Chapter 4
Days passed by one after the other, and Ralph was still waking up at 4am. Yarrow and Edie needed a change. A change of plan and a change of scene. They grabbed some towels, grabbed their parents, and wandered down to their favourite swimming spot at the river. It was beautiful. The water was crystal clear and colourful birds flew between tall trees thick with rich green foliage.
As soon as they jumped into the refreshing water they felt better and the ideas started flowing.
“Does Ralph know how to count?” asked Yarrow. “If he can’t count, he can’t tell the time, so maybe we need to teach him.”
“Yes, or we could paint pictures of the sun and hang them up in his enclosure, to remind him to wait for the sun,” said Edie. Yarrow thought that was also a good idea, and immediately came up with some more, like teaching Ralph how to whisper, or teaching him how to hold his breath.
Edie thought the last idea was a bit crazy, but before she could say so, Yarrow’s head disappeared beneath the water and all anyone could see were little ripples on the surface. He stayed underwater for a long time.
After swimming and brainstorming for a little longer, the two tired children climbed up onto the smooth warm rocks to dry off. On the rocks, they were supposed to plan how they would try out all of their brilliant new ideas in the coming days, but something happened. Something not entirely unpleasant, and something not entirely unexpected; they fell asleep.
Mum and Dad had to piggy-back them all the way home.
Image: Arib Neko
kieranblakewriter 