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Chapter three
They reached Apanie's truck, parked just outside Jason's food van.
"It’s a bit of a tin can, but it's got wheels. It'll take us as far as the lagoon," spoke
Apanie.
"I'm game if you are."
Apanie beamed at him, squinting in the midday sun. Without hesitation, she
strode towards the truck, swung open the door and settled herself in the driver's
seat. Jason hopped in the passenger's seat.
For the first few kilometres, they drove in comfortable silence. The girl with the
fire in her belly, gripping the steering wheel, knuckles white, a look of
determination on her face.
Driving along the dusty road, Apanie suddenly yelled.
"Look, look, emu!"
She slammed on the brakes. He could barely make out the blurry figure. They
got out of the beat up red Holden, and slowly walked over to where an emu was
looking desolately at what looked like a dried up water hole. As they got closer,
Apanie started muttering. "But, it doesn't look like an emu, it is bigger, has two
toes and big eyes. "
That made Jason exclaim, "that’s not an emu, that's an ostrich!"
"That would make sense, " agreed Apanie,"but how did it get here, in
Australia?"
Jason shrugged his shoulders.
"he looks thirsty though, lets take him with us."
“Sure." Apanie ran over to a patch of grass, uprooted it, and used it to lure the
ostrich in to the Holden's tray. They padded the tray with fuzzy pillows so that
the Ostrich was comfy, and then they continued on their way along the dusty
road. They travelled in silence until finally Apanie said, “I think he needs a
name.”
Jason pondered this.
“Ed,” he said confidently.
“Why?” Apanie enquired.
“He just looks like an Ed.”
They looked at one another in agreement, and Ed himself gave a squawk of
satisfaction.
Silence, once again, settled upon the truck.
The boy, the girl and the bird, a motley crew of companions making their way
across the desert.
A couple of hours later, they stopped to turn in for the night. Lying in the tray
of the truck, faces to the sky, their eyelids grew heavy as they felt the cool night