RETIRING WILLY WOMBAT

Willy Wombat doesn’t feel he’s old but he has grey hair and some is falling out. He doesn’t run as fast as he used to. Then some nights he imagines he could, if he has to. He still feels young, not like his grandfather. When he was Willy’s age now, he was old, really old.

So Willy is surprised one night, when all the family comes to visit, at once, to give their opinions. Can’t tell the next generation anything - they know it all.

Well! Right here in his burrow is his daughter Winifred, and her partner Woebegone and even their off spring, Wendy and Wilhemena, who all say in unison, before Willy can get a word in, “Grandpa, it’s time for you to retire.”

They’re holding a big beautifully wrapped present.

“I’m not really old enough.” Willy protests.

“Oh yes you are!” they say in chorus again, which isn’t very nice but probably true enough.

“You don’t need to keep digging your burrow bigger and bigger, Wendy and Wilhemena can come for a sleepover any day. There’s heaps of room; and you’ve already dug up enough wattle roots to last a lifetime. And if you get into trouble we’ll help you out.”

They all seem so convinced; if not convincing!

Deep down Willy knows he’s run out of puff…. a little that is!

“Okay Okay”, he agrees. Now they give him his parcel and when he unwraps it, with some help from Wendy and Wilhemena, he finds he’s the proud owner of a beautiful striped deck chair.

For the first few nights it’s great; just to sit out under the moonlight listening to the frogs cavorting in the billabong; just relaxing - taking it easy.

It’s just like being on holiday.

One night he muses, “I wonder how long before I go to the big billabong with many burrows in the sky.”. Then a bit later he thinks, “The closer I get to that time, the more I’m not so sure about that big billabong… just have to wait and see.”

After a few nights Willy is bored: very bored.

So he does some little wombat minding. However, after a night of looking after lively little wombats - he’s very tired, to say the least.

So he begins to make some decisions for his new stage in life.

He decides every full moon he’ll visit old wombat friends. He does that for awhile, and then invites them back to his pad, and becomes the great entertainer.

Then one night one of the old, or more correctly senior, wombats says, “You ought to join the U3A or Wombus. Willy joins Wombus and the U3A and listens to other old wombats tell their life experiences and they go on lots of trips. They get nick-named 'the grey wanderers' and they love to sing “we love go a wandering along the wombat ways.” and other senior songs like that.
Willy puts himself down for some short courses in U3A with not so short titles like “The indigenous flora around billabongs.’’ “The base rock formations under your burrows”, “Elementary kookaburra language” And one he really enjoys, “Obscure galaxies of the southern night sky’’.

Some nights when he’s actually at home in his own burrow there always seems to be so much to do.

One night, surprise of surprises, a distant relative Winifred call in . She’s a cousin twice removed but younger that Willy, by a long shot.

“Do you get bored now you’re retired?” She asks. And then the difficult question, “What do in all your spare time?”

“Spare time you call it! I’m so busy, I don’t even have time to sit in my retirement deck chair. It’s just go, go, go!"

She interrupts, “But you must have heaps of time to do whatever you like.”

“No way! I’m old and I’m afraid time will run out before I do all things I want to do.”

“Oh!” says Winifred.

“Don’t worry, you’ll understand when you retire.”

“By the way, it’s lucky you called in tonight, because tomorrow night I’m off with my retired wombat friends to see a new billabong we’ve never seen before. It’s almost daylight now and I’ve got to get a good day’s sleep before the trip; so good night to you Winifred.”

And Willy soon fell asleep to dream of his next adventure.


© Ian Higgins, 2009