Freedom!!!

Gonga did a quick two-step and clicked his heals. He spun around in circles. He jumped in the air and tumbled into a somersault. Freedom!!! Summer was finally here. The last final was over. It was done.

Now it was time for one last grand adventure of summer before buckling down to the more routine work of catching birds with the mist-net gun.

A backpack came hurtling through the air and bounced off Gonga’s chest. He grunted in expectation of a stack of books. But the backpack caved and slid down to the ground. He looked up to see Dereck grinning at him.

“Got rid of them all,” his friend said. “Finals done, books sold, now I’m ready for one good canoe trip before heading out to Mount Everest.”

Gonga cocked his head to one side. “Gonga like canoeing.”

“Really.” Dereck scratched his chin.

“Gonga know how to swim,” Gonga added.

“You’re not saying you want to spend a week with me in a narrow strip of metal going down category three rapids?”

Gonga smiled. “Gonga love water. Especially when it is hot.”

Oh no. This had nothing to do with the cryptic message he had received the night before. Go with Dereck, the message had told him. He has information you need. Yeah. That made a lot of sense. Go hang out for a week with this random person who had befriended Gonga. Keep your Gonga guise in place. See if you can last a week of close scrutiny without detection. Besides, what in the world could Dereck know that would have any bearing on the mission? And was the mission really worth it anymore anyway?

“Well,” Dereck has been silent for a while, pondering. “I suppose you can come with me. I have a couple other buddies going, but one had to bail yesterday. So we have two canoes and three people. Do you know how to paddle?”

“Gonga can learn,” Gonga declared, smacking his fist into his chest.

And with that, it was settled. Gonga would go canoeing.