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“Yeah, we’re five minutes away, mate. Okay, see you then. Bye.”
Bandit Heeler hung up the phone and stuck it in the cupholder. The road unfortunately picked that time to put a speed bump in his Jeep’s path and as it jumped in the air, the phone slipped out of his fingers and into the crack between the seats. “Oh, downward dog…” he groused, staring at where it had fallen. Eventually, he moved his gaze back to the road ahead. “Well, that’s for future Bandit.”
He glanced at the rearview mirror to see his son Jacko in the backseat. “That was Mackenzie’s dad,” he said, “He was wondering when we’d arrive. Apparently Mackenzie’s real excited to see you.”
Jacko fidgeted in his seat a bit, a naive expression on his face as he stared out the window. "Great. I’m excited too, Dad." The little retriever’s tail wagged against the backseat. He was excited to make new friends when he started primary, and this would be his first playdate with Mackenzie. Though, he couldn’t help but feel nervous. The tone of his voice clued Bandit in on how Jacko was feeling.
“I'm glad you are but don’t worry, kiddo,” said Bandit, trying to send him a gentle smile. “It’s great that you’re making friends and I know you two are gonna have a great time. Just be yourself and have fun, okay?”
“Okay, Dad. I’ll do my best.” Jacko replied, smiling back at Bandit. He still felt a bit worried, wondering exactly what friends do on a playdate.
“We’re gonna color, play Game Pup, kick the footie around- ooh! And I can show him the spaceship I made at school!”
“That’s great, honey,” said Mackenzie Border-Collie’s mom, “but be careful not to overwhelm him. He’s only just started school.”
Mackenzie nodded. “Don’t worry, mum. I’ll be the best host you ever saw.”
DING-DONG!
Mackenzie’s tail tapped briefly against his bed before he hopped off and took off for the front door. “He’s here!”
MACKENZIE: “This episode of Bluey is called “Journeys.”
Jacko held onto Bandit’s paw while they waited, his tail swaying gently behind him as he tried to calm himself down. Thinking back to what Bandit said helped, at least a small bit.
“I wonder what toys he has…” Jacko spoke to himself, albeit a bit too loud. He still had trouble with using his inside voice.
“Inside voice, mate,” Bandit gently corrected. “Ask Mackenzie and I’m sure he’ll tell you all about ‘em.”
The door opened and Mackenzie waved, a big grin across his snout. “Hey, Jacko!”
“Honey, did you look through the peephole before you opened the door?” called his mum.
“Yes, Mum,” he sighed.
“G’day, Grace,” Bandit greeted.
Grace walked up to the doorway. “G’day, Bandit, g’day, Jacko. Come in.”
"Hi, Mackenzie’s mum," Jacko replied in a quieter tone, heading inside with Bandit leading him.
He had never been to Mackenzie’s house before, noticing that it was much smaller than his home with the Heelers. Jacko let go of Bandit’s paw, walking over to speak to Mackenzie. “Hi, Mackenzie. It’s good to see ya.”
“Thanks for coming, Jacko!” said Mackenzie. “My dad’s at the store getting lunch so we can play for a bit before he gets back.”
“Better let you scamps get to it then,” said Bandit, ruffling Jacko’s hair. “If you need anything, I’m a call away, okay? Tell Josh I said hi.”
“No worries,” said Grace, waving Bandit off before shutting the door.
“Ooh, Jacko, wanna see the monsters I’ve collected on my Game Pup?” Mackenzie asked.
"Sure! I don’t think I’ve played that before, though." Jacko replied, curious about what exactly Mackenzie wanted to show him. It sounded interesting.
“It’s so cool!” Mackenzie led Jacko by the hand to his room where a shoebox sat on his bed. He threw the lid off and took out a beige plastic console with a greenish screen on it. “Dad says he played this back when he was cool. It’s called CreatureCap. It doesn’t look as good as tablet games but I still love it.”
Jacko did like tablet games quite a lot, even with the limit that he had on using the tablet at home. He watched eagerly as Mackenzie held the console in his hands, eager to see the kind of game that his friend was so excited about.
