Special Agents

I’m the Head of the Agency. Well, that’s what the Little Travellers are calling me. They call me that or “Boss”. They are a team of special agents, each with their own special personality. The eldest tells me she is the crazy leader “Oh, like Gadaffi?” I asked, “no, I’m much more fun”. The second is the brainiac, the third and fourth have super powers and do whatever their older sisters tell them “it works better that way” they tell me.

They are all living in the car. By the amount of what I’ve seen be carried out the door, it looks like they will be there for the remainder of the year. It appears to be cold where they are going, everyone is wearing a hat, gloves and scarf. Strangely, they are all wearing t-shirts. The third and fourth travellers have laid the seats of the van back, turned their car seats upside down and are pretending to be spacemen. They have their heads pushed back against the seats, ready for the impending G force. Every now and then, they begin to count back for “take-off” and are abruptly reminded “NOT YET” by their leader.

They’ve have all just been inside for what they have called an “emergency meeting” or what I would call “lunch” and have filled me in on the story as I’ve worked on their sandwich requests.

They received a call from Head Office, the dinosaurs have entered our world, they got in through the portal. It is their job as special agents to head in to the portal to “shut it down”. They are armed with torches, a map of Parliament House (except of course it’s not Parliament House it’s the portal), and a tube of lip balm.

I know at some stage there will be a fight. My guess is Gadaffi will probably remind the team at a crucial point that it is not a democracy, that she is in fact a dictator. If history is an indicator, there will be an uprising and the second little traveller will organize a revolution. The third and fourth little traveller will follow whoever is offering the better bribe. The words “I’m telling Mum” will set off a chain reaction and I will have four little faces in front of me, all sharing their version of how it all went terribly wrong.

In three weeks we will be back in Qatar. The ‘portal’ will have been returned to the car rental company. The little travellers and I shall walk back in to the school gates and find our new teachers and classrooms. Swimming lessons, basketball and music classes will begin. They will re-unite with their friends from school and talk of homework, future birthday parties and tag games at recess.

While all of this happening, I will continue on with my geographical schizophrenia. It will be great to be back in to a routine, to catch up with friends, to watch the travellers reunite with theirs. A little piece of me though, will be at this table, looking out at a portal, full of secret agents hunting dinosaurs.

Sign up for the best bits here

Sign up for the best bits from our community of forty thousands expats. Every Saturday morning we’ll shoot you the five hottest topics from the world of expat.

Powered by ConvertKit

Comments

  1. What a wonderful play. That is the hardest thinking about getting back on with the routine…losing the time for this free-range playing. Enjoy the last few weeks of it. Beautiful post.

  2. Oh this takes me back! We used to play velociraptors vs t-rex during school breaks. I was always a velociraptor. We needed to make sure the t-rex was lumbering and slow in order to make the game last. Sigh. I miss being a kid.

  3. Aww. I don’t want you to leave yet. I want you all to come through the portal and land in my back yard. (so I can be leader bwahahahaha)

  4. I can’t get over how brave you are letting them play in the car. the last time I did that they snapped the rear view mirror off and ran my battery down. Little darlings. 

  5. Takes me back to the days that my parents (being teachers), my brother and sister and myself would spend 10 weeks in the car traveling cross US and Canada. The fantasies that we would create. Here I am almost 50 years later and I still remember them … enjoy it because it will mean so much as they grow up. 🙂

  6. Linda A. Janssen says

    I love the choronology of the secret mission going awry (who overthrows whom, bribery, outing each other to Mum, etc.). Details only someone who loves and cares for them would know.

  7. Dear Kirsty

    Another great post! Love it!

    A part of me is back at the portal looking out as well… sigh.

    Loved your term “geographical schizophrenia” will have to borrow it and credit you!

    We are back and it has been nice to be back in a routine these days.

    See you in the hallways soon!
    Rajka

  8. Carole Jordan says

    My two were born at Al Ain in the Burami Oasis at the TEAM Mission’s Oasis Hospital back in 1976 and 1977.  Before we came back to my country of origin, we had packed and unpacked and moved to different countries and continents, 17 times in 5 countries and 2 of the seven emirates of the UAE.  Still best friends with long time expat friends from many different countries.   When we celebrated Thanksgiving Dinner in Abu Dhabi, no two  were from the same country of origin 🙂  When we celebrated the 4th of July in Nigeria, we had tug of war with between the Brits and Americans with the Dutch and French, Nigerians and Germans joining in on either side respectively.   The greatest adventure is living abroad in foreign lands, most times with out the benefit of knowing the local languages.  Playing bridge with women and or women and men, all from different countries, and the biggest question was always about which conventions we played.  I envy your youth and your experiences, as I envy my own turn way back when.  I still enjoy travelling to foreign places, in particular, Mexico, where I enjoy visiting the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuaries in Michoacan and Mexico States where they migrate and overwinter in the mountains during the winter before heading north in the spring to reproduce and migrate as far north as Canada in a series of summer generations before the longer lived fall migrants head south to go where their ancestors have been living for up to 8 months for unknown number of centuries, on the same trees year after year, having only some embedded instinct of where to go and how to get there, and then repeating the cycle each spring of flying north, breeding, egg laying, and dying, generations maybe as many as 4 before the northern most start heading south again, in the late summer, arriving in the mountains at the end of October and early November.  Safe journey and look forward to following your posts.  

  9. Thanks Carole, I identified so much with the 10 different nationalities all sharing a room but discussing whose “rules” they were going to follow. What a fantastic story about the Butterfly Sanctuaries! Kxx

  10. See you soon Rajka, I may have a big cup of coffee in my hands for day one as we land the evening before school starts. Looking forward to catching up on your news. Kx

  11. Ha! Thanks for the warning. Whenever I turn the car on the wipers are at full speed, radio blaring and the air conditioner gives me a quick blow dry. 

  12. That right there is my mr7 and mr4 every day. Plus the fights. Multiplied of course when the bigs get in on the action. But it is so beautiful when they are all, however briefly, working in unison. So understand the way you are feeling – wanting to be home but already missing Australia. Both are home of course. We go back to school on Tuesday. Did I already mention that?! Tuesday!!

  13. That’s wonderful! I love their imaginations. I can still remember playing games like that. 🙂 

  14. Joburg Expat says

    That could have come verbatim from my family. Especially the part about it going wrong and the following complaints to mom. That’s why I can never truly enjoy their little games because invariably they will end badly, but your post made me realize how precious they are. Thank you!

  15. Makes me want to go back to playing with my little brother under a makeshift tent. Or give v a brother/sister.

Speak Your Mind

*