Lulu Bell and the Moon Dragon (2 page)

A huge black-and-white whale leaped from the water. It arced through the air and then smashed down again with a loud splash.

‘Wow,' called Lulu. ‘Did you see that?'

‘It's beautiful,' replied Molly.

A moment later, there were two whales leaping and diving. They whacked their tails and slapped their fins against the water. It was as though the two
whales were putting on an acrobatic performance especially for the children.

‘They are two young males,' explained Miss Baxter. ‘The males practise breaching and diving so they can show off to the females.'

‘Some human boys are just the same,' whispered Lulu. ‘They like showing off to the girls too.'

Lulu and Molly giggled.

One of the whales shot a spout of water metres into the air.

‘Do you see that spout?' asked Miss Stevens. ‘Whales are mammals, just like humans. They breathe air in through their blowholes. When they breathe out, they force water out in a huge spout.'

The other male blew another spout even higher.

Both whales swam closer to the
shore. They swam on their sides with their huge mouths open. They looked as though they were laughing. Lulu and Molly laughed too.

‘They are like clowns at the circus,' said Lulu. ‘They seem to like us watching them.'

‘
Giant
clowns,' agreed Molly.

‘Whales spend the summer months down near the Antarctic,' said Miss Baxter. ‘They eat fish and tiny sea
animals called krill. In summer they can eat nearly a thousand kilograms of food in just one day.'

‘Wow!' said Molly.

‘No wonder they are so big,' said Lulu.

Miss Baxter smiled and said, ‘They can weigh about thirty-six
thousand
kilograms. They don't eat that much all year round. In winter they hardly eat at all. That's when they live off their stored fat.'

Miss Baxter looked around at all the children. Sam stared at her with big serious eyes.

The whales breached again and then dived deep under the sea. When they surfaced they were much further from the shore.

‘In autumn, the whales migrate up to the warm tropical waters. They have their babies there during winter,' said Miss Stevens. ‘In spring, they migrate south again. Humpback whales can migrate more than twenty thousand kilometres in a year.'

‘That's a lot of swimming,' said Molly.

The whales swam on their sides and waved their flippers. The children waved back. The whales dived again and disappeared.

‘Oh no,' said Lulu. ‘I think they've gone.'

The children waited patiently for a few minutes but the whales were nowhere to be seen. Sam edged closer to the fence to get a better view of the ocean.

One of the boys bumped against Sam and grinned. Sam's glasses were knocked sideways. He hurried back towards Lulu and Molly.

‘Who was that boy, Sam?' whispered Lulu.

Sam shrugged as he straightened his glasses. ‘Oh, just Oliver.'

‘Is he one of your friends?' asked Molly.

Sam looked away. ‘Not really,' he said.

Before Molly or Lulu could say anything else, Miss Baxter clapped her hands. ‘Okay, children,' she called. ‘Time to go back to school.'

‘Ooooh,' groaned some of the children.

Lulu didn't mind. She loved being in Miss Baxter's class.

After school, Lulu's mum Chrissie was waiting with Lulu's younger brother Gus. Gus was wearing his favourite red-and-green superhero outfit. It had a black face mask, bobbly antennae and a green cloak that swirled as Gus ran.

‘Hi, Lulu,' called Gus as he dashed past. He headed straight for the climbing frame. ‘Bug Boy can fly …'

‘Hi, Gussie,' called Lulu. ‘Don't try to fly off the top!'

Molly's mum Tien was standing next to Mum, chatting. Lulu's younger sister Rosie and Molly's brother Sam came running up to join their mothers.

‘Hi, Sam,' said Tien. ‘Did you have a lovely day?'

‘It was great,' said Sam. ‘I went to see the whales with Molly and Lulu.'

‘That's not fair,' complained Rosie. ‘We didn't get to see the whales.'

Lulu and Molly described
their excursion to see the two humpback whales.

‘You are so lucky to see whales in the wild,' said Mum. ‘When I was growing up we never saw whales. They had been hunted nearly to extinction.'

Lulu felt sad to think that the beautiful whales had nearly been wiped out.

‘Now they are protected, we see whales at Shelly Beach quite often,' said Mum.

Gus came swooping back, his cloak flying.

‘Come on, Molly and Sam,' said Tien. ‘We'd better get home. We have lots to do today.'

Molly picked up her schoolbag and swung it over her shoulder. ‘Mum, can Lulu come over this afternoon and help
us get ready for the Moon Festival?' she asked.

Tien smiled at Molly and Lulu. ‘Of course she can,' she said. ‘I thought we could start making the dragon costume today.'

‘Ooh, that sounds interesting,' said Mum. ‘What is the Moon Festival?'

Tien told them all about the traditional Vietnamese event.

‘In Vietnamese, we call it
Tet Trung Thu
,' said Tien. ‘It was my favourite day of the year when I was growing up.'

Tien smiled at Molly and Lulu as she explained. ‘Kids dress up as dragons, lions and mischievous fairy spirits and dance around the streets. They bang drums and clash cymbals to frighten away the evil spirits.'

‘Oh, could I dress up as a fairy spirit?' asked Rosie.

She twirled around on her toes. Rosie's favourite outfit was her feathery angel wings with her white dress and sparkly thongs. Sometimes she even wore her wings with her school uniform.

