By now Henri had the sun in his eyes, so he knew he was heading northerly, which was the general direction that he wanted to go. He flew over a very large wet mangrove swamp area taking advantage of the good weather, and light winds. He decided to fly as far as he could, in the hope that somewhere along the way he would find some food.
After a couple of hours the ground started to change, the mangrove started to thin out and different vegetation started to appear. He then noticed a few houses, which eventually developed into many of houses. Finally he saw a large boat marina with what looked like hundreds of boats and crowds of people, and people meant food and by now he was feeling like a good feed. Then to his delight he saw a family picnicking on the walkway alongside the boat marina.
Henri suddenly realised that he had reached the Manly Boat Harbour, only a couple of kilometres south of Wynnum, where he had last seen Charlie and their new friend Hoppy the seagull.
He was very lucky finding some food left by the picnickers, while nearby was a cold water tap left dripping, so he was able to have some fresh water, the first for a couple of days.
He had just finished this small feast when somebody out walking their small dog alongside the marina came along and scared him off.
He took off heading towards some shops and rows of houses, all the time looking for something or somewhere that he could remember.
Suddenly he could hear the sound of music coming from a large building near the sea front, although he did not know it at the time it was the Manly Hotel. He flew closer to try and see exactly where it was coming from. Something told him that he knew the voice; he had heard it somewhere before but where. When he was right over the Hotel he could see a band playing outside in the front gardens. Now he could hear the voice more clearly. He could not help thinking, was it, could it be, it was. It was Terry. Henri knew that Terry sang with a band, because he’d heard him practicing in his garage for the past couple of years. Yes it was Terry without hesitation or worry about the other strange people milling and dancing around the garden area. Henri flew straight towards the band. He picked Terry out, and went straight to him and landed on his shoulder.
You can imagine the excitement this caused amongst all who witnessed the event that had just taken place. The band stopped playing and the audience just started to laughed and cheer.
At first Terry jumped a little but he soon realised what it was and who it was. Within seconds Terry was talking to Henri and putting his finger up to him, so that Henri could jump on, he then held Henri at nose height and talked to him. Emily was in the audience and ran up to Henri, also calling out his name. She was so excited and just couldn’t believe what had just happened.
The band that Terry played with was called Wishbone Jack, took a break so everybody could get over the excitement. It was a Saturday afternoon and by pure chance Terry had been playing at the Manly Hotel. The jig saw puzzle was finally dropping in place; he was in the right place at the right time, amongst the right people.
They had been playing from 12 o’clock until 4pm; any other playing time and Henri would not have heard them. Usually when Terry was playing at a gig they would not start until 8pm, way past Henri’s bedtime.
Terry had a half-hours break and in that time Henri just could not stop chirping and pecking at Terry and Emily hopping from one to the other. There were also many of the patrons of the hotel coming up and wanting to stroke him. By now everybody at the Hotel had heard of Henri’s story and how he had been lost.
The band finished playing at the Hotel and after packing away all the musical equipment Terry and Emily with Henri on her hand got into the car to drive home. They chose to drive along the Manly seafront and onto the Wynnum front. Terry and Emily were still both trying to talk at the same time, still bubbling with excitement not believing their luck.
Henri had settled down by now and was so pleased with the way things had turned out; he would never have believed that he could be this lucky.
As they were driving along the Wynnum seafront Henri spied some seagulls eating food thrown by a group of people on the front, there amongst them was one with only one leg. Wow Henri thought could it be Hoppy. Yes it was Hoppy. Henri felt good that Hoppy had survived the storm that had struck the Wynnum area all those days earlier. He had no idea how long it had been? He had lost count of the number of days he had been lost, but now it was all over.
It was still daylight when they all arrived home at Ringtail Place. As soon as they entered the house Henri started chirping, as Emily went straight to Henri’s empty cage and popped him inside.
Home at last and all in one piece he could not believe it; he was then taken outside in his cage and placed beside Charlie’s cage. Henri was shocked once again. Wow it was Charlie and he was okay and singing at the top of his voice. They would have a lot to talk about over the coming days, as would Terry and Emily.
As the sun went down the talking, singing and chirping slowly died away to a peaceful night for all, at Ringtail Place. And they all lived happily ever after.
The End
Other books
by this author
'Almost Total Recall' an Autobiography of the author Terry Aspinall. This book is part one that covers his early years from May 1943 until he leaves New Zealand to head for Australia in March 1988. Volume 2 is under way but will be couple of years down the track.
'The Autumn Reunion' a fictitious story of a school reunion that tempted the lead character through the painful journey of having to chose one girlfriend above another.
'The Fabulous Spawlszoff Brothers' a fictitious story, that is based on actual funny events that the author has experienced during his 50 years in the music industry.
'Johnny Morris and the Convertibles' is a fictitious story that is based on actual events that the author has experienced during his 50 years in the music industry.
'The British Hang Gliding History' is an updated history of how the hang glider was invented in Australia during 1963, and of how it arrived in the UK to be manufactured and flown for the first time during 1972. This book is a shortened version of the successful website it is based on at www.british-hang-gliding-history.com there are working hyperlinks to the websites BHGA early Hang Gliding magazine 'Wings' and also the BMAA early Microlighting magazine 'Front Line'.
'The Adventures of Henri and Charlie' is a very young children's short story about the authors pet Peach Face Parrot and Canary that escape from their cages and are taken on a wild ride, with no hope of returning to the security of their own cages back home. In this story the birds talk to each other.
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