Trevie Bear & Lazy Baba Go to Indonesia, Carolyn Smith [top fiction books of all time txt] 📗

the kitchen to the wooden table as quickly as his little legs would carry him before attempting to climb up on to the table to fetch Dad’s camera. When he reached the table top he quickly put the camera strap around his neck and then made a run for it to the window the same way he had come. It was more difficult to run with the weight of the camera around his neck. It was awkward as it moved from left to right, pulling as it did so. He looked up at the window from the worktop, jumped with as much power as he could muster and grabbed on to the window sill. The camera crashed in to the glass of the window making a loud noise which Trevie Bear was sure the little boy must have head. He felt as though his heart was in his mouth while he waited for the inevitable thump of feet and the bright kitchen light.
It didn’t come.

Trevie Bear could see Lazy Baba on the other side still standing on the window ledge, looking at something far below her.

“What are you doing? You need to move else I won’t be able to get out,” he whispered through the glass.
Lazy Baba did not take her eyes off whatever lay below her.

“I can’t move,” she replied urgently. “There is a dog sleeping beneath the window. If I jump I’ll land on it and wake it.”

“Ok, I have to get out of this window. Move over as far as you can to make space for me.”

Lazy Baba shuffled a few steps sideways on the window ledge to allow space for Trevie Bear. He quickly climbed out of the window and joined Lazy Baba. He looked down to where the dog was sleeping. The dog reminded Trevie Bear of a Labrador, but he couldn’t be certain. It looked under nourished as its ribs were poking out under the dirty yellow fur.

“I think it may be a stray, with nowhere to live,” said Trevie Bear.

“How does that help us?” asked Lazy Baba.

“It doesn’t. If anything it makes the situation worse. He may be vicious.”

“Oh great, that’s just what we need,” she sighed.

Trevie Bear looked around them in order to get a better judgment of their situation. The window had taken them out to a very thin, dark alleyway. The dog was asleep below the window between two tin rubbish bins, one on either side of the window ledge. The smell from the bins was overwhelming and made Trevie Bear’s eyes water. Then he had an idea.

“We’re going to have to jump into one of those bins,” he said pointing them out to Lazy Baba. She rolled her eyes.

“I was afraid you were going to say that. Can't you smell them?”

“Yes, I know they smell bad, but the choice is get a bit smelly or get eaten by the dog,” he answered. “I think we should jump into the bin nearest to you because it is the closest.” He knew that it would take ages for Lazy Baba to muster up the courage to jump into something that smelt so bad so he didn’t wait for a response and pushed her with all his might.

She screamed as she felt herself lose balance and fall from the ledge. As she fell everything seemed to slow down and she felt like she was moving in slow motion. She could see Trevie Bear looking down at her, smiling, but it wasn’t a reassuring smile, it was an evil smile. He was enjoying watching her fall. Suddenly she flashed back to China when she had fallen into a tub of frogs, he had laughed at her then in a similar way too. She vowed not to let him get away with this as she landed on a pile of rotten, stinking garbage retching at the foul stench and picking bits of squashed tomato out of her hair.

Trevie Bear did not jump into the bin. He carefully climbed down the side of it and landed gently on the ground beside it. He was not covered in rubbish, nor was he in the slightest bit smelly. Lazy Baba was not impressed. She attempted to climb up the massive piles of junk and rotten vegetables in order to reach the opening to the bin and climb down the side in a similar fashion to the way Trevie Bear had, but each time she seemed to be making progress the piles beneath her feet would give way and she would tumble back to the bottom of the bin. When she did finally manage to emerge Trevie Bear could barely contain his laughter as he looked at her. She was covered in goop and her clothes and face were very dirty. She looked utterly miserable and smelt dreadful.

“Oh Lazy Baba! Look at you!” he said through stifled giggles.