Mackenzie flipped the switch and his tail started wagging. The Game Pup chimed then the bloops and bleeps of the title screen played. “I know they look blocky, but Dad says this was the coolest thing when he was a kid. So you’re a trainer and you have to catch monsters in balls, then you can use them to fight other trainers’ monsters. When you beat the Champion, you win. I’m not there yet, but I’m close!”
"It looks cool! I like the music, and it sounds fun to play!" Jacko smiled, his tail wagging excitedly behind him as he leaned in closer to look at the screen. He had never played a video game before, so this was an entirely new experience for him to see. “Do you think I could try playing?”
“OK!” Mackenzie handed the console to Jacko. “You use the plus buttons to move your trainer around. Move into the patch of tall grass there.” He pointed to a patch of small sprout-looking things off to the side of the screen. “Wild monsters live there and if you walk in the tall grass, one might appear!”
Jacko got the gist of what Mackenzie said quite easily, heading off into the tall grass to have his first monster battle. The screen flashed for a moment, leading into the battle screen with a monster that looked like a caterpillar. “Oh! This one looks like a bug! Bugs are neat.”
The trainer on the screen moved away and after a puff of smoke, out popped Mackenzie’s monster, a small dragon with a fire on its tail. “That’s my buddy, the monster I started with. He’s super strong! Let’s fight the caterpillar and I'll show you what happens.”
Jacko nodded, looking down at the screen and viewing the different choices. He selected the FIGHT option and was brought into another menu, but it looked like he was having trouble picking which move to use on the caterpillar. Choices were always difficult for him.
“Pick Ember!” said Mackenzie, pointing to the word onscreen. “You have to beat the monster as quickly as you can. That’s how you be the best. My dad thinks catching all the monsters means you’re the best, but I don’t agree on that. I want to be Champion!”
"Okay! I’ll try it." Jacko replied, picking Ember and watching as a trail of small pixilated flames spewed from the dragon’s sprite. They hit the caterpillar, causing the bar below its name to deplete by half. "Cool! I hit it dead on!"
“That-a-way!” Mackenzie cheered, tail wagging. “One more Ember and you’ll beat the monster!”
With one last button press, the dragon shot out its flame and defeated the caterpillar. The sprite dropped down to the bottom of the screen, where text popped up showing how many experience points were earned from this battle. “I did it! Hooray!” Jacko exclaimed, smiling happily at the outcome.
“Sweet as!” Mackenzie hopped off the bed and pumped his fist. “Great job!”
“Kids!” called Mackenzie’s mum. Mackenzie immediately turned to the door. “Dad’s back with pizza!”
“C’mon!” said Mackenzie, opening the door. “And bring the game!”
"Okay!" Jacko slid down from the bed and followed Mackenzie out the door, carrying the game console with both paws while he thought about lunch. “Wonder what kind of pizza it will be.”
Mackenzie’s dad opened the boxes as the kids arrived, steam escaping into the kitchen. “Hey, squirts. How’s pepperoni and ham sound?”
“Alright!” Mackenzie exclaimed.
As they munched on the pizza, Mackenzie looked at the Game Pup sitting between them, then at Jacko. “What do you think of the game?” he asked, mouth full of pizza.
“It’s neat! But I kind of have to agree with your dad… you should catch more monsters!” Jacko replied, chomping down on a slice of pizza shortly afterward. He liked ham and pepperoni quite a lot. “It might make the game easier!”
Mackenzie swallowed. “No, it wouldn’t! Catching monsters takes too much time, and I wanna be Champion. It’s what you’re meant to do.”
“Wouldn’t it be harder to become Champion if you only have one monster? It might be better to have a team! And teams are really cool to make!” Jacko replied, firmly locked in on his answer.
“But that takes too looooong,” Mackenzie whinged, “Beating everyone with your buddy’s the only way to do it. He’s special or he wouldn’t be your buddy!”
