Laundry Larakins

• Danielle Hooper, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2009

Grandy lives in the middle of outback Australia. Once every week Grandy hangs her washing out under the harsh Australian sun.

One day Grandy was gardening in her font yard when she noticed one of her socks was missing. She looked around to see if the wind had blown it off. But out of the corner of her eye, she could see something bright orange and it was moving. She noticed it was an emu wearing her favourite sock!

The next day Grandy noticed her blue apron was missing…

The day after some red underwear went missing as well as a white t-shirt…

The townspeople from where Grandy lived, all made fun of the ridiculous idea that animals would ever steal clothes off of a clothesline.

Day after day Grandy waited and watched to see if what ever was stealing her washing would soon come back again.

She got so tired of waiting that she fell asleep.

Grandy woke up with a lot of giggling and laughing coming from the clothesline. She saw a koala dressed in her jeans, an echidna hiding in one of her t shirts, a kangaroo wearing her green scarf and emu stealing her sock!

Grandy ran over to where the animals were making a fuss and asked nicely if they could leave and not touch her clothes again. The animals said that they really enjoyed dressing up in her clothes and playing around. So the animals and Grandy came to an agreement. Grandy would supply all of the materials needed for them to build a clothesline of their own.

The next day Grandy gave all of the materials to the animals. Together all of the animals put together a clothesline of their own.

Grandy gave a piece of her clothing to each animal. Everyday from then on Grandy has a special friendship with her Laundry Larakins.