Read Online Flight of the Jabiru by Elizabeth Haran - Free Book Online

Suzie and the other passengers that she was going to Darwin to teach, but not that she’d had no choice. She was too ashamed to admit that she’d spent time in prison, even if it was for a crime she hadn’t committed.
    â€œSid said he’d go ashore and post some letters for us while the ship refuels.” He was one of the crewmen and quite a character. With a wicked chuckle he claimed to have a girl in every port, something the other crewmen jovially disputed. “You wrote to your father, didn’t you? He’ll be thrilled to hear from you.”
    â€œWould you give Sid my letter?” Lara asked lethargically. Since the previous day a black cloud had hung over her. If not for the children aboard, whom she’d been unofficially teaching for a couple of hours each morning, she might’ve been in the real doldrums.
    â€œNo, I will not,” Suzie countered. “Enough of this melancholy! It’s doing you no good so you must shake it off. I know what I’m talking about, so come on, up you get. We’re going up on deck.”
    Lara already knew Suzie well enough to believe that she wouldn’t take no for answer, so she got up and they went up on deck to find several small boats maneuvering to get close to the ship as it tied up harbor-side. Egyptian vendors were aboard, draped in flowing robes with their heads wrapped up. They were hoisting baskets up to the deck that contained wares they were determined to sell to the passengers. After being told by the crew not to pay a tenth of the asking price, some of the passengers were bartering with them over wooden carvings, leather goods, trinkets, and stuffed animals.
    â€œDon’t buy anything stuffed,” Sid warned the excited passengers sternly. “If you do, we will have to throw it overboard.”
    â€œWhy?” Suzie asked as she admired a stuffed camel in bright material. One of the young girls, Katie, was excited over a stuffed rag doll, urging her mother to buy it for her.
    â€œThey’re stuffed with dirty bandages from the hospital,” the crewman told her.
    â€œUgh!” Suzie cried, throwing the camel back into the basket.
    Katie’s mother snatched the rag doll from her and threw it down to the boat below, abusing the seller who replied in a verbal tirade in his language.
    â€œMiss Penrose,” said eight-year-old Henry, the second youngest of the children aboard. His sister, Katie, was just six. “You’ve told us that much about the pyramids. Will we be able to see them from the ship when we go through the Suez?”
    As she didn’t have textbooks, their unofficial lessons had been more like discussions. Sometimes, to amuse the children and keep them occupied for a couple of hours each day, they’d play games or act out lessons. It was on the second day aboard ship that the passengers found out that Lara was a teacher. By the fourth day of travel, the children were bored and causing problems, so the parents pleaded with Lara to give them some casual lessons. As she was missing her students, she was more than happy to comply. The children ranged in age from six to thirteen, so it was a challenge, but they had fun.
    â€œNo, Henry. The nearest pyramids would be at Giza, which is too far away. More than a hundred miles, I’d say.”
    â€œA hundred and twenty-five or thereabouts,” Sid offered after overhearing her words.
    â€œThere, you see, Henry. That’s too far away,” Lara added.
    â€œBut you said they are huge,” Henry said disappointed. “We should be able to see them across the desert.”
    â€œThey are huge, Henry, but a hundred and twenty-five miles is a long, long way. You’ll see plenty of sand dunes as we pass the Sinai Desert. They should be quite spectacular.”
    â€œSand dunes are pretty well all you’ll see as we go through the Suez,” Sid put in. “And you won’t even see them if we have a sand