‘Would you all like to join us for the festival on Monday, Chrissie?' asked Tien. ‘I thought it would be nice for Molly and Sam to experience a traditional
Vietnamese celebration. But it would be more fun with extra children.'

‘It sounds like the most wonderful idea,' agreed Mum. ‘Could we help you prepare for it?'

‘That would be great,' said Tien. ‘It's Wednesday today and there's lots to do. On Monday I thought the kids could dress up and parade down our street. Afterwards they could come back to our apartment for some mooncakes.'

Mum nodded. ‘Or perhaps we could finish down at the beach and have a picnic there?'

‘Oh, yes,' agreed Tien. ‘Let's have a feast at the beach.'

It was agreed that the Bell family would join in. The two families walked home together, chatting about what needed to be done.

Molly lived in a block of apartments. It was right next door to the Shelly Beach Vet Hospital, where Lulu and her family lived. Lulu's dad Dr Bell was a vet. The family had a wonderful collection of animals and pets.

The girls were greeted at the door by Molly's black kitten Ebony-Lou. Molly scooped her up and kissed her nose. Ebony-Lou purred loudly.

In the lounge room, Tien brought out lots of photos. Some showed children wearing traditional costumes to the festival.

Some children were dressed up in pairs as a dragon or a lion. One child was the head and the other child was the tail. The costumes were bright and colourful, in red, gold, yellow, white and silver.

‘This character is called Ong Dia,' said Tien. She showed them a picture of a boy with a round, pink, smiling mask and blue robes. ‘Ong Dia means Lord Earth.
It is Lord Earth who urges the dragon to fly and dance. I thought we'd make some masks like this.'

Lulu's mum nodded and said, ‘They should be easy to make with papier-mâché and paint.' Lulu's mum was an artist. She had created the most wonderful costumes for Lulu, Rosie and Gus. She had made mermaids, angels, superheroes and even a King Neptune costume for Dad.

Some of Tien's photos showed graceful girls. They wore the traditional Vietnamese dress called
ao dai
. This was a long slim tunic worn over pantaloons. The girls had their faces painted. They carried lanterns shaped like stars, moons, butterflies and fish.

‘I want to wear a costume like that,' said Rosie. ‘It looks so beautiful.'

‘You can borrow mine,' said Molly. ‘My aunts sent me one from Vietnam for my birthday.'

‘What will you wear then, Molly?' asked Lulu.

‘I want to dress as a dragon and dance,' said Molly. ‘I've always loved dragons in Vietnamese fairytales.'

‘Is it hard to do a dragon dance?' asked Lulu. ‘Could I be the dragon tail?'

Molly nodded, her black eyes shining. ‘We can take it in turns to be the head.'

Everyone set to work. Tien had bought metres of shiny, coloured fabric. She also had silver and gold fringing, and a feathery white boa. Ebony-Lou pounced on the boa and rolled in it. She thought it was alive. In a moment the boa was a tangle of black kitten and white feathers.

The dragon needed big goggly red eyes, sharp white teeth and a white beard. Tien had already made the cardboard face with a wide pink mouth. Lulu and Molly started gluing on white feathers.

Tien was making a long red cloak on her sewing machine. This would be attached to the dragon's head. The cloak would form the body and tail. Then Tien would make two pairs of loose red trousers for the legs. The back and legs would be decorated with strips of gold fringing.

‘The dragon's beard is a bit crooked,' said Molly.

Lulu cocked her head to one side as she checked. ‘Maybe,' said Lulu. ‘I think he just needs more feathers. The one in the picture has furry eyebrows as well.'

Rosie and Sam blew up balloons to form a base for the papier-mâché masks. Gus played football with the floating balloons.

‘Take that!' cried Gus. A balloon popped with a loud bang.

‘Gussie!' said Lulu. She put her hands on her hips. ‘Don't burst all the balloons.'

Mum looked up from the gluggy pot she was stirring.

‘Why don't you come and help me with the papier-mâché, honey bun?' suggested Mum. She held up a strip of newspaper soaked in paste.

Mum had mixed up a big batch of flour and water to make the paste. She was placing sticky strips of newspaper over each of the balloons to form a round face mask.

Gus ran to help. He dunked a fistful of newspaper into the paste pot. In a few minutes he managed to get white paste all over his Bug Boy outfit.

Mum put the masks out to dry in the sun on the verandah. Then she helped Tien sew the blue robes to go with them.

At last, Lulu and Molly finished decorating the dragon head. They packed up the glue, scissors and decorations. Mum folded up the last blue robe.

‘That was fun,' said Mum. ‘But now we need to go home and feed all the animals. It's nearly dinnertime.'

‘We can paint the masks and make some lanterns tomorrow,' said Tien. ‘Then over the weekend we can prepare some food so it's all ready for Monday.'

‘It's my news day tomorrow,' said Lulu. ‘Can Molly and I take the dragon costume in to show our class? The kids would love to see him.'

Mum frowned. ‘I don't think so, Lulu,' said Mum. ‘We don't want him to get damaged. Perhaps we could make a practise lantern tonight after dinner? You could take that for news instead?'

‘Good idea. Thanks Mum.'

Lulu held up the colourful dragon head. She swooped the dragon gently through the air, making him fly. The red cloak billowed out behind him.

‘He looks quite ferocious, honey bun,' said Mum.

‘He looks awesome,' replied Lulu. She and Molly grinned at one another. ‘I can't wait until Monday.'