The Great Dodo Comeback

by Fiona Sandiford

  “I do,” said Leni quietly. “We wiped them all out.”

  “Yes we did,” said Professor Scissorson. “It’s a crying shame. I love dodos – their chubby bodies, their curved beaks. I think they would’ve been adorable.” Her eyes appeared to glaze over, like a pair of iced buns.

  “They were totally trusting,” added Leni.

  “That’s right,” agreed the professor. “They were once thought of as clumsy and foolish, but I’ll tell you what – we were the fools for wiping them out.”

  Leni sighed and nodded.

  “But now, with a bit of scientific know-how, who knows?” said Professor Scissorson. “Perhaps we could give dodos another chance.”

  “Another chance!” repeated Popcorn. His squawk woke Professor Flowers from his slumber.

  “Uh? Are we there yet?” mumbled the old man.

  Professor Flowers woke up from his back-seat slumber in the nick of time, because just then they rounded a corner in the road and Leni cried, “Stop!”

  Professor Scissorson slammed on the brakes. “Here we are. La Grotte de Vulcan!” announced Leni.

  “La Grotte de Vulcan!” repeated Popcorn, sounding like a train station announcer.

  Leni was relieved the bumpy ride had come to an end and they were on firm ground again. Professor Flowers got out of the jeep and Leni noticed Professor Scissorson slammed the door harder than she needed to. “You’re welcome,” she muttered.

  Now they were high up in the highlands, the temperature had dropped. Leni breathed in the cooler air. All was silent, except for the sound of rocks crunching underneath their boots and the calls of distant birds in the jungle below.

  The adults both started to put on zip-fronted overalls. “Here you are,” said Professor Scissorson, throwing Leni a green suit from the back of her jeep. “It’ll protect you inside the cave.” The all-in-one suit was so big, she had to roll up the sleeves and trouser legs.

  Professor Scissorson swapped her slouchy “bush hat”, as she called it, for a caver’s helmet with a light on the front. “Put this on,” she said, handing a similar white helmet to Leni. Professor Flowers had his own helmet with the IBBB logo on it. He took out a small torch and duct-taped it to the front. “Perfect,” he said to himself.

  Leni led the two professors to the entrance of the cave. It was very dark; they couldn’t see more than a few metres inside.

  Just as they were about to go in, Leni felt someone grabbing her sleeve. It was Professor Flowers.

  “Stop,” he whispered urgently.

  “What is it?” she replied.

  “Did you hear that?” whispered the professor. His eyes darted around.

  “Hear what?” said Professor Scissorson loudly.

  “Ssssh,” whispered the old man. For a while they stood listening. Leni looked around but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

  “I don’t know,” said Professor Flowers eventually. “I thought I heard a voice. Maybe I was mistaken.” He hauled on his canvas backpack.

  “Let’s go inside,” said Professor Scissorson. She’d fastened a belt over her overalls, from which hung a compass and a roll of white tape.

  Leni had been here before, but still, there was something exciting about this cave, and so she took a deep breath and stepped into the darkness. Guided only by helmet-torch beams, criss-crossing as they searched for clues, she could make out the gnarled, grooved sides and roof of the lava cave. She carefully picked her way over boulders and stones.

  “Oops,” she gasped, slipping on some moss.

  Professor Flowers also lost his footing slightly. “Suffering seagulls!” he shouted, his voice echoing in the hollow cave.

  “Are you okay?” called Leni. She turned and her beam picked out the figure of the old man scrambling over the rock just behind her.

  “Yes, I think so,” he replied. “I fell over and hurt my backside. This cooled lava is rough stuff.”

  Leni felt Popcorn digging his claws into her shoulder. Professor Flowers was right behind and Professor Scissorson edged along at the back, hugging the wall. The light from their head torches illuminated the hardened dark lava of the cave’s inner walls, arching over them.

  The daylight at the tunnel’s entrance faded behind them as they went deeper and deeper into the cave. The torchlight picked out strange lava formations hanging from above, like stalactites made out of melted chocolate.

