Selby Surfs (10 page)

While the Trifles were recovering in their deck chairs, Selby wandered around with visions of riches dancing in his head. No one had noticed that Selby found the Billion Dollar Bobble but soon someone was bound to.

‘We’re rich! We’re billionaires! Even if Dr Squirt takes half the money and leaves the Trifles with the other half, our worries are over forever. Now I can reveal my secret! I can talk to the Trifles! I won’t have to work because we’ll have a house full of servants,’ Selby thought. ‘I wish they’d hurry up and notice that the necklace is in the jar. Hmmm,’ he thought as he looked over the side of the boat. ‘Come to think of it, where is the jar? Did Dr Squirt take it down to his laboratory?’

Below, in a darkened room, Dr Squirt had the collecting jar and was getting ready to take the creatures out so that he could begin his studies. Slowly he tipped the contents into an aquarium and watched the tiny points of light spread around on the bottom.

‘Hmmm, what’s this?’ he thought when the Flash–Greebies had all left the jar. ‘Dr Trifle seems to have picked up a rock or something. Oh, well.’

And this is when Dr Squirt tipped the billion dollar diamond necklace out the porthole and into the sea. All of which would have been bad enough but Selby was on deck directly above the porthole and saw it go.

‘The necklace!’ Selby cried and, suddenly forgetting that he was the only non-swimming dog in Australia and, perhaps, the world, he dived overboard.

All of which brings us back to the beginning where Selby, half drowned, was struggling in the water. Then the dark shape began swimming around him in smaller and smaller circles.

Suddenly it came closer and nuzzled its nose in Selby’s fur.

‘Gulp. He’s going to play with me before he eats me!’ Selby squealed to himself. ‘Why doesn’t he just get it over with?!’

But playing, not eating, was on this creature’s mind. He nuzzled Selby and then pushed him upwards. Selby broke the surface like a rocket. The splash was so loud that Dr and Mrs Trifle jumped out of their deckchairs and ran to the other side of the boat.

‘It’s Selby!’ Mrs Trifle called. ‘He’s fallen in the water! Quick! Get a rowboat!’

But there was no need for rowboats. The thing that was toying with Selby wasn’t really a shark, as he’d thought, but a dolphin.

‘Bleep beek squeak gleep,’
it said as it bounced Selby one more time and then hurled him up onto the deck.

‘He saved your life!’ Mrs Trifle said, holding Selby in her arms. ‘What happened?’

‘He must have fallen overboard,’ Dr Trifle said. ‘He’s probably still too dizzy to walk.’

‘
Gleep bleep squeak bleep,’
the dolphin said.

‘I recognise that voice,’ Selby thought as the dolphin leapt high into the air again. ‘Did Dr Trifle say Dizzy? It’s him! It’s Dizzy the dolphin! I rescued him from Dr Squirt’s research station years ago!
He must have recognised me and saved me! Which just goes to show that if you do a good deed for a dolphin, he’ll do a good deed for you.’

‘Isn’t that funny,’ Dr Trifle said as Dizzy swam in circles around the boat balancing on his tail. ‘He must be a trained dolphin.’

‘I think you’re right,’ Mrs Trifle said. ‘Look he’s wearing a sparkly collar. Goodness! It’s like a necklace with a huge hunk of glass hanging from it.’

‘If I didn’t know better,’ Dr Trifle said, ‘I’d say it was a diamond.’

Dr and Mrs Trifle laughed at the thought of a dolphin wearing a diamond necklace and patted Selby some more.

‘And Dizzy is welcome to it,’ Selby thought as Dizzy leapt again and was gone. ‘Who needs all that money? I don’t. I’ve got the best thing that anyone could ever have: Dr and Mrs Trifle. And they love me and I love them so much I could scream. Well I
could
scream but I don’t think I will.’

I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish,
That I could be a little fish
And swim around the sea and play
With other fishes night and day.

I’d dart among the seaweed and
Then rub my belly in the sand.
And when it was my time to sup
I’d gobble littler fishies up.

Hang on a minute! Don’t you see?
A bigger fish might snack on me!
Forget this little fishy lark,
I think I’d rather be a shark.

Or maybe I could be a whale
And have a huge almighty tail,
More teeth than you have ever seen,
And plenty more of me between.

Of all the creatures in the sea
The biggest one’s the one for me.

Of all the shops that I have known
There’s only one that I would own.
For reasons that are plain to see
A pet shop is the shop for me.

If I could only get my wish
I’d have one filled with tanks of fish
And cuddly kittens in a heap
Then lots of birdies going cheep.

Of course there’d be a dog or two
Perhaps a panda from a zoo
Then how about a kangaroo:
A joey – with its mother too.

Rhinos, elephants and camels
These and other sorts of mammals.
Along with many many more –
Of course I’d reinforce the floor.

And then I’d let them out to play
Before I gave them all away.
When finally I’d done my dash
I’d buy another shop – for cash.

I’d play with all the pets again
And give them all away and then,
When every pet had found a home,
I’d sit and write another poem.

Duncan Ball is an Australian author and scriptwriter, best known for his popular books for children. Among his most-loved works are the Selby books of stories plus the collections
Selby’s Selection, Selby’s Joke Book
and
Selby’s Sidesplitting Joke Book.
Some of these books have also been published in New Zealand, Germany, Japan and the USA, and have won countless awards, most of which were voted by the children themselves.

Among Duncan’s other books are the Emily Eyefinger series about the adventures of a girl who was born with an eye on the end of her finger, and the comedy novels
Piggott Place
and
Piggotts in Peril,
about the frustrations of twelve-year-old Bert Piggott forever struggling to get his family of ratbags and dreamers out of the trouble they are constantly getting themselves into.

Duncan lives in Sydney with his wife, Jill, and their cat, Jasper. Jasper often keeps Duncan company while he’s writing and has been known to help by walking on the keyboard. Once, returning to his work, Duncan found the following word had mysteriously appeared on screen: lkantawq......

For more information about Duncan and his books, see Selby’s web site at:
www.harpercollins.com.au/selby

Emily Eyefinger
Emily Eyefinger, Secret Agent
Emily Eyefinger and the Lost Treasure
Emily Eyefinger and the Black Volcano
Emily Eyefinger’s Alien Adventure
Emily Eyefinger and the Devil Bones
Emily Eyefinger and the Balloon Bandits

Piggott Place
Piggotts in Peril

Selby’s Secret
Selby Speaks
Selby Screams
Selby Supersnoop
Selby Spacedog
Selby Snowbound
Selby Surfs
Selby Snaps!
Selby’s Joke Book
Selby Splits
Selby’s Selection
Selby’s Stardom
Selby’s Side-splitting Joke Book
Selby Sorcerer