselves in an Australian airport.
Suddenly, we heard a familiar voice scream “Sybil!” “Aunt Marie!” we yelled back, as we ran towards the kindly young woman who looked just like my mum. However, our legs were all wobbly so we forced ourselves into Aunt Marie’s arms before we had a chance to fall. “Oh dear. Been on the plane for too long?” We nodded. “Well, once we get back to my house, you’ll have a nap just before dinner. How’s that?” We nodded again. “Don’t worry about our kids, they’re just sick after a long journey to Australia. We spent half the night trying to get to the airport, and who would’ve thought it’d be the middle of the night in England right now?” laughed Bella Negative.
We caught the Airport Express bus to Aunt Marie’s. Despite other people on board yakking away, we felt really sleepy. So sleepy that all the passengers on board had to be extra quiet, even the little kids that were on board, although some from England had fallen asleep anyway. Aunt Marie’s house was beautiful and clean, and it smelt wonderfully of vanilla and spiced apple. There were Aboriginal dot art pictures all along the walls, and once we looked into our cream-coloured bedroom, complete with the huge bed big and soft enough for all four of us, there was a huge Aboriginal dot art picture of a dingo, although it was hard to see it with our vision getting dizzier.
“This is my pride and joy,” said Aunt Marie, “Dingoes are my favourite animal. I was given that dingo picture as a thank you from the Australian Museum for distributing my beloved didgeridoo given to me by some friendly tribesmen in the outback.” All we gave were quiet sighs of “Wow,” and “Good.” “You’ll perk up once you wake from your nap. Now get changed into your pyjamas and snuggle down.” So we did, and our pyjamas were just as soft as the bed we clambered into. Crisp, snuggly sheets and soft, satin pillows made it very suitable for ultra-tired kids like us. “I love that dingo picture,” I groaned. “Me too,” replied Luke, “It reflects the true pride and wilderness of Australia.” “At least our holiday in Australia doesn’t require you to transform into a werewolf,” I replied. We giggled and groaned quietly. “Is it me or do I feel like there’s a machine inside my tummy, grinding up what we ate on the plane?” asked Resus. “Nonsense, Resus, it’s only…” began Cleo, but she began yawning. We yawned too, and soon, we were fast asleep. In our deepest of sleeps, we drifted into a dream.
In the dream, we ran out onto the beach for a day’s larking on the sand. Luke and Resus were dressed in their swimming trunks, I was dressed in my swimming cozzie, and Cleo didn’t wear anything - except her bandages. We splashed in the sea. It was all cold in the hot sun, and feeling my siblings splash the water against my skin made me squeal and scream in joy. We poured water all over ourselves and lay in the water to look up at the bright blue Australian sky. We sat on the shore and felt the water splash all over our legs as we squealed and laughed over such a new body of water. We rolled about in the sand like playful dogs, sometimes rolling down sandy hills and landing in a heap on the soft sand below. We jumped over tides as they washed out onto the beach. Luke, Resus, Cleo and I held each other’s hands and braced ourselves for the next big wave. “Ready?” “Ready?!” “3…2…1…WHEEEEEEEEE!!” We put suncream and zinc onto our skin, but in usual Aussie beach fashion, we fooled around and had fun. I sprayed suncream on Luke’s soft tummy and drew a smiley face on it. Luke then sprayed me all over with the stuff and slowly rubbed my arms, face and forehead. We did the same to Resus, though he found that suncream tickled when applied to his sensitive, pale skin. Cleo was sunbathing on a beach towel under a red-and-yellow parasol, so the boys and I decided to spray a smiley face using the suncream. When Cleo awoke she felt a creamy feeling on her back, and decided to rub it all in.
Luke, Resus, Cleo and I were sleeping in the sunshine when I heard a barking noise from far off. I looked closer, and saw a dingo carrying a huge bone down to the beach. I crawled slowly up to the dingo and reached out for his huge bone. The dingo growled at me, and I shrank back in fear. I remembered what Hiccup did with Toothless when he first met him, and I slowly reached my hand out to the dingo. I stroked his muzzle, then patted and stroked his head, then I stroked the rest of his fur coat. It was as soft and sandy as an entire desert. I cuddled the dingo, its ears rotating round as I scratched his ears. When Luke, Resus and Cleo saw the dingo they approached it and started fussing over it too. Later, we were playing fetch with the dingo using its bone, just like how we played fetch with Dig at home.
