Island Hideaway 29 - Here Be Dodos

By Terrence Oblong

Mon, 13 Jan 2020

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I was in Mo's room, writing an article and chatting with her. Suddenly there was an enormous roar which shook and reverberated across the island, like some great beast had just woken up in the foulest of moods.

"What was that?" Mo said, clearly shocked and a tad frightened.

There was no point in hiding the dodos from her, she was bound to see them at some point as they came in the house.

"It's dodos mating," I said.

She nodded at my response, then asked again. "Seriously though, what is it. Are there bears on the island? Or dragons?"

"No bears. No dragons. Just dodos."

"Okay. You do know that dodos are extinct don't you?"

"I know that. You know that. But nobody told the dodos."

"And that even if they were alive they were just birds. That was not a little bird tweeting."

"I can show you footage if you don't believe me," I said.

"Okay," she said, doubtfully. I went upstairs and fetched my laptop, which I rarely use but seemed the simplest method of sharing my footage. We watched some of the highlights of the dodo cam footage. They mostly showed dodos waddling around, pecking food and posing for the camera.

"They're cute birds," Mo said. "What are they?"

"They're dodos," I said, "Or the dodo family at least. They're smaller, with different beaks, but essentially the same shape and plumage. I've looked into it, believe me."

"But the dragon noise, aren't they a bit small?"

What could I say. "It's definitely the dodos, I track their movements. It’s the noise they make when they’re mating, but as to how they make the noise, I don't know. I guess we all feel like wild beasts during sex."

"Speak for yourself."

She paused and stared into nothingness for a while.

"You all right?" I said. She looked sad.

"I guess. I've missed a lot during my coma."

"I suppose," I said.

"Like the whole dodo thing. When were they discovered?"

"The dodos? Shortly after I moved here."

"But I've never heard anything about them."

"Good god, the outside world doesn't know about them. I'm only telling you as I trust you to keep a secret. And you'll find out anyway. But no-one else, not even Eddie. Can you imagine what the world would do?"

Mo nodded. "Repeat their mistakes."

"Well, make new ones probably, but Dodo Doomsday 2 would come soon enough."

Eddie was right to bring me here," she said. "You may be different from everyone else in the universe but you're definitely one of us.