| General Fiction posted May 22, 2022 |
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Strange day on a ...
Life-changing outing
by Wendy G
Family Outing Contest Winner
My sister Robbie had recently received her Driver's Licence.
We were encouraging her to drive on our family outing, to build up her confidence and experience.
Towards dusk, something quite unexpected happened – never experienced before or since.
A cloud of small green budgerigars flew in front of the car, but … there were thousands, hundreds of thousands. No visibility. Robbie became distressed. "I can't drive – I'm killing them!" She pulled over, weeping for those she had unavoidably hit. Still they kept coming: perhaps there were millions – impossible to estimate.
Stopping was the right decision. This resembled one of the plagues of Egypt – except birds, not locusts.
A full twenty minutes later, the birds had flown by; we were ready to proceed. But our attention was now caught by a small shape not far ahead, lying in the middle of the road. Robbie inched forward, then stopped again. "It's an injured koala! It's been hit by a car!"
Koalas are wild animals and aggressive, especially if in pain. I got an old towel and carefully approached, throwing it over the frightened animal. Gathering it in my arms I carried it gently back to the car. I knew there was a koala hospital in the next town. Despite the towel, my arms were being severely scratched, so I was glad to relinquish the animal to their expert care.
On reflection, if it hadn't been for the birds we would never have stopped there, so helping the koala soothed the hurt of having accidently killed some tiny budgerigars.
Our outing proceeded uneventfully. A month later we had another outing - back to check on "our" koala.
"She's doing very well," the veterinary nurse replied, "and as you undoubtedly saved her life, we called her Lucky!"
We were so happy to hear this news.
"Furthermore," she continued, "Lucky had a baby soon after you brought her; it is of course still in her pouch. We named him Chance!"
Two animals saved!
Robbie went on to study veterinary science. She devoted her life to caring for injured and sick koalas.
My sister Robbie had recently received her Driver's Licence.
We were encouraging her to drive on our family outing, to build up her confidence and experience.
Towards dusk, something quite unexpected happened – never experienced before or since.
A cloud of small green budgerigars flew in front of the car, but … there were thousands, hundreds of thousands. No visibility. Robbie became distressed. "I can't drive – I'm killing them!" She pulled over, weeping for those she had unavoidably hit. Still they kept coming: perhaps there were millions – impossible to estimate.
Stopping was the right decision. This resembled one of the plagues of Egypt – except birds, not locusts.
A full twenty minutes later, the birds had flown by; we were ready to proceed. But our attention was now caught by a small shape not far ahead, lying in the middle of the road. Robbie inched forward, then stopped again. "It's an injured koala! It's been hit by a car!"
Koalas are wild animals and aggressive, especially if in pain. I got an old towel and carefully approached, throwing it over the frightened animal. Gathering it in my arms I carried it gently back to the car. I knew there was a koala hospital in the next town. Despite the towel, my arms were being severely scratched, so I was glad to relinquish the animal to their expert care.
On reflection, if it hadn't been for the birds we would never have stopped there, so helping the koala soothed the hurt of having accidently killed some tiny budgerigars.
Our outing proceeded uneventfully. A month later we had another outing - back to check on "our" koala.
"She's doing very well," the veterinary nurse replied, "and as you undoubtedly saved her life, we called her Lucky!"
We were so happy to hear this news.
"Furthermore," she continued, "Lucky had a baby soon after you brought her; it is of course still in her pouch. We named him Chance!"
Two animals saved!
Robbie went on to study veterinary science. She devoted her life to caring for injured and sick koalas.
We were encouraging her to drive on our family outing, to build up her confidence and experience.
Towards dusk, something quite unexpected happened – never experienced before or since.
A cloud of small green budgerigars flew in front of the car, but … there were thousands, hundreds of thousands. No visibility. Robbie became distressed. "I can't drive – I'm killing them!" She pulled over, weeping for those she had unavoidably hit. Still they kept coming: perhaps there were millions – impossible to estimate.
Stopping was the right decision. This resembled one of the plagues of Egypt – except birds, not locusts.
A full twenty minutes later, the birds had flown by; we were ready to proceed. But our attention was now caught by a small shape not far ahead, lying in the middle of the road. Robbie inched forward, then stopped again. "It's an injured koala! It's been hit by a car!"
Koalas are wild animals and aggressive, especially if in pain. I got an old towel and carefully approached, throwing it over the frightened animal. Gathering it in my arms I carried it gently back to the car. I knew there was a koala hospital in the next town. Despite the towel, my arms were being severely scratched, so I was glad to relinquish the animal to their expert care.
On reflection, if it hadn't been for the birds we would never have stopped there, so helping the koala soothed the hurt of having accidently killed some tiny budgerigars.
Our outing proceeded uneventfully. A month later we had another outing - back to check on "our" koala.
"She's doing very well," the veterinary nurse replied, "and as you undoubtedly saved her life, we called her Lucky!"
We were so happy to hear this news.
"Furthermore," she continued, "Lucky had a baby soon after you brought her; it is of course still in her pouch. We named him Chance!"
Two animals saved!
Robbie went on to study veterinary science. She devoted her life to caring for injured and sick koalas.
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Writing Prompt Word Count--300-350 Write a real-life story that involves you and your family No profanity, vulgar words, sex, or sexual content (transgener/cross dressing etc.). No satire or farce |
Family Outing Contest Winner |
 Recognized |
#25 May 2022 |
(349 words)
Pays
one point
and 2 member cents. 
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