  The three of them searched for what seemed like hours, but they couldn’t find anything. Can there really be any dodo bones here? wondered Leni. No bones would mean no dodo. She didn’t want to confess it to the professors, but she was beginning to lose hope.

  The two adults were still looking high and low and each was blaming the other for their lack of success. “Why’s she in such a hurry?” grumbled Professor Flowers to Leni. “We might miss something important.”

  “That dilly-dallyer has slowed us all down,” muttered Professor Scissorson, thinking only Leni could hear her. But Popcorn repeated “Dilly-dallyer!” and the sound resonated in the hollow cave.

  Just then, something hit Professor Scissorson squarely in the face. “Argh, what was that?” she shrieked. It felt like a wing, but this was no bird. Suddenly a whole army of the flying animals flapped past them, almost sweeping Popcorn away as they did so.

  “Don’t panic!” shouted Professor Flowers. “Just keep still.”

  “Bats,” said Leni when the commotion had died down. “Don’t worry, Professor Scissorson, they’re harmless. We must have disturbed them, that’s all.”

  Now they found themselves staring at a large, shallow crater in the middle of the cave floor. It looked like a giant chocolate muffin that had collapsed on the top.

  “This is a lava pond,” said Leni. Just as she went to move around the crater, the light of her helmet torch illuminated something curious. Something small and greyish. It was lying wedged between two boulders within the shallow crater. It was jagged, and didn’t look much like anything. But something told her she should check it out.

  Cautiously, Leni ventured over to get a closer look. Using the light of the torch, she could make out that it was about the length of a pencil and a couple of centimetres wide.

  “Come here, both of you,” she whispered urgently. The professors moved towards her and their torch beams converged on the long thin object. “What’s that?”

  “Well, blow me down with a goose feather,” said Professor Flowers, whistling through his teeth.

  “You beauty,” whispered Professor Scissorson, marvelling at the object.

  “Do you think it’s a dodo bone?” asked Leni softly.

  “It’s hard to tell in this light, but I’d say it looks very much like the tibiotarsus bone of an adult Raphus cucullatus,” said Professor Flowers. “Would you agree, Professor Scissorson?”

  “I would, Professor,” she agreed gravely.

  “Um, what’s a Raphus cuckoo-whatever-it-was?” asked Leni.

  “I’m sorry, I mean yes, it’s a dodo bone,” explained Professor Flowers. “Well done, eagle-eyed Leni!” He smiled.

  Leni was mesmerized. She picked up the bone in her hand.

  “Careful,” warned Professor Flowers. “It’s a leg bone. It is very, very delicate.”

  “It’s perfect!” breathed Professor Scissorson in awe.

  Leni could feel the pressure on both sides, as if the cave walls were slowly closing in on her. She knew she had something that both professors wanted desperately. Now, in the torchlit grotto, she found herself in the middle of a battle for the bone.

  “Remember, Leni, I drove us up to the cave, so the bone should really be mine,” Professor Scissorson said in her sweetest voice. “Fair’s fair.”

  “Hang on a minute. I was the first person to tell you all about it,” argued Professor Flowers. “I deserve the bone.” He looked at her like a dog who’d lost his favourite toy.

  Leni gripped the tibiotarsus tightly. They both wanted it so much, but did either one of them des
erve it more than the other? It was an impossible choice. She glanced over at Popcorn, who was sitting on a nearby rock. “Who should have the bone, Professor Scissorson or Professor Flowers?” she asked the bird.

  “Professor Scissorson,” replied Popcorn. Professor Scissorson smiled, self-satisfied, and grasped the bone by one end.

  Leni let go, but Popcorn hadn’t finished his sentence yet. “Or Professor Flowers,” he squawked.

  Quick as a flash the old man grabbed the other end of the bone. Suddenly they’d lost their cool and were squabbling over it like two young children. Leni looked on helplessly.

  “Give it to me,” growled Professor Scissorson.

  “Never!” he shot back. “It’s my bone!”

  “Let go!” she continued, hoping the older man’s strength would desert him. “Let go of it now!”

  “Over my dead body,” grunted Professor Flowers.

  In their desperate tug of war, any concerns for handling the bone with care were forgotten and Leni was terrified it would break right there in front of them.

