The Interpretations

Some time has elapsed.

Arthur and Shu have entered the Interpretive Centre, collected a key, and are waiting at the gate to the Saint Kilda Mangrove Trail Boardwalk.

They have not read the Interpretations.

Barbs and Terence have followed five minutes later.

They have entered the Interpretive Centre, and...... bumhole! Now Barbs wants to read them.

How interesting! says Barbs, examining enlarged prints of what she will see in a minute. Salt glands! Aerial roots!

Come ON! says Terence.

Just a minute, says Barbs. Do you think Arthur will have a key?

YES! says Terence. But he'd get in anyway. He does what he wants to.

That's not how things work here, says Barbs.

I know, says Terence. I saw an invisible bird under a rock on the mudflats.

We saw you , says Barbs. But we saw the bird too.

I only said it was invisible.... says Terence.

We thought so, says Barbs.

Because, says Terence, it wasn't a parrot.

You won't see a parrot in here, says Barbs. But out on the boardwalk, there's a bird hide. You'll see some birds there.

So lets GO! says Terence.

They go.

Arthur and Shu are waiting at the gate with the key.

I'm in a hurry, says Terence.

He wants to get to the bird hide, says Barbs.

Arthur opens the gate and Terence runs past him. His cement feet clatter on the boardwalk. All living things fly away quickly, or dive.

What an amazing environment, says Barbs. See these stunted mangroves here. Do you know why they're stunted?

No, says Arthur. Why?

Salinity, says Barbs. And if you look under the leaves you'll see salt crystals have formed because there are salt glands in the leaves which.......

Arthur has walked off already, not wanting a lecture on salt glands.

Shu is playing with the dinner knife in his pocket.

Then he walks off too.

How rude and incurious they are. Barbs walks on, towards the open canopy. The trees are getting taller. She admires their aerial roots and the pneumatophores and lenticels through which oxygen enters.

She passes the bird hide. Terence is in there, with a man. The man looks like a Birder.

The man is saying: You'll be lucky to find a rock parrot down there.

Terence is leaning over a wooden ledge, looking into the water.

There! says Terence.

That's a fish, says the Birder. A sea mullet.

I thought this was a BIRD hide! says Terence.

You have to be quiet to spot a bird from a bird hide, says the Birder. Ssh!

Barbs edges silently into the bird hide.

Ssh! says Terence. There's a bird down there and we think it's a parrot.

It's a mullet, whispers the Birder.

Isn't a mullet a FISH? whispers Barb.

Yes, whispers the Birder.

Get me something! cries Terence. I want to catch it!

I haven't got anything, says Barb. And catching's probably not allowed anyway.

That's right, says the Birder. It's not. I'm Peter Graff by the way. Local Birder.

I'm Barbs, says Barbs. And this is.....

But Terence has clattered away to find Arthur.

He has remembered that Arthur has a Swiss Army knife in his pocket.