“I’m not saying your buddy isn’t special! I just think you could use a bit of help!” Jacko huffed, “The long way just seems like it could be a bit more worth it!”
“I said the long way takes too long! That’s why it’s called the long way!”
“Mackenzie!” called his mum. “Inside voice, please!”
Mackenzie gulped, realizing what he was doing. He and Jacko couldn’t keep playing CreatureCap like this. After some thought, he said, “Maybe we should play something else after lunch. Want to kick the footy around?”
“Sounds good to me.” Jacko swallowed the last slice of pizza he had, wiping his paws on a napkin before tossing it into the bin. “Oos!”
“Great shot!” said Mackenzie, like nothing had happened.
Mackenzie dug the ball out of the bin in the backyard and walked over to Jacko. “Do they have footy at your old home?”
Jacko rubbed his shoulder lightly, his eyes darting off in the opposite direction as he thought back on his old home life. “Um… I used to play basketball sometimes! I was kind of good.”
“Yeah, that trash can shot was great! I don’t see much basketball on TV, though. I think Mum and Dad like footy better.” He threw the oblong ball in an arc toward Jacko. “Catch!”
He caught the ball easily, looking back at Mackenzie with a smirk. “You’ve got a pretty good arm! I hope I can keep up with ya.” Jacko raised his arm up and tossed the ball back toward Mackenzie.
“Thanks! How about we run a try? I’ll run to the back of the yard and you stop me. Okay?”
“Okay! Don’t know if I’m good at running, though. I’ll try my best!” Jacko smiled at Mackenzie, preparing himself to chase after his friend.
Mackenzie lowered himself and clutched the ball in one arm. “Ready…go!” He took off running toward the fence, ready to hop away from Jacko if he got close.
He quickly followed behind Mackenzie. Jacko didn’t think much of his abilities, but he did his best to catch up to the border collie. “I’m gonna get you!” Jacko exclaimed, not realizing that it would give off his distance from Mackenzie.
Hearing Jacko right behind him, Mackenzie rolled to his left and tripped over a tree root, hitting the turf with a muffled thud.
The ball left his arm upon impact and tumbled end over end before coming to a halt at Jacko’s feet.
Jacko picked the ball up and headed over to Mackenzie, worried about if his friend was hurt.
He didn’t seem to be in pain, which was good. It didn’t stop Jacko from worrying about him, however. “Are you okay? That didn’t sound like a good fall.”
“Who..put that…root…there…?” Mackenzie slurred, seeing stars. He shook it out, re-fluffing his head and bringing him back to the yard. “Maybe you can show me basketball instead.”
“Yeah… that sounds fine.” Jacko rubbed the back of his head, reaching out a paw for Mackenzie to grab and pull himself up. He hoped that maybe playing basketball would be better.
“I know it has a round ball…” Mackenzie ran back to the ball bin and emptied it through. “I don’t have a round ball. Could we play it using the footy?” He looked around the yard, getting an idea. He took the ball bin and hung it loosely on the clothesline. “We can throw the ball into the bin up there. How’s that?”
Jacko looked down at the ball in his arms and thought about what Mackenzie said. “Yeah, I don’t see why not!” He aimed for the bin and jumped up high, tossing the ball toward it. It missed, grazing it and causing the bin to swing around on the clothesline. “Oh biscuits…”
“Heh-heh! Now it’s more challenging! Lemme try!” Mackenzie scampered to the ball and collected. He bent his knees like the basketball players did on TV, then threw the ball over his head and toward the bucket. It swung into the ball, knocking it towards the tree where it nestled in its branches.
Mackenzie stared at it for a moment, shocked at the circumstances. “I…think I’d better get Dad.” He walked to the back door and opened a crack in it. “Dad? I got the football stuck in the tree again!”
“Maybe we should play something else now.” Jacko rubbed the back of his head, looking around the backyard as he tried to think about what to do. His mind was blank, like a sheet of paper. But that thought was just enough to give him an idea. He ran over to Mackenzie to tell him.