  Then, all of a sudden, Professor Flowers lost his grip on the bone slightly and slipped backwards. Professor Scissorson, knocked off balance with the sudden release in tension, lost her grip too. The precious tibiotarsus soared up and sailed off into the darkness.

  There was a stunned silence, which Professor Scissorson finally broke as she got to her feet. “Oh great,” she said sarcastically. “Now where has it gone?”

  “It wasn’t my fault, you let go first,” protested Professor Flowers.

  “I did not,” fumed Professor Scissorson.

  “Yes you did.”

  “I did not.”

  “Did so.”

  “Did not.”

  “Professors, please!” interrupted Leni. “This isn’t helping. Let’s calm down. It can’t be far away.” She looked around. They were at a slight bend in the tunnel and so, guiding herself with the beam of her helmet torch, she slowly edged round the craggy corner.

  What she saw on the other side made Leni blink in disbelief. Her torch beam illuminated more bones. There were dozens of them, hundreds probably, scattered around like feathers after a pillow fight. They lay wedged in the hardened lava ridges, or stuck higgledy-piggledy between boulders. Wings, feet, legs. Bones, upon bones, upon bones.

  Could these all be precious dodo bones? Leni’s head swam with questions. If they were, how had this graveyard ended up here? Had the dodos all taken shelter here before the lava from a freak volcanic eruption had claimed them in its scalding grip? Or had the poor dodos perhaps fallen prey to hungry sailors who’d had a big feast and dumped the bones here centuries ago?

  Leni was bamboozled. The poor dodos, she thought. They’d had such bad luck. And now they were piled up here, all forgotten. Until now.

  The professors’ mouths gaped open like a pair of hungry hatchlings. They could hardly believe that lying there, right in front of them, were hundreds of dodo bones.

  Leni was bewildered too, but the sound of a zip being pulled snapped her back into the moment.

  Professor Scissorson opened her backpack and got out a clear, resealable plastic bag. Then she produced something which resembled a rolled-up napkin and unfurled it on the cave floor to reveal lots of small tools, all neatly lined up.

  “I think I’ll have a leg bone. Hang on, there’s a nice-looking femur,” she said. “Excuse me, Leni, if I could just reach over…there we go. Sweet.”

  She grasped the delicate bone with a pair of tweezers and dropped it into the plastic bag as if it was a piece of evidence at a crime scene.

  “Well, well, well, what’s this?” said Professor Flowers. He picked up a thin bone with a pair of what appeared to be salad tongs. “Hmm, that’s a funny-looking bone.”

  Then he realized what it was. “Ah, it’s an upper arm bone – a humerus,” he said.

  “Maybe that’s why it looks funny,” said Professor Scissorson, and giggled. It was the first time Leni had heard her laugh.

  Leni helped both professors pick out a few bones each and, in the torchlight, they gazed at them in wonder.

  “What a find,” whispered Professor Scissorson gleefully.

  “It’s hard to tell, but they look in good condition,” said Professor Flowers, who’d laid out his specimens on his hanky. “We’ll have to examine them more closely in the lab to know for sure.”

  “Let’s get back now,” said Professor Scissorson, “while the going’s good.”

  But as they packed away, Professor Flowers started to get anxious. “Oh, blithering bullfinches,” he muttered. “I’m not sure I can remember which way we came…”

  “Don’t worry, Professor, I marked the walls with white tape. We can just follow it back. It’s quite straightforward,” said Professor Scissorson a little smugly.

  “Quite straightforward,” echoed Popcorn.

  There were many tunnels branching off the main one and a wrong turn could have left them lost inside the labyrinth of lava. They followed the white tape markers for nearly an hour. Leni was getting hungry and wished the dripping, cooled lava formations really were made of chocolate. But they finally got to the cave entrance, and Leni was glad to feel the warm sunshine on her face as they emerged into the outside world again.

  Professor Flowers blinked in the light, removed his helmet and ran his hand though his wispy hair. “Thank you, Leni,” he said.

