Joey Goes on a Walk-about

The challenge: Where reality and fantasy intersect … an over-caffeinated kangaroo … must top the space-time continuum

Joey didn’t know his mom, Jill, had been eating berries from a strange new plant.  What he did know was that he felt incredibly jacked up!  Every nerve in his wee body was thrumming and he could not be still.  Jill was also a bit jittery but Joey’s endless motion rolling over and over in her pouch drove her to sheer exhaustion.  Seeking a bit of rest, Jill went to the nearby small stream, had a drink of its cool water and lay in the shade of a nearby kurrajong tree. With the sweet shade and quiet Jill promptly dozed off, but Joey didn’t.


After his mom fell asleep, Joey peered out from the top her pouch and bounded towards freedom.  Leaping towards the forest edge Joey was startled by an incredibly loud laughing jackass – the kookaburra seemed to be taunting him.  “I dare you to go further” said the kook.  Joey paused for only a moment, replied, “What do you know about anything?”  “More than you do young one.  So far, you’ve only seen the world from your mother’s pouch.  You have no idea what awaits you now.  Soon you will see and experience things that will make you shudder and run back to mama faster than you can say, ‘lickity-split!’”  “Bah!” said Joey, “so you say.”


The curious little Joey bounded off towards an enticing shimmering shape he spied just at the edge of the forest and field beyond.  Before he knew what happened he had landed inside the shape!  Suddenly, everything changed.  The many colors of the stream, grasses, trees and shrubs blended together first moving together and then apart, and again, crashing against themselves.  The sounds of the birds and the stream changed too.  Instead of sounding pleasant and relaxing as he thought it should. the noise became a cacophony of sound!  Joey was more frightened than he had ever been in his short life.  Frantically, he leaped hither and yon, trying to escape the noise and ever-changing kaleidoscope of colors and shapes.  No matter which way he turned everything was in motion, warping and weaving, in an ever changing environment.  Finally, mustering all the strength he had, he made one last bounding leap towards the place where he thought his mother was.  Immediately he seemed to pass through the shimmering shape and was transported back to the comfort of his mother’s pouch.  Slowly, Joey peered over the rim of mama’s pouch and looked about.  Finally, all seemed right in his world. His mother was still sleeping soundly and the kookaburra was laughing maniacally.  “So now you know a little bit of what you didn’t know.  Perhaps next time you go adventuring on your own you’ll be more cautious.”