I opened my eyes and looked around. I was in our bedroom again, but it was just a dream. Everything was rather blurry when I felt this tired, so I closed my eyes and fell asleep again. This lead into another dream again. A really Aussie dream. Luke, Resus, Cleo and I were wandering through the Australian outback under a sky that was painted like real Aboriginal dot art. We felt free in the wild surroundings of the outback, shining in the light of the painted sky. We heard muffled barking from the distance, and saw a plain part of the sky. Using my fingers. I made a few little white dots in the sky, as if we could control it. Cleo used her hand to create a yellow, furry body. Luke created eyes, nose and a mouth. Resus added all the little details. We had made an Aboriginal dot art dingo, just like the one in the picture. With one bark, the huge dingo burst and millions of dingoes ran out, barking and running with the wind. We ran with the dingoes, squealing and laughing, until we reached a gaggle of huge orange rocks. The dingoes began to howl at the painted sky, and we howled too, Luke’s howl being the loudest because he is a werewolf.
We were still howling softly when we woke up and got out of bed. We smelt a delicious smell coming from the dining room. We followed the smell, and saw that the rest of our family were sitting at the table eating fish fingers and chips. “Ah, you’re just in time for dinner. Sit down, sit down,” laughed Aunt Marie. But as we sat down, we only took a few bites. Our tummies were churning like milk inside a cow being turned into cheese. The fish fingers and chips looked and tasted delicious as always, but we were turning green. “It’s not like Luke to go off his food,” said Mr Watson. “I agree, it must be all that tiredness from travelling far from the UK.” We felt ourselves turning green. “So you don’t like your dinner?” asked Mrs Watson. “No, we feel…” I groaned. “I feel queasy.” said Resus. “Me too,” said Cleo. “I think we’re going to-” began Luke. As if a volcano had just erupted in our bodies, we began to upchuck all over our dinner. Everyone began to gross out and complain, but my mum and Aunt Marie calmed everyone down. “It’s okay, everyone, it’s just a small case of travel sickness.” “Travel sickness?” we groaned. “What’s travel sickness?” asked Niles. “It’s when you don’t feel right after an international flight.” “I think they need a little lie down.” said Mum, and she took me in her arms while Luke, Resus and Cleo followed us, stumbling back to our bedroom.
Aunt Marie tucked us up into bed and wiped our vomit covered mouths with a wet wipe. “You guys are feeling really hot,” said Aunt Marie. “We sure are,” groaned Cleo. “You feel really hot too,” continued Aunt Marie, “I used to use this when I feel sick.” Aunt Marie brought out a huge bell and placed it on our bedside table. “Anything you want, just ring this bell and I’ll bring it to you.” “Like room service,” sighed Resus. “Now, there is a rule in this house, if you feel sick, there’s no computer games, no TV and no getting out of bed.” announced Aunt Marie. “I’m sure you’ll feel better when morning arrives.” She and mum left us falling slowly to sleep in our room. “About the dingo picture…” I began, “I think…er…it’s…maybe it’s…” but then I yawned and fell asleep with my siblings.
We had yet another dream. We were back on the beach. Cleo was relaxing in the shade of our parasol, while Luke, Resus and I were building sandcastles. It was quite tranquil, building sandcastles on the beach. Suddenly, we heard a bark, and looked around to see the dingo walking away from the beach. A small tear came into my eye, and Resus comforted me. Later, Luke and Resus fell asleep in the warm sunshine. I lay on the beach and looked at the plain bit of sand. I used my finger to draw a dingo in the sand. I whistled out an ancient pan flute tune as I drew. I drew lots of little dots around the dingo, making sure it matched Aunt Marie’s picture. When Luke, Resus and Cleo awoke, we went for a paddle in the sea, splashing each other and kicking up the water, feeling it splash against our legs. However, as it splashed over the beach, it washed my dingo picture away, as if the spirit of the picture became the spirit of the sea.
Later, Luke, Resus, Cleo and I rested under a jacaranda tree, snug and safe next to each other. The echoing musical vocals of ‘Un Vals’ became the background music for our dream. “Shall we sing, Sybil?” asked Cleo softly. “Sing? Wow…what about?” I asked. “Well, a dingo of course.” said Resus. “I suppose it can’t hurt to try,” I said. “Here goes…”
“Oh dingo, where are you…
Oh dingo, where oh where, can I meet you?
Oh dingo, always watch over us…
Oh dingo, please make our holiday blissful..
As blissful as the sun sets on our rough first day…”
And as we slept, the sun set over the Queensland sea, displaying a ray of light in our cosy little holiday bedroom.
THE END.