Rules Are Broken in the Middle of the Night

 The night was filled with the sounds of strong winds, shed doors opening and shutting, buckets flying across the back porch and the house creaked as though it wanted to fly away. Hibiscus found it hard to sleep as she was reminded of when she had survived Cyclone Debbie. They had lost power for two weeks, had no tap water for five days and could not leave the house for 3 days. It had been very scary. Her husband got up to check what was going on and reassured her that it wasn’t as bad as it sounded. She finally fell asleep, looking forward to the fun day activities for school tomorrow.

As she slept, Grug got out of the box that he’d been in for more than a year and decided to look for his home. Grug had begun his life at the top of a Burrawang tree that had fallen to the ground. When he was given to Hibiscus, she thought he looked quirky and fun. She read the books written about him and learned that he liked solving every day problems and was fascinated by the world around him. He had even been to school when no one else was there. When she had moved to a new house, she didn’t unpack all the boxes and Grug had remained in a box with an octopus, games and hats for the last twelve months. Earlier that day, Hibiscus had gone looking for a hat and found him again. As they were all in lock-down, she had left him there so that he could be safe and sound.

Grug wandered through the dark house looking for his home on a green hill. He passed Milly sleeping on her mat near the back door and she opened an eye, looked at him, then went back to sleep. Suddenly he bumped into someone else walking through the night and heard, “Grug!!!” He stepped back and looked at Ronnie. They both said, “What are you doing here? It’s been so long!” at the same time. Grug explained he was looking for his home and Ronnie said he was breaking free from iso and trying to find an adventure in the dark. He explained what iso was and that they weren’t allowed to see anyone for about a week, except Hibiscus and their one friend. “Bruiser wanted to stay asleep. I woke him up, but he told me to go away,” explained Ronnie.

Grug looked sad at first but then cheered up when Ronnie told him he’d help him find his home. They walked past the kitchen where the lemon tart was and Ronnie had to try a slice. The lemons used were the same ones Dovic and Gazza had picked on Gazza’s birthday. It was delicious but Grug wanted to go home. They found his home and they played with the race cars for a while until Grug yawned. “I’d better go” said Ronnie hesitantly, and Grug fell asleep standing on the top of his hill.

On the way back to his room, Ronnie noticed the Lego in the corner. He decided he’d play with it and began to build. The wind was still loud and strong but he concentrated on the pieces and what he was making. When he thought he heard Hibiscus, he dived into the Lego bucket and stayed very still. He did not want her to find him breaking the rules. He waited and waited until finally, he fell asleep.

The next morning Hibiscus, Dovic and Gazza headed to school on zoom. The day had been set aside for fun activities and Hibiscus had two periods of different students writing stories and learning about Flash Fiction. Their challenge was to write a story using only 50 words. Although there were other students, Hibiscus was happy to see seven of her students come. During one period, she got to help out at the Escape room with Miss Emma and she heard about students learning to make lemon cheesecake while other students were doing colouring in sheets and some were doing Karaoke. It was a fun day for everyone.

After school, Dovic opened the letter addressed to him. It was from Timy, who belonged to one of the boys in Hibiscus’ class. Dovic opened his eyes wide when he looked at the picture of Timy. “Wow!” he exclaimed, and Gazza said, “Oh boy, oh boy. He’s so good at drawing!” and they read the letter carefully. 

Just then, Hibiscus came in and laughed. She was standing in the corner and reached down and pulled Ronnie out of the Lego box. Pieces of Lego dropped off him and scattered around the bucket and she even found one that had got tucked up in his shirt. Ronnie groggily opened his eyes and when he saw Hibiscus, his face fell. “I’m sorry. I didn’t… I wasn’t… I just wanted to… um… where is Grug?” and when he was wide awake, he told Hibiscus the whole story. She frowned at him and told him there would have to be consequences for doing the wrong thing and he nodded his head and replied he understood. She took him back to Bruiser who promptly scolded him for leaving him alone for the day. “I’ve been so bored! Where have you been? That’s not fair” and would have turned his back on him except he had really wanted someone to play with so forgave him straight away.

Dovic asked Hibiscus, “How much longer will we be in lock-down? Is Ronnie in big trouble now? What will happen?” Hibiscus smiled and said, “We’ll see” and played a game of Racing Car Drop with them. They measured how far the cars went across the floor and each of them won the distance race.