Number One Is Away

Gaius, Elodie and Sprocket have finished their early dinner, at the Water's Edge Café.

They are back on the road.

Elodie: What's the next town?

Sprocket: Busselton.

Elodie: Maybe we should stop there. It might be too late to check in when we get to Lake Jasper.

Gaius: Nonsense. We shouldn't let that stop us.

Sprocket: There's a forest at Busselton. The world's only pure tuart forest.

Elodie: What's a pure tuart?

Gaius: Otherwise known as Eucalyptus gomphocephala.

Elodie: So, it's a gum tree.

Gaius: Indeed. A forest giant. All right, perhaps we've time for a quick look at the forest.

Sprocket (swerving): It'll be down this track here.

It is.

They enter the pure tuart forest.

Sprocket pulls up. They get out of the HiLux and enter a magical forest of giant tuarts, some linked together with ropes, creaking.

........

Baby Pierre is still travelling north.

He pulls a stoppie and looks up at the night sky.

The night sky beams down, with the moon in it.

He can't be too far from Lake Clifton.

He can hear the wind in the casuarinas.

Phooshee.....

........

Not far up the road, at Lake Clifton, Mouldy, First Dirty and Second Dirty are resigned to their fate.

It's hubris, says Mouldy. We'll probably turn into thrombolites and be here forever.

Thrombolites! says First Dirty. They don't know anything.

We could teach them, says Second Dirty.

Teach them what? asks Mouldy.

Lessons, says Second Dirty.

They try to think up some lessons.

Look after number one, says Mouldy. That's a lesson.

It's dark, but they venture onto the boardwalk.

They stop at the third thrombolite.

The one Gaius dropped the date ball onto (accidentally).

The third thrombolite was not expecting three visitors.

Bloop~~~?

Listen up, says Mouldy. We're here to teach you a lesson.

Bloop~~~we? what is the lesson?

Look after number one.

Bloop~~~ he is away~~~

Second Dirty. It doesn't get it.

Mouldy: You are!

Bloop~~~ wrong~~~we here are all~~~ number one is away~~~

Mouldy: It's hopeless!

Bloop~~~no he is coming~~~