New Year present?’ Amy guessed.
‘No, it’s a fruitcake. Mum sent it to my host family but they don’t eat fruitcake. Anyway I forgot to give it to them.’
‘The attendant interrupted. ‘Should you be on my list? Are you two travelling alone too?’
‘Yes,’ said Amy quickly. ‘But we’re fine. We do it all the time. The airline knows about us.’
Beforehand, Mum and Dad always planned every travel detail. Tickets. Passports, currency, departure and arrival times, bags, labels.
And how to say ‘I’m lost and I’m staying at .........’ in the local language. Luckily, this time, the twins were flying home to Australia , so language wasn’t a problem.
Today their parents had left them with the airport staff and then hurried to work. They were taking special photographs of VIPs having breakfast with the orang-utan at Singapore’s Zoological Gardens.
‘Are you sure you’ll be all right? Aunty Viv will meet you in Sydney. I told her the arrival time and the flight number.’
‘We’ll be okay. Say hi to the orang-utan for us.’ They kissed goodbye.
Although a staff member was always nearby, Amy and Christopher liked to look after themselves.
‘Woof, woof. Do you bite?’ said the UM looking at the sign above Amy ‘s head.
She looked up too.
‘Very funny,’ said Amy in a voice which meant the opposite. What a dag!
Above her was the DRUG DETECTOR DOG sign. Underneath it said DO NOT PET OR BITE.
‘Where are your parents?’ asked the UM.
‘Working in Singapore this week.’
Because they were eco-photographers , Mum and Dad wrote about and photographed wild life or threatened places. Often the twins flew to meet them at the airport closest to their work.
‘My parents are at home. I won a trip to a school maths competition in Singapore and I came second. Yesterday my host family took me to Bird Park Jurong, Sentosa Island and the Haw Par Village. It used to be called the Tiger Balm Gardens . I nearly got lost there. ‘
‘Hey! Wild! Isn’t that their latest song? ‘
Music trickled through the sound system but the UM kept talking.
‘Have you ever been lost? ‘
Amy nodded but the UM took no notice. He put the red parcel on the seat and just kept talking.
‘They thought I was lost last term. I was sick at school . When I told Mrs Hill my teacher, they put me in the sickbay. I fell asleep. At home time I was still asleep and the teacher forgot about me. They went home.’
‘Was this in Singapore or home in Australia?’ Christopher wasn’t listening properly.
‘In Australia of course. At St Micheals. When Mrs Hill remembered, it was 9 o’clock and my Mum and Dad thought I’d been kidnapped. A policeman searched the school for clues and found me. I woke up when he shone a torch in my face.’
‘Why would anyone want to kidnap you?’ Kidnappers would have to listen to Motor Mouth all day!
‘ Dad works for DRUGS INTERNATIONAL, an international drug company. Legal drugs. But some protest groups are making things hard for him.’ The UM stopped for a breath .’ ... and something important has been lost ...’
‘Oh ... see you later.’ Christopher pulled his sister away.
‘Can’t I come with you? My name’s Winston.’
‘No, you’re to stay with me,’ said the attendant firmly. ‘Look you’ve left your package behind.’ She handed him the red parcel with a fixed polite smile. Airline people were ALWAYS polite, even with nerds like Winston.
‘See you Winston. Got a few things to check out.’
‘Seems like a dag,’ Amy commented to her brother as they hurried away.
‘Oh, he’s all right. Just trying to impress us because there’s one of him and two of us. Probably made up that lost stuff.’
‘D’you reckon?’
‘Anyway he gave me an idea about that e-disc. Let’s find a music shop. They should have it!’
At the music shop there was a clue to the mystery package.
‘That background music! On the speakers!’
‘Of course!’ Excitedly Amy pointed to a display pile of pop music. ‘There’s a link! ‘ “The Slipper Orchids” are a pop group!’
Christopher wasn’t convinced.’ That might just be coincidence.’
‘Orchids are Singapore’s national flower. Lots of things are linked with orchids.’
So with her Gran’s red wrapped ‘good luck’ money, Amy bought a copy of Slipper Orchids’ tape. Christopher bought re-chargeable batteries. And spares..
Then she slipped it into her audio-I and flipped PLAY. ‘ Wild’ was the latest song by this Singapore pop group. Amy tried to work out the lyrics. Mostly it was ‘wild, wild, wild.’
‘That’s not much of a secret message!’ She listened a second time with her headphones.
After sorting his cam, Christopher pulled out the map and studied it. At the news stand, Amy glanced at the ‘Straits Times’. The heading ‘Wild Slippers’ caught her attention. That message which the mysterious stranger had whispered to her was popping up everywhere!
Wild Slippers
An orchid smuggler received a six months jail sentence for trading in wild-collected slipper orchids ... illegal possession of plants which had been wild-collected in Southern China. A total of 2269 specimens were found in his apartment.
Could this have anything to do with the package? Was the mysterious man an orchid smuggler? What was the connection?
‘Wonder how pop groups choose the names for their songs?’ said Christopher but Amy’s thoughts rushed on.
‘And what has it got to do with me? Why did he give it to me? She took out the e-disc again. The answer must be hidden inside somewhere.
Meanwhile, Christopher examined the map of Australian parks. That wasn’t unusual. Lots of people bought maps and marked where they were going to visit. But Christopher was suspicious.
‘Why have they marked all these parks? Look.’
Amy stared as Christopher pointed.
‘They’ve put crosses on here and here.’
‘Maybe
