They Click As They Jiggle Together

Oh hi! says Ying sweetly. We found you at last.

Hi, says Surfing-With-Whales.

Where're the others? asks Stew. They've got our back packs. You had lunch yet?

Yeah, we had lunch already, says Surfing-With-Whales. The others'll be back shortly. You've got time to get lunch.

Can't, says Stew. Lunch is in our backpacks. Along with our money.

Sit down. Chill out, says Surfing-With-Whales.

Stew and Ying sit down on the bench beside him.

What took you so long? asks Surfing-With-Whales, deftly changing the subject from money.

We went to Fossil Bluff first, says Ying. We thought you guys would be down there.

Yeah, why? asks Surfing-With-Whales.

The GeoTrail? says Stew. Fossils? Natural History? Regional Science? Our team project?

Uh? says Surfing-With-Whales. Fossils? Find any? Bet you didn't. Mum and me, we used to go looking for fossils, never found any.

Where do you live? asks Ying.

Adelaide, says Surfing-With-Whales.

There would be fossils there, says Ying.

No, there wouldn't, says Surfing-With-Whales.

He is an expert at not finding fossils.

I found this though, says Ying, holding out the peach stone.

That's a peach stone, says Surfing-With-Whales.

I know, says Ying. I won't show it to Gaius.

You should. Bet he thinks it's a fossil, says Surfing-With-Whales.

Oh come on! says Stew.

Gaius appears in the distance.

Gaius gets closer.

He's here.

Would you believe it , says Gaius. They don't sell cheese at the cheese factory.

They wouldn't, says Stew. What you wanna go there for anyway? They just make pleb cheese.

Pleb cheese, laughs Gaius. Ha ha, you have tickled my funny bone.

Show him the fossil, says Surfing-With-Whales.

You found a fossil? says Gaius. Is it by any chance from the ancient marsupial Wynyardii Bassiana?

It could be, says Surfing-With-Whales.

Ying takes the peach stone from her pocket. It's in two parts. It clicks as she jiggles them together.

Click click. The sound two stones make.

A petrified scat! says Gaius. Well done, Ying.

Look again. It's a peach stone, says Stew.

No no! says Gaius. That is just what it LOOKS LIKE.