“Wake up! Wake up!” squeaked Squirt, suddenly appearing in the treetop.
“Whoa, calm down, ya wallaby,” said Bro. “I’m already awake!”
“Dude’s not!” said Squirt, jumping up and down on Dude’s tummy and tugging his ears. “Wake up, Dude! Wake up!”
“Uh? What?” said Dude, finally beginning to stir.
“You were sleeping!” said Squirt.
“I was?” said Dude, stifling a yawn. “Oh, right, I was. I was having this really weird dream too.”
“Oh, yeah?” said Bro.
“Yeah,” said Dude. “Dreamt I was a trampoline.”
Bro was puzzled. “You mean, you were on a trampoline?”
“No,” said Dude. “I dreamt I was a trampoline.”
“That was me jumping up and down on your tummy!” said Squirt.
“Heh-heh-heh,” chuckled Bro.
Dude looked at Squirt. “What d’ya do that for?”
“To wake you up!” said Squirt. “We all fell asleep!”
Dude and Bro turned to each other and shrugged.
“What’s the problem?” said Bro.
“We weren’t supposed to!” said Squirt.
“We weren’t?” said Dude.
“They’ve all gone!” said Squirt, beginning to get more and more agitated.
Dude was beginning to get more and more puzzled. “Who’s gone?”
“Ma! Pa! Everyone!”
“Ohhhh!” said Bro. “You mean…”
Squirt nodded vigorously. “All the other koalas! We missed the truck to the big zoo! It’s nearly lunchtime!”
“Nearly lunchtime?” said Dude, suddenly perking up. “Excellent!”
“It’s not excellent!” said Squirt. “It’s… it’s… it’s… whatever the opposite of excellent is!”
“Unexcellent?” suggested Dude.
“Yes! Exactly. So what are we gonna do?” said Squirt, looking at his big brother.
Bro thought for a moment. But only a moment. “Chillax, Squirt. Let’s all just catch a few rays. Everything will be cool.”
“Chillax?” said Squirt, getting more and more agitated. “How am I supposed to chillax? We’ve missed the truck! We were supposed to be going to the big zoo! We’ve been left behind!”
“I totally hear what you’re saying, mini-dude,” said Dude, helping himself to a eucalyptus branch. “But d’ya reckon this can wait till after lunch?”
“No, it can not wait till after lunch!” squeaked Squirt. “We’ve got to do something! Now!”
“Do something?” said Bro, utterly horrified.
“Whoa,” said Dude.
“Are you serious?” said Bro.
“Of course I’m serious!” said Squirt. “Ma and Pa are going to be worried sick! And Ma’s having a baby, remember?”
“Aw, yeah,” said Dude. “The little feller’s right. Your ma’s having a joey any time now, Bro.”
“I know that!” snapped Bro.
“I know you know that, Bro,” said Dude. “I was just saying…”
“Well, don’t, Dude,” said Bro.
“Stop arguing, you two!” said Squirt, acting more like a big brother than a little one.
“Yeah, Dude,” said Bro. “Stop arguing.”
“No, you stop arguing, Bro,” said Dude.
“No, you stop arguing, Dude,” said Bro.
“BOTH OF YOU STOP ARGUING!” yelled Squirt.
“Cool,” said Dude and Bro, together.
Squirt sighed and gave himself 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