  “Yes, thank you so much,” added Professor Scissorson, patting her backpack with its precious cargo inside. “This is a major breakthrough. You’ve done us – I mean me – a great service.”

  Professor Flowers had all the energy of a young man. “If these bones contain DNA, and it is in good enough condition, who knows? We could use it to create a real dodo again. Just think! The dodo redone!” he cried.

  “We mustn’t get ahead of ourselves. It’s…it’s unprofessional,” said Professor Scissorson sniffily.

  But it was clear to Leni that it was hard for either of them to contain their excitement. They threw their overalls and helmets in the back of the jeep and hopped in.

  This time though, Popcorn didn’t join them. He took off and disappeared into the jungle. He sometimes did that. Leni knew he’d catch up with them again later.

  “I can’t wait to get home and tell my mum and dad what we’ve found,” said Leni. She grinned as she climbed into the passenger seat.

  “To Baie de la Vie, on the double, and put your foot down, Professor Scissorson!” shouted Professor Flowers.

  For a brief moment, it was as if their rivalry was forgotten. Maybe it was just a short-term truce, but with some dodo bones each, both the professors were boosted with hope and Leni felt glad.

  The jeep sped off in a cloud of dust with a giddy Professsor Scissorson at the wheel. They practically glided over the potholes that marked the road, with dreams of dodos dancing through their heads.

  But Professor Flowers hadn’t been mistaken when he thought he heard something earlier at the cave entrance. And what none of them saw as they drove off, were the two stocky figures standing on a large rock, their menacing forms silhouetted against the sun.

  Making his way home, Popcorn soared over the jungle treetops and down towards the ocean. Before long, he got a bird’s-eye view of the acres and acres of sugar cane growing in the fields below him.

  At the centre of one of the biggest sugar plantations stood an enormous mansion surrounded by neat, well-tended gardens. It had a vast, flat-roofed front porch, white pillars and shuttered dormer windows.

  Popcorn flew over a statue of the mansion’s bald-headed owner, which stood on the sweeping front drive, smiling as if to welcome visitors.

  The owner of this magnificent estate was a sugar tycoon called Benny Shoober, and he was the richest man on the island. Most people knew him as the Sugar King of Mauritius. This was because of the successful sugar empire he had built up after coming to the island from South Africa.

  Right now, Benny Shoober was leaning agains
t the mantelpiece in his lavishly decorated office. A Hawaiian shirt strained at the buttonholes across his belly and his bald head shone slightly with a coating of afternoon sweat. He was looking at his wife, who was wearing a leopard-print swimsuit and staring into the mirror over the mantelpiece.

  “Oh, Benny, honey,” she said in a voice that was sweet and yet scratchy at the same time. “Do my lips look crinkly around the edges?”

  Giavanna, or Mrs Shoober III, was fond of wearing large, gold-hooped earrings, lashings of perfume and a thick mask of make-up. She was obsessed with looking young and had tried every anti-ageing cream, balm, ointment and serum on the market in an attempt to turn back the clock on her appearance. No one knew quite how old she was, and nobody dared ask.

  “I’ve been trying a new lip ointment for three weeks now and I can’t see any difference, honey,” Giavanna complained to her husband.

  “Sweetlips, your mouth looks perfect,” Benny tried to reassure her. He took a sticky bun from a silver platter on the coffee table in front of him. His fingers were chubby and bore several chunky gold rings.

  “C’mon, give me a kiss,” he said, puckering up.

  Giavanna turned towards him and planted a big smacker on his mouth.

  “You look stunning, sweetlips,” said Benny. He took a big bite from the bun.

  “But I don’t look any younger…” said Giavanna glumly. She turned back to the mirror.

  “What’s the ointment made of, anyway?” asked Benny.

  “Camel saliva,” replied his wife.

  Benny almost spat out his mouthful of bun.

  Giavanna looked longingly at the plate of pastries. Benny swallowed and then said, “Go on, treat yourself.”

  “Benny!” she snorted.

  “What?” he asked.

  “You don’t get it, do you, honey?” she said scratchily. “A pastry is full of sugar! Think about it!”

  And that’s what makes it so delicious, thought the tycoon. But there was no pleasing some people.