An Emu at War by Merv Lambert

Author:Merv Lambert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: emu, colin, librarian, merv lambert, children, bedtime, class, story, fun, funny, humour, fantasy
ISBN: 9781782344117
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2012
Published: 2012-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

Stand By Your Beds!

“Stand by your beds!” The harsh, confident voice rang out.

Startled, Colin looked all around him. Who was that standing next to him in a blue uniform? It looked like a younger version of his Uncle Olly with the same round glasses, but without the masses of curly hair and without the curly beard. His hair was cut rather short. He looked rather nervous.

“Atten...shun!” The voice rang out again.

All twenty uniformed men in the hut or billet, including Colin, sprang to attention, looking straight to the front. So did a certain emu. This was a new game to him. He had heard of National Service. Now he was in the R.A.F.!

For a moment Colin wondered ‘How did I get here? Of course! That was it. That evening his cousin Diana, a tall young woman with dark hair, now married with two children of her own, had called round with her father, Colin’s Uncle Olly. Colin had been telling Olivia and Charlotte about his earlier adventure with his young cousin Diana Jones at the Pyramid of Ptica Ptocl. The magic phoenix bookmark had taken him there via the pages of his special book. How they had laughed, when at the end of the story Uncle Olly had poked his head over the hedge. It was not the evil Arth Kirby of their childish imaginary game. How could Uncle Olly be scary? Whilst Olivia and Diana had taken Charlotte upstairs to bed and to read her a bedtime story, Uncle Olly had started telling Colin about something that had happened during his National Service in the R.A.F. As he was beginning the tale, Colin had picked up the bookmark ready to put it back in his pocket. Without warning the phoenix had glowed red. There had been a flash, and now he was apparently doing his National Service, probably sometime in the late 1950s.

As all the young men had automatically obeyed the shouted command, and their right feet had all slammed down on the hut floor to stand rigidly to attention, nineteen of them did not know that an invisible emu, very intrigued by all this, had copied them, and was standing on the other side of the bed from Colin.

Again the voice rang out. “Officer present! Billet ready for your inspection, sir!” The owner of the voice, a sergeant, stamped his foot, as he brought his right hand up to the side of his head in a rapid, rigid salute. His hand was almost quivering with the effort.

“Thank you, sergeant,” drawled a posh voice, that of the inspecting officer, who sauntered nonchalantly down the middle of the hut, glancing in a bored manner at the kit of each airman, which had been carefully set out on their beds with their blankets and sheets folded into a neat pack at the foot of the bed. Yes, he was bored. He would not normally do inspections now, but Flying Officer Wilkes was on leave.

As the officer, trailed by the sergeant and

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