Chapter 5
Several weeks went by and there was a dramatic improvement in Dingo. He seemed to have got control back in his life and he started to enjoy a day off each week again, exploring and sleeping, and listening to ozEkoala read the manuscript. They were getting well into it by this time. About two thirds of the way through it seemed to change suddenly. It was all about an incredible person called Jesus.. the Christ... someone they'd never heard of before. How they hadn't heard of him, with all the wonderful things he'd said and done, was beyond them. If he was alive today he'd be some sort of hero, surely! ozEkoala had decided he was her hero as soon as she read about him. She was drawn to his incredible wisdom and honesty. Dingo liked his miraculous powers! Dingo was a competitive sort of guy. His work was good, but it wasn't as good as ozEkoala's. Everyone knew that and just accepted it. Except Dingo. The truth was that he was working harder and harder to try and improve his skills, so that he could be as good as ozEkoala was. What he didn't realise was that his talents lay in a different direction, and he just hadn't discovered them yet. Bit by bit, he was working harder and longer again, driven by his desire to excel at something. This time ozEkoala didn't notice because her spare time was taken up training a new employee. When Dingo didn't appear on their day off she was taken by surprise. The new employee arrived, keen to go exploring and ozEkoala told him what had happened. Dingo was avoiding her! He didn't turn up all day, and when she saw him the next day he acted as if nothing was wrong. This made it hard for ozEkoala to broach the subject and she was torn about how to confront him without annoying him. Eventually she just asked straight out what he had done the day before... nice and casual... Then before he had time to answer, she enthusiastically related the adventures she and the new employee had enjoyed and said how sorry she was he had missed all the fun! Dingo was crest fallen. Why hadn't he come? He loved exploring and this new worker seemed a great bloke. He would make himself come next week. Nothing would stop him. But the next week came and the same thing happened. Their day off came and no Dingo. He had taken to working at home. That way ozEkoala wouldn't see the lamp burning late at night.. but as before, one thing led to another and he found himself hooked on work, and no longer had the control to be able to stop, even on their day off.
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