Book 3: Chapter 2 - Home To Begin New Adventures

 

Dovic and his companions found out that today would be their last day at school. They had enjoyed their brief visit but now that the students had heard the Adventures of Dovic; Book 1 and 2, and had requested Book 3 be written, it was time they had some new adventures. Dovic, Lulu, Ronnie and Tumbarumba sat eating their fruit and talked about how much fun they had had being in this new classroom. They were looking forward to getting home and seeing the rest of their clan and began making plans for what they would do together.  As they talked, Lulu managed to get banana in her hair and on her dress. She was a little bit embarrassed and quickly brushed the food off herself and on to the floor, hoping no one would notice. Tumbarumba wondered why Dovic got to eat jelly and Dovic showed him the pieces of fruit in it. It was delicious.

The students gathered up their notebooks and pencils and after they found a couple of trundle wheels, they went out to the oval. They were designing their own farms and to help them understand about length, area and perimeter, they went outside to measure other areas of the school. They estimated and measured, walked around the perimeter of the oval, and counted how many steps it was from one end of the goat pen to the other.

The Hibiscus 4 went out to help them and although Ronnie went out to help, he got distracted. He climbed a tree and persuaded Dovic to come with him. Ronnie did a handstand on one of the branches and Dovic jumped up on to a lower branch. He looked up at Ronnie and around at the students measuring and decided they should really get back down again. He called out to Ronnie to come down and waited for him.

Ronnie heard Dovic but climbed up to an even higher branch. He looked down and could see Dovic looking up at him, he looked up and could see branches reaching to the sky and he looked out across the oval and saw Lulu and Tumba helping the students. He did a handstand to show off and tried getting a grip on the bark pieces so he could climb up even higher. His hand slipped and he could not go higher. He tried reaching around with his other hand and his foot slipped. He grinned because he loved having an adventure and he felt like this was taking an exciting risk. He looked down and could see Dovic looking worried, so he gave up and started climbing down. As he reached out to the next branch, he froze in fear. He could not look down and instead, he moved closer to the trunk of the tree and put his face against the bark. He inadvertently gave out a little whimper. Dovic saw he was stuck and called out to get some help. Patrick came quickly. He climbed up the tree and helped Ronnie get down.
After that adventure, the rest of the students took them in their arms and taught them how to measure.

Meanwhile, back at Hibiscus’ house, the other members of the clan were bored. They tried playing with Lego, tried reading a book and sat around wondering what to do next. Richo suggested they go outside and play in the backyard and Ellie reminded him that with all the rain, it was much too wet to go outside. Harley said they could use the gumboot as a boat and float from the back porch to the back fence but Flippy reminded him they didn’t have any life jackets. Bruiser tried to help Richo find his football and gave up after only five minutes. The Old Wise One and Ellie climbed up and sat on the top of the couch, looking outside at the cars that went past. They saw a magpie hit the window and when it flew off again unharmed, they sighed with relief.

Suddenly, Ellie let out a squeal of delight. “They’re here!” she exclaimed, “They’re home!” and they all ran to the door. Once inside, after all the hugging was done, they sat down and Dovic, Tumba, Ronnie and Lulu told them of all the things they had seen and done at school. Ellie sat close to Lulu and when Ronnie heard that Flippy had done somersaults off the bike, he bragged about how high he had climbed the tree. The Old Wise One listened to all their chatter and it made him glad to see all the friends being happy together. He closed his eyes contentedly and fell asleep.