“Yes, look at me all covered in gunk and look at you not covered in anything,” she said anger resonating through her body. “Let’s go before I do something I might regret.” She turned on her heel and began to walk away in the direction of a main road. However, when she started to walk she remembered how damaged her ankle was. She could barely walk without support and needed to lean on Trevie Bear, much to her dismay. The good part about it was that he could not outrun her stench and it made him have to stop and gasp for air every few minutes.

“Good,” thought Lazy Baba, “maybe you won’t be so quick to play tricks on me in future.”
Chapter 8

They had been walking along a main road for a little while in the pitch black of night when they saw that the sun was slowly beginning to rise. They could see the beautiful red and pink of the sun peeping just above the horizon. As it did so they could see that the road they were walking along seemed to be endless. It went on and on in the same direction with what appeared to be no bends or curves. They had not seen a single car or bike on the road in all the time they had been walking, but then it was only just daybreak.

As they were walking it began to rain. It started off as very gentle drizzle and Lazy Baba was glad because it meant that some of the dirt she was carrying may finally get washed off. The cool rain drops felt refreshing on her face and arms. Trevie Bear didn’t like the rain and insisted that they took shelter wherever they could beneath trees, bushes and benches. However, the rain didn’t look like it was going to stop anytime soon. In fact it got heavier as the sun rose higher in the sky. Before they knew it they were both dripping wet and getting cold.

That’s when Trevie Bear saw it gleaming up ahead.

“That is exactly what we need. Come on.”

He pulled Lazy Baba forward as quickly as he could drag her without hurting her ankle even more. It didn’t take them long to reach it. It was sat at the side of the road unattended. It was a silver motorized scooter. It had a black leather seat and a big bag on either side of the rear.

“Those bags must be used for carrying shopping,” Trevie Bear said. “Do you think they are big enough to carry us?”

“There is only one way to find out,” said Lazy Baba as she unzipped one of the bags and climbed in. It was a relief to be out of the rain and the canvas of the bag provided just enough warmth. The only trouble was that the bag was not quite big enough to carry her. She could fit inside but could not close the bag. Trevie Bear climbed into the bag on the left hand side of the bike and had the same problem.

“Never mind, it’s better than nothing,” he said.

They snuggled down in to their bags as far as they could go and Trevie Bear was careful to put Dad’s camera beneath himself in the bag in an attempt to dry it out. The majority of their bodies were hidden from the rain but their heads and faces were still getting wet. They didn’t have to wait long before the owner of the bike came back. Fortunately he did not have any shopping to put into his side bags so he just put on his helmet, straddled the bike and started the engine. The bike took off at speed. The wind whipped through Lazy Baba’s hair making it fly all over the place. It didn’t matter how many times she tried to squash it behind her ears it kept coming loose and smacking her in the face, which hurt because it was wet. The rain was still pouring and now that they were travelling at speed it seemed to be hitting them both harder as it poured in to their eyes, stinging as it did so.

“I think I preferred walking,” Lazy Baba shouted to Trevie Bear, but although the rain was hurting him just as much as her he seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself. He loved travelling at such high speeds and the view of the countryside as the sun came up was spectacular.

“We should do this more often,” Trevie Bear thought to himself as he enjoyed the ride.

They whizzed past lots of mountains and rice fields where the workers were coming out of their houses ready to start a hard day of tending to the fields. They passed people at the side of the road who were taking advantage of the rain and collecting the rain water, others were washing their faces in puddles at the side of the road. Other bikes and cars were starting to join them on the roads now as the sun had fully risen and the day had begun.

They seemed to be on the bike for hours before they reached the next town. The roads were very small but extremely busy. There were hundreds and hundreds of bikes identical to theirs on the road. There didn’t appear to be any traffic rules like there were back at home as the bikes weaved in and out of the traffic, taking no notice of lane, signaling or direction. The noise from all the beeping was tremendous and Lazy Baba had to cover her ears to block it out before it gave her a headache. She thought of home and Becky and felt a pang of pain in her chest. She missed Becky so much, and they were probably never going to see her again. Lazy Baba couldn’t make out which drops on her face were from the rain