KANGOALA

I opened my eyes. I reached over from my bed and silenced my alarm clock with a tap, and I began to dress. Looking out of my window, I noticed it was a beautiful morning. Summer sunshine streamed through it and filled my room with warm, natural light. The garden down below my window sparkled with morning dew, and pollinators fluttered everywhere.

After lying on my bed, I felt myself fall asleep. Less than a second after that, my twin sister Jamie’s head appeared in the hole in my ceiling. We had the same blonde hair, light skin, and blue eyes. We like to hang out as much as possible, which is why we decided to cut a hole in my room’s ceiling. We could talk without being noticed by Mom.

“Isn’t it a beautiful morning? It hasn’t been so hot in such a long time.”

“We haven’t had such weather for a while. Look how sunny it is! My room is lit on every side.”

“It’s the best day for a morning bike ride.”

“Yeah, but Mom and Dad are NOT letting us eat breakfast this early.”

“We could eat a snack from the pantry before the biking, you goody-two-shoe.”

“Uh-huh.”

Our personalities were totally different. I was the rule follower and the thinker. The keeper of the facts. On the other hand, Jamie was carefree, loved to look to the bright side, and always found a way around the household rules. The keeper of the opinions.

I met Jamie in the kitchen. Jamie put apples, cheese slices, and pretzels in a tote bag and we headed outside. She even tossed in a picnic blanket. Knowing what she meant, I smiled without questioning it.

It was going to be a great day today. Inhaling the warm summer air as we walked out of our mansion, Jamie and I got our bikes from the shed and rode into the grassy field. After riding quickly up the hills and down the hills, the two of us sat down to take a break.

We sat on our blanket and ate. As I was about to bite into my apple, I saw a… house. I dropped my apple and let it roll downhill. Had we ridden into another neighborhood? I turned around and saw my mansion a few feet behind me. No, I was in my own field. But there was a house, right in the middle of my outdoor sanctuary!

“Jamie! We have neighbors! See that family?” Now it was Jamie’s turn to toss her apple down the hill. “What the….”

“I know!”

“Let’s go say hi!”

We rode our bikes through the hills and parked them behind a tree. I inspected the family. There was a mother, a father, and a daughter.

The daughter noticed me first.

“Daddy, there are two of the same people!”

Laughing, Jamie said:

“Hi, I’m Jamie! This is my twin, Jennie, so we are not the same people. We live over there.” She pointed to my house. It looked giant compared to this little house.

“Well, hi, Jamie! I’m Diana. This is my husband Mark. This crazy girl is Lucy, our daughter.”

They waved at us. I noticed they all had the same dark hair and stout bodies.

Then, I noticed a cage Lucy was holding. A baby kangaroo that was gray with round ears and a round snout. It was fuzzy. So, it was a koala with a long, long tail and a kangaroo-like jump. That was weird. I asked, “What is that thing?”

Then, the family said, “Why, it’s a kangoala, if you’ve ever heard of it!”