Oliver the Kangaroo wasn’t as adventurous as his twin brother. He preferred to stay close to his mother and cuddle up. She was safe and comfortable.
Like all Kangaroos, Ethan and Oliver were born extremely premature. Ethan had helped Oliver climb into their mommy’s warm fuzzy pouch and they’d spent the next nine months planning their future adventures together.
But now that they were big kangaroo boys, finally able to be out of their mothers pouch on their own, Ethan thought Oliver wasn’t any fun.
One day, Oliver and Ethan were playing in their favorite woodland clearing. Ethan was building a fort out of sticks and branches. Oliver was quietly examining various leaves. Ethan reached over and grabbed the leaf out of Oliver’s hand.
Oliver began to cry. Ethan tried to give him one of his branches instead, but Oliver was sad. He didn’t want to build a fort.
Ethan walked away. He didn’t want to play with no-fun Oliver anyway.
Oliver didn’t mind. He went back to looking at his leaves and trying new flavors of grass.
Their kanga-mommy followed Ethan. She told him it was not nice to take things from his brother. They were twins and they could share. Ethan didn’t want to share boring leaves; he wanted to go on a fun adventure.
Suddenly Oliver realized his mom was far away. He ran after her – going faster and faster, until he found himself leaping through the air.
Oliver was breathless when he found his mother and brother. He immediately told Ethan he had found the perfect adventure for them. And it would be so much fun!
Ethan was intrigued. What kind of fun could Oliver have found? Oliver grinned.
BOUNCE!
The washing machine cried uncle tonight. It vibrated, rattled and then tried to escape before finally collapsing in a standstill – a neon green “LOAD” message blinking along the LCD panel.