Crab Apples: Part 1

By GED MAYBURY

Randy Cathro was stuck on the beach with his big sister Beau. Well, to be more precise, he was being stuck in the beach by his big sister Beau.

"Dig your feet in a bit more!" she told him. With a tired sigh he twisted his feet deeper into the wet sand. "Now hold the driftwood up a bit ... no! Like I showed you! Heroically!"

He did his best to look heroic. Beau raised her camera, fiddled, focused, crouched, focused again, then: "Aww!" she huffed, lowering her camera.

"It's no good.""I'm doing my best!" he snapped, lowering his aching arms.

"No, not you, I mean the found object."

('Found object', Randy had soon figured out, meant the ugly great lump of driftwood she had found and conned him into posing with.)

Beau gazed out at the wide sweep of Haulaway Bay, from the north-west headland across to the distant islands in the east, and sighed.

"I need a good storm." Randy chucked down the driftwood in disgust.

"I'm not doing this in a storm!""Don't be such a pillock!" she snapped, "What I mean is: I need a storm to wash up something interesting! Something inspiring!

Publisher: Scholastic

Price: $13.95

Age group: 11 plus years