“Hey! Let’s draw! I love drawing.” Jacko exclaimed, excited about the prospect of doodling.
“Okay, sure!” Mackenzie led Jacko back to his room, dodging his dad on the way.
“Mackenzie!” he laughed. “Be careful!”
When they got there, Jacko sat down on the floor of Mackenzie’s room and waited to receive some paper to draw on.
“Do you have anything you want to draw? I’m open to ideas!”
Mackenzie delivered paper and crayons to the floor and handed some to Jacko. “Well, I really like space. Me, Jack, and Rusty like to play astronauts. Wanna draw some planets?”
“Cool! I like space too, so that’d be fun!” Jacko grabbed a crayon and immediately got to work, his mind filled with ideas of what he wanted to put down on the paper. He even had a favorite constellation he wanted to draw out.
Mackenzie had an image of Saturn in his mind, so that’s what he took to paper. He drew a big circle in the middle of the paper, then circled around it with many colorful rings using every crayon he had. The last touch was the yellow stars surrounding the giant planet. Before he knew it, he was all done and held it up. “Look, Jacko! I drew Saturn. It’s my favorite because of the colorful rings.”
Mackenzie tilted his head. It looked like Jacko was still hard at work on his drawing. “Are you still drawing?” he remarked. “I’m already finished.”
Jacko didn’t reply to Mackenzie, his eyes still focused on the paper in front of him. He drew little stars at the top of his paper, forming them into his favorite constellation that he wanted to show the border collie. “I’m not good at drawing fast, Mackenzie!” He said, moving down to draw himself onto the paper.
His right paw was shaking slightly as he continued drawing, moving a bit to the right so he could add Mackenzie to the picture. The last thing he added was the planet Saturn, though it was originally going to be Jupiter.
The first thing he said when he saw the drawing was, “I guess not but you are a good drawer. There’s Saturn and that’s me and you, right? I like it! What do you think of mine?”
“I like yours! It’s really pretty, and colorful!” Jacko said, looking down at Mackenzie’s drawing. There was a sizable black spot in the corner of Mackenzie’s paper, but it looked like it fit with the rest of the drawing. “What’s this supposed to be?”
Mackenzie had to look again to remember what he drew. “Oh!” he said, pointing to the black spot Jacko was looking at. “That’s a black hole. It’s a sun that got really small. At least, that’s what Jack told me. Dad told me it’s so heavy that it pulls everything in around it, even light! Cool, huh?”
“That does sound cool! Must be pretty strong then.” Jacko smiled, his tail wagging happily as he listened to Mackenzie. It was nice getting to hear what he liked about space.
“They’re super strong! And I got to go inside one.” Mackenzie pointed to himself with pride. “And I figured it out.”
Jacko tilted his head slightly, “You went inside a black hole? What did you figure out?” He asked curiously.
“That there are aliens on the other side, from a distant planet! They tried to capture me but Jack and Rusty came to my rescue. And I got to tell them all about it! I was their Chief Scientist, after all. My job is to figure everything out.” He pointed at the black hole again. “And ever since Jack brought it up, I wanted to figure out the black hole and do it alone.”
“Oh! That’s really cool! It must’ve been a difficult journey.” Jacko looked down at his own drawing for a moment, fixated on the constellation he made. “I went on a journey once. It was hard… that’s for sure.”
Mackenzie crawled over to see Jacko’s drawing better. His eyes traced the constellation from the top to the bottom, one star to the next. “What kind of journey?” he asked. “What did you do? Did you have to go far?”
“Well, it was a long journey. The stars were really pretty though, seeing them every night.” Jacko pointed to the constellation in his drawing, smiling softly. “When you’re on a journey like I was, the stars are sometimes your eyes' only way of finding where you are. Where you want to be! And I did, eventually.”
“That’s good that you made it where you were going,” said Mackenzie. “I guess Calypso was the star on my journey. I couldn’t let the black hole alone, and she helped me see that once you figure it out, you don’t need to keep coming back to it.” He looked from his drawing to Jacko’s, and a thought occurred to him. He set his drawing down and took Jacko’s and set it down next to it. “You know,” he said, standing up to look at both, “it looks like our pictures are part of a bigger picture, don’t you think? There are two Saturns, but even so.”
