The entire family of Carly Bringals was gathered on the landing branch of their ‘Home’ tree and Jack and Laura were with them.
It had been 3 months since their Ma and Pa had left for the Conference of Elders and in the meantime, the weather had turned autumnal. Jack and Laura had visited the tree almost every day during the summer holidays, but now they were back at school and it was more difficult to find the time. Fortunately, today was a Saturday and there was no way they were going to miss the return of the Elders. “The Bringals are so excited,” whispered Laura. “It’s like the arrival of the King and Queen!”
“I know,” replied Jack. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen them so happy! I’m dying to know how they got on.”
“Wait!” interrupted his sister. “Something’s happening!”
An unusually strong wind was causing the branches to sway.
“Don’t worry!” shouted Michael above the noise of the rustling branches, “It’s them. They’re here!” The big, slow moving Hooter gently lowered itself onto the branch, its huge wings flapping strongly to maintain its slow speed and balance. Pa and Ma got down from the bird and thanked it for the journey. “Try to lose some weight!” answered the bird and with a loud “HOOOT” the Hooter takes to the air and off to its nest. The Bringals have everything ready for the homecoming celebration. They would find out what happened at the conference later. First they must celebrate the return of the Elders. Bringals do love celebrating! The next day Pa and Ma get all the news of what has been happening in Carly while they had been away. The family had carried on as usual and had managed to help several kids survive on the roads. There had been a problem with the Gluppers. One of them had stolen almost all the energy from one of the first generation ‘Pop- ins’. The Bringal had been out of action for a while and had only just recovered full energy last week. “We’ll have to do something about them,” said Pa, “You know how dangerous they can become if they get out of control. We must never forget the ‘Glupper Wars’. We’ll talk about it later.” But right now, celebrations were underway and though they were exhausted, Ma and Pa made a courtesy appearance before disappearing to rest and revive themselves. While most of the Bringals were jubilantly rejoicing their return, Ma and Pa were recharging their desperately low energy levels, in preparation for the family conference that was soon to take place. Despite the fact that Jack and Laura had been closely involved with the Bringals for more than three months now, they never ceased to be thrilled by the sight of a Bringal celebration. All that revelling and rollicking, whooping and cheering, in conjunction with those pyrotechnic aeronautics, was a spectacle of which they could never tire. One hour later, quite refreshed, Pa and Ma tell the family all about the long journey to and from the conference. How the extension of the range of Bubble Vision was proposed but refused because some of the Elders thought it would lead to more interference in the lives of the humans. Michael tells the twins, “It is easy to increase the range of Bubble Vision, you just add more sap from the ‘Home’ tree to the ‘soapy’ water.” Then Pa told the family the other results of their proposal: “My dear family,” he said, “I bring you very good news. The Elders at the conference decided that all Bringals can extend and expand our help in influencing humans to act with consideration to each other in every way. “We are allowed to try to get them to stop the pollution that is taking place on every level of society from the person on the street to the leaders of industry to governments of countries. “We may also to try to directly help the humans learn to be more considerate to others so that eventually, they will live in a more caring society and healthier environment. In short, we have permission for everything we hoped for. Of course, all this must be done without the humans knowing anything about our existence.” A huge cheer went up from the 100 Bringals in the gathering together with Jack and Laura. “Let’s celebrate!” they shouted. “Not so quickly!” said Ma, “There’s more and it’s not so good. After the conference heard what we had to say, some of the speakers that followed spoke about the conditions in their countries. They spoke about dangers to children and the environment that we don’t see here in this country. And they all agreed that, in general, the level of consideration of human beings for each other has dropped considerably. From Brazil they told us about helping kids that live on the streets and in the sewers and earn a meagre living by begging and stealing. They spoke about the destruction of the rain forests causing whole species of animals to disappear from the planet every day and putting the world in great danger. “From the Far East a Pa and Ma told us about children being used as slave labour in factories and being forced to sell drugs and even their bodies for their adult bosses. They also spoke of the terrible problems of pollution. “Many Elders from all over the world spoke about trying to stop adults abusing kids in all sorts of ways. And it went on and on. “Elders from Europe, the Americas, Australia, Asia, Africa, all over the world, pointed out the dangers that children were in; the dangers of pollution and the dangers of the lack of consideration of humans to each other. It was as if we had taken the cork out of the bottle.” Now Pa spoke again. “The elders at the conference decided that each family should deal with the problems that are in their particular area in the best way they can. Ma and I have worked out a plan for Carly which we will put to you for discussion but first, let’s celebrate our success and all the good things in life.” So started another 3 days of celebration! The Gluppers, naturally, were not invited. The Gluppers, naturally, came anyway. The Bringals, naturally, let them stay. When the celebrations were over, the Bringals got to work on a plan of how to go about the new project, “BRING BACK the VIBRATIONS!”
Chapter 18: Clean up Carly!
The two ‘Hooter’ birds were not very happy about having to go to work at 4 o’clock in the morning. They were complaining even more than usual and they usually never stop complaining! 36 Bringals climbed onto each bird and with a lot of hooting and flapping of wings, the birds unwillingly rose into the air. They turned east and headed out towards the Carly Chemicals factory. Not far from the factory gates, a dirt track branched off to the right from the road that runs south and headed around Carly across the narrow plain towards the sea. The ‘Hooters’ landed near the end of the dirt track, close to the sea, and dropped off the 36 Bringals.
“Thanks,” said the Bringal leader, “Please come back and pick us up when you see we’ve finished.” “I don’t see why we have to work at night.” one of the ‘Hooters’ remarked. “I don’t see why we have to work at all!” the other one chimed in. “Oh, come on, you know it’s for the good of us all. Try to be nice!” the Bringal leader said. “Nice? What’s nice? Sleep is nice! HOOOT!!” The Hooters flapped away.
It was about one hour later when two lorries came thundering out of the factory gates. They had their lights turned off and soon veered off the road and along the dirt track heading towards the sea. The lorries looked heavy, as though they were carrying full loads. As they trundled toward the sea, the drivers of the trucks had no idea that they were being closely watched. Suddenly, there was a series of explosions one after the other in very quick succession and both lorries ground to a halt. All 36 tyres on each lorry had burst. They were absolutely stuck where they were with no hope of moving. The drivers got down from their cabs and examined the wheels. “All my tyres are punctured!” said one driver. “Mine too!” said the other in shock. “How could it have happened?” As they stood there in complete amazement, the two drivers noticed two big birds land near the trucks and a few seconds later, take off and head towards the town. We know more or less what happened, don’t we? Here are the details: The Bringals had turned themselves into large metal spikes that lay across the dirt track and punctured the wheels of the trucks. Now the Bringals had ‘flown’ but new company for the drivers was on its way. The police had had one of those mysterious ‘phone calls informing them that two trucks were about to illegally dump toxic waste from Carly Chemicals into the sea. The drivers suddenly heard the police sirens and looked up just in time to be caught in the headlights of two police cars. They will have some explaining to do. As the sun rose on that early winter morning, Jack and Laura, along with thousands of other Carly children, lay innocently sleeping those last few hours, before getting up to a new day. And as they lay there, a soft, deep, heart-beat, that only the most sensitive of us can feel, began a silent throbbing.
That soft, deep, heart-beat of the world that only the most sensitive of us can feel, is the beginning of the return of the vibrations.
“This is all very good,” I hear you saying to yourselves. “But how does it involve the kids?” You are absolutely right. The Brin