Game Play. Hazel Edwards

felt steamy -- a tropical smell mixed with hot tarmac.

      Going down the steps, Amy looked up at the dense, green mountains surrounding the airfield. Their pilot must have been skilful to get into here. Now a Boeing 747 was taking off, at a very steep angle to get across the mountains.

      ‘Our plane hasn’t got an aerobridge,’ noticed Christopher as they walked across the tarmac and under the covered walkway. Aerobridges linked other planes with Air Niugini, Japan Airlines and Singapore Airlines signs. Aerobridges were like people vacuum cleaners, the planes plugged into the tube and all the people were vacuumed out.

      A breeze rustled, bushes moved and palm trees swayed. Little vehicles buzzed around. All the airport vehicles had flashing yellow lights. Even the ride-on mower.

      Look!’ Amy pointed to the yellow wheelie bin stuffed with giant striped umbrellas. ‘Are they free?’

      ‘People use them when it’s raining. They drop them in another bin at the other end of the walkway,’ explained the attendant.

      ‘Cool,’ said Christopher. But it wasn’t. The weather was muggy.

      Camouflaged in green and brown, an army helicopter buzzed on the tarmac like an agitated insect. Soldiers ducked under the revolving blades. On a far runway, the FLYING DOCTOR’s small plane was landing. Amy wondered where the emergency had been as an ambulance bumped slowly towards the plane.

      ‘It might rain again soon,’ said the attendant.

      ‘Ace. We’ll use an umbrella.’ Amy grabbed one. She twirled it like a shield. The rainbow stripes blurred. Christopher grabbed an umbrella, too. He opened his with a ‘click!’

      ‘On guard!’ He challenged Amy.

      They acted out a duel....Umbrellas at three paces.

      ‘Hey!’ called the attendant. ‘Back here please.’

      Track-suited as well as casually dressed passengers walked past, staring at the children. Just then, Amy’s open umbrella fell. It rolled on its side. With a sudden gust of wind behind, it gathered speed. The umbrella blew across the tarmac. It danced across unevenly on its points, in the direction of the helicopter.

      ‘Catch it Christopher!’ Amy shouted.

      But Christopher made a mistake. Somehow, he let go of his own umbrella. That took off, too. The sudden wind was strong.

      Mine employees were walking in from the smaller Flight West

      Airline plane which serviced their Red Dome gold mine. Obedient passengers following the covered way to their waiting planes ducked as the open rainbow umbrellas rolled in between as if navigated by radar.

      Mr Muscles sidestepped one umbrella. He nearly dropped his rolled newspaper. But he made a sudden save and caught the paper. It hadn’t even unrolled.

      ‘Stop them!’ Amy yelled.

      Amy started to run. So did Christopher.

      The first umbrella curved. It wobbled and fell sideways. The stick stuck upwards. It rocked from side to side. But the second one kept rolling. Christopher sprinted. He made a lunge for the umbrella. He missed. His knee skinned as he contacted the ground. ‘Ow!’

      Just then, a team in navy tracksuits came down the steps of the twins’ plane. The first man saw the rainbow umbrella rolling towards them.

      Amy called, ‘Catch that umbrella.’

      So the teamwork started. The first man dived for the umbrella handle and passed it to the second. The second man put it upright, flicked the button and closed it. ‘A point to our team?’ he laughed. The third team member chased, flicked and brought back the second umbrella. He was so fit he wasn’t even panting when he said, ‘Yours?’

      Amy smiled but she was really embarrassed. Christopher didn’t mind so much. He was thinking of how he could draw the scene and which colours he’d use. On the back of each of the team track suits was printed sponsors’ messages. In red, green and yellow colours.

      USE X BRAND PAINT.

      YYY MINING COMPANY.

      DRINK MILK.

      Only the first man had a plain navy track suit. It was slightly paler. Why was his different? Had something washed off?

      ‘Thanks.’ Christopher pointed. ‘How come his track suit is different? Is he the coach or manager or something?’

      The man looked quickly at the backs of the other track suits and then at the first man. ‘Er ... perhaps his track suit came from a different batch.’

      ‘Don’t you all come from the same place?’

      ‘Er, most do. But there have been a few new ones added to the team from other clubs. Two joined us at Singapore Airport. So we don’t all know each other.’

      Christopher thought about that as they quickly returned the umbrellas to the bin. The army helicopter had taken off, dipping like a khaki dragonfly.

      ‘Umbrella chasing is more interesting training than running around the oval,’ agreed the players.

      Carrying their hand luggage, the twins went inside the airport building. Freshly painted signs were in Japanese as well as English. A giant mural of fish decorated a seagreeny-blue wall which merged into a greeny-blue carpet. Near the mural, giant tropic plants of different greens filled the floor to ceiling windows. If there hadn’t been so many passengers noisily fussing with their belongings, the twins could have imagined that they were in a tropical rain forest.

      Just inside, unexpectedly they found a person they knew. And it wasn’t Aunty Viv!