“Yeah! They do fit together pretty well. I like it.” Jacko stood up and stepped closer to Mackenzie, his tail wagging happily behind him as he looked at his friend. “I liked drawing with you. It was really fun, and I liked your story too.” He said, reaching over to hold his paw.
Mackenzie squeezed Jacko’s paw back. “Yeah, me too. You’re a great drawer. And a great basketball player. And at CreatureCap, I guess.”
“I could get better! It was my first time playing, anyways.” Jacko rubbed the back of his head with his free paw, sheepishly chuckling to himself.
Mackenzie laughed as well. “Okay, maybe you can try out my way of doing things and then I can try yours. Maybe if we work together, we can both be Champion.”
“Yeah! Team Champions! That sounds like it’d be good.” Jacko let go of Mackenzie and reached down to pick up his drawing, looking at it for a moment. “I’m gonna put this in my room. It’ll be nice, remembering today.”
“Me too!” Mackenzie picked his picture up with a big grin when suddenly, there was a knock at his ajar door.
“Honey?” said Mackenzie’s mum. “Oh, what lovely drawings, you two!”
“Yeah! Can you hang this on my wall?” Mackenzie asked.
“Sure. I just wanted to let you know that Jacko’s dad is on his way.”
“What?” Mackenzie squeaked, whipping around to look at his clock. “It can’t be 4:00 already!”
“Aw… and we were having fun too.” Jacko sighed dejectedly, kicking his foot paw forward.
“Well, I had a lot of fun with you, Jacko,” said Mackenzie. “Maybe Dad will let me bring the Game Pup to school and we can play then. I hope you can come over again soon too.”
Jacko’s ears perked up at the sound of that, his tail wagging much faster as he smiled at Mackenzie. “That’d be nice! I’ll try and ask my dad later on. We’ll be Champions before we know it!”
“Yeah! High paw!” said Mackenzie, jumping in the air, paw outstretched.
Jacko jumped up and slapped Mackenzie’s paw back, smiling as widely as he could with how happy he felt.
“And then, I broke a board in half!” said Bluey, pumping her fists in her car seat. “Sensei Boxer was very proud.”
“Oh, good one!” said Dad, smiling back at her through the rearview. “Hey, how about you ask Jacko about his play date? I’m sure he’d love to tell you all about it.”
“Oh yeah! How was Mackenzie’s, Jacko?”
Jacko turned to Bluey and smiled, “It was great! We played on Mackenzie’s Game Pup for a bit, and then we had pizza! It was really tasty. Then we played some sports! Mackenzie said I was really good at basketball, which was nice. And then after that, we did drawings!” He held up the paper he was holding, showing off the drawing he made with Mackenzie.
“Wow, that’s amazing!” said Bluey. “It’s you and Mackenzie in space!”
“Where’d Mackenzie get a Game Pup?” Dad chuckled. “I had one of those back when I used to be cool.”
“He got it from his dad. It was really cool!” Jacko beamed with excitement, his tail wagging fast against the car seat.
“So what’s the word? You wanna go back there sometime soon?” Bandit had a pretty good idea of the answer to that question if Jacko’s tail was any indication.
Jacko looked down at his drawing, his eyes focused on the doodle of himself and Mackenzie together. He knew his answer right away, “Yeah! I’d really like to, Dad!” He said with excitement in his voice.
“I’m glad you made a new friend, kid,” said Bandit. “You’re settling in like a pro. I’ll talk with Mackenzie’s dad to see when we can set something up.”
“Ooh, and maybe I can come with you next time, Jacko!” said Bluey.
“For sure! That’d be really fun, Bluey!” Jacko replied, resting back in the car seat and looking out the window. He watched the clouds go by rather fast, thinking about what he’d do with Mackenzie next when they get the chance.