New Necklace New Leg

Gaius has hired a bike from Pop On, and is cycling to Roque Nublo.

He is half way there when he realises....

He has brought no one with him.

Why didn't he bring Arthur? Failing Arthur, why not Kong?

It will be highly inconvenient to have to do everything. Make notes, scrabble about in dark places for endemic loxosceles, mend punctures....

Psshhhh!

......

We ought to get going, says Ying. I know you guys need to get home soon.

Let's go then, says Arthur.

What about Gaius? says Ying.

I'll wait here for Gaius, says Kong. You go and catch the ferry.

Okay, says Ying. Terence, get ready.

I'm already ready, says Terence. Daniel O'Connell's not ready.

I am ready, says Daniel O'Connell.

He is. He has made two necklaces out of spent egg sacs, one for himself, one for Dedalus, his new baby.

Yeee! Dedalus is ready. He dances and jiggles his heirloom.

I can't help thinking, says Sweezus, stuffing his Timberlands into his back pack and sliding his feet into his Havaianas, that we had someone else with us.

Me? says the Pesquet.

Not you, says Sweezus. Shit. Baby Pierre!

No one knows where Baby Pierre is.

.......

Baby Pierre is back in Adelaide.

He just got fed up and left Gran Canaria.

Struck up conversations at the ferry terminal, and later the Santa Cruz airport. Again in Barcelona, and Dubai, he was offered the kindness of strangers.

Now he is cleaning his o-rings, and polishing his bike, for the Tour Down Under.

.........

Tenerife. The University de La Laguna.

Ying arrives at the door of the Eng and Tech lab, and whistles.

Diego looks up.

Guay! Until this moment, he has been feeling dejected, his PhD project going nowhere.

No, it's Ying, says Ying.

I know, says Diego. Guay means Cool! I'm glad to see you. Did you find any endemic loxosceles?

Probably not, says Ying. But we found this baby, and Daniel O'Connell adopted it.

She opens the Maja soap box. Diego looks in.

Meet Dedalus, says Ying.

One leg missing, says Diego. I've still got the micro lattice mould.

Guay! says Ying. But....will it be small enough?

No. He'll have to grow into it, says Diego.