a scratch. Scratching was good. Not only did it feel nice, but it also helped Squirt to think. And boy, did Squirt need to think!
By now the sun had risen even higher in the cloudless blue sky. Below, visitors were beginning to tuck into picnics, seemingly unconcerned by the lack of koalas. Luckily, there was much more to The Acacia Koala Sanctuary than just koalas. There were kangaroos and wallabies, platypus and wombats, dingoes, snakes, crocodiles, Tasmanian devils – and not forgetting some extremely noisy birds!
“SQUAWK! SQUAWK! SQUAWK!” went the sulphur-crested cockatoo.
“Put a sock in it, beaky!” cried Bro.
“Yeah, some of us are trying to sleep here,” said Dude.
Squirt glared at Dude.
“Not me, obviously,” said Dude quickly.
“SQUAWK!” went the sulphur-crested cockatoo again, clearly getting very excited about something it had seen.
Squirt looked down and straightaway saw what it was. The buggy was on its way. The buggy full of food.
“It’s the keeper!” said Squirt excitedly.
“So?” said Bro.
“We should turn ourselves in!” said Squirt.
“What?” said Bro.
“We have to go down there,” said Squirt, disappearing. “Let him see we’re still here.”
“The little feller’s right, Bro,” said Dude, getting up and following. “Think about your ma and pa. Think about the joey.”
Bro sighed. “All right, all right. I’m coming.”
By the time they all reached the ground, the buggy had stopped in order for the keeper to feed the Tasmanian devil. And it looked like the keeper had a helper.
“Can I drive the buggy, Dad?” said a young girl. “Can I, can I, can I?”
“Not now,” said the keeper. “We’ve got work to do.”
“Pleeeeeeeeease?” pleaded the girl. “You said it’s so easy a koala could do it!”
“Did I really say that?” laughed the keeper.
“Yes!” said the girl. “Press green to go and red to stop, right?”
“That’s right. But not now!” said the keeper, grabbing a bucket from the back of the buggy and heading towards an enclosure. “Now, are you going to help me feed these tazzies, or not?”
“OK, OK,” said the girl, trudging slowly after her dad.
“Let’s go!” said Squirt, scurrying towards the buggy.
Dude and Bro looked at each other for a second before scurrying after him. By the time the keeper and his daughter returned, all three were seated in the back.
“Well, well, well,” said the keeper. “What have we got here?”
“Koala bears?” said the girl, sounding surprised.
“We’re not bears!” hissed Bro under his breath.
“Shhhh!” said Squirt.
“But I thought they’d all gone, Dad?” said the girl.
“So did I,” said the keeper. “Lazy little critters must’ve slept through their transfer!”
“Aw, they’re so cute!” said the girl. “Looks like they’re trying to hitch a lift!”
“Well, they can’t get a lift in this thing!” said the keeper.
The girl looked disappointed. “Aw, Dad. Why not? It’ll be fun!”
“You can’t drive a little buggy like this across town!” said the keeper, clapping his hands. “Be far too dangerous! Come on, fellers! Out you get now!”
Dude, Bro and Squirt climbed reluctantly out of the buggy again.
“Bye bye, bears!” called the girl as she and her father climbed back into the buggy and drove off.
“We’re not bears!” hissed Bro, glaring after them. “We’re koalas!”
“You tell ’em, mate,” said Dude.
“How would they like it if we called them human bears?” said Bro.
“Heh-heh-heh,” chuckled Dude. “Human bears. That’s funny, Bro.”
Squirt glared at Dude until he stopped chuckling.
“Sorry, mini-dude,” said Dude, sheepishly.
But Squirt said nothing. He was too busy thinking. If they weren’t going to get a lift to the big zoo in the buggy, how were they going to get there?
But Squirt wasn’t bothered about any of that. All Squirt was bothered about was where the big zoo was. And how they were going to get there. He knew that it was somewhere on the other side of the city. But how far? And which way?
Squirt gave himself an extra good scratch and suddenly had an idea. If he climbed even higher he might get a better view.
Squirt began scrambling up the tree. As he climbed higher and higher, the branches gradually got thinner and thinner and bendier and bendier. He’d never been this high before. But still Squirt kept on climbing and climbing – only stopping when he got to the very top of the tree. Then, clinging more tightly to a branch than he’d ever clung before, he peered into the distance.
The city was truly enormous! Squirt knew it was big – but he didn’t know it was quite that big! Buildings rocketed into the air as far as the eye could see. Beyond the buildings Squirt could see green hills. And, in a gap between the hills, Squirt could just make out a splash of blue. The ocean! It had to be the ocean! Squirt had never seen the ocean before, but his mum and dad had told him about it. They’d never seen the ocean before either. But their mas and pas had. Because Squirt’s ma and pa’s mas and pas had once lived in the forests. The forests beyond the city. Somewhere out there, in the big, wide world.
Squirt
