The Curse of the Mummies

So there was this one day when the Senior Slimms took Eloise to South Bank to see the Mummies exhibition, where the Egyptian Mummies from the British Museum came to visit Brisbane and look upon this Antipodean River Paradise of Suburban Modernity with their cold, dead eyes.

I dropped them off down there and arranged to pick them up from the same spot outside the State Library of Queensland, then embarked upon the day's business.

I was on my way to walk the dog when I was surprised by the premature call for retrieval. I should add that this was a couple of hours later and the Mummies had been fully enjoyed. The terrible trio were now in the Entertainment Precinct and hanging around in the pool area, and Eloise was toying with the idea of a metropolitan swim.

I walked the dog anyway before heading off back into the city, touching base with Grandad to discover Disunity.

Yes, they had become split-up.

Twenty minutes or so later I arrived at the Extraction Point to find Grandad Mick waiting, lonely. No sign of Anne, or my precious daughter!

Michael was dispatched to track back along the likely route that the Displaced Duo should take to the previously agreed Rendezvous Point, whilst I drove up to find a parking place for the car, from where I would walk in the opposite direction, searching the other end of the South Bank Complex.

Needless to say parking places were hard to come by but eventually I collared one and proceeded, with dog, with the search, exploring the market and pool area as well as the ornamental gardens before running into Mick, who was still alone, but convincingly calm and level-headed.

Of course, Anne had no mobile phone, and no numbers written down to contact anyone even if she could get hold of one, and we didn't know if she and Eloise were still together, or where they were, or what they might do, so a level head was very important!

I have an "app" on my handheld device which has a spirit level, but I didn't need to use that to know that my head was as level as they come.

We talked to a Lifeguard, and called Security in.

Mick stayed with the Authorities while a search was ordered and I marched back to the RV point in a final desperate re-tracing of potentially probable steps to discover them there, tight-lipped and anxious.

It seems that when they split up, they agreed on a re-meeting place by the pool, and Eloise and Anne had departed to the water-park area where they had hung around for an awfully long time waiting for Grandad Mick, who was waiting by a different pool. And while we were carrying out our pincer-search they cleverly eluded us by walking to the Pick-Up Point and waiting there.

Oh, how we laughed!