Chichester Greenway

  Chapter 14:

  ALIENS

  The water in the Serpentine had been a dark muddy brown. If there were any frogs there, it kept them safely hidden from view. Andrew and Vicky and Mrs Canadine had walked all the way to the bridge, where they threw some crusts of bread to the ducks, then on into Kensington Gardens to find the Round Pond. This was frogless, too, but the sun came out again and they sat on a bench and ate their sandwiches and watched some men sailing model boats. Andrew wondered if it might be better to build a boat rather than a submarine and was already planning some of the details when Mrs Canadine suggested they should go and say hallo to the statue of Peter Pan and then have a look at the Albert Memorial on the main road.

  The whole day was a delight to Vicky. She had never had a picnic in the open air before and everything they did seemed perfect – riding on the buses, looking at the people rowing on the Serpentine, feeding the ducks. It did not seem to matter that they had not found any frogs. And before they caught the first of the buses home they had stood at Hyde Park Corner eating ice creams from a van. Vicky had ice cream quite often, but eating it there with Andrew and Mrs Canadine on a real outing made it just as much of a treat for her as it was for Andrew himself. Some of that happy glow was still with her as she let herself into the flat after waving goodbye to Andrew and Mrs Canadine. And her mum actually looked up from her newspaper and nodded when Vicky came into the kitchen.

  Andrew was still full of ideas about yachts and motorboats, so he was not too concerned about the absence of frogs either. As the next day was Sunday he thought it would be an opportunity to take another look at the skip where he had found the pram. And if the pram itself had not been cleared away, one of its wheels might do for a steering wheel. He was beginning to think that a motorboat would be more feasible than a yacht.

  On Sunday afternoon Vicky came round and they went out together to see if the pram was still there. Yes, it had not been moved. They were spinning one of the wheels, making it go faster and faster, when Andrew looked up and saw Paulus and J advancing towards them from the direction of the High Street. He felt his chest tighten and glanced round to see if they could run to the other end of Chichester Greenway and escape down the alleyway. And there was Cart, standing in the middle of the road with a spiteful grin on his face. He had his arms held out to either side of him like a goalkeeper, ready to grab them if they made a run for it. They were hopelessly trapped, unless some grown-up happened to come along and rescue them. There was no one in sight, though, and shouting would do no good because everyone would have their windows closed on this cold autumn afternoon.

  Vicky had realised something bad was happening. “They’re from school, aren’t they?” she whispered. Andrew nodded miserably. Getting Vicky involved made the situation even worse than before. And Cart and the others would be sure to tell as many kids as possible that he and Vicky were friends, unleashing the worst kind of teasing and jeering and bullying. He was very fond of Vicky and now they wouldn’t be able to be friends any more. The thought brought tears to his eyes.

  “Upset, are we?” jeered Paulus. He and J had swaggered right up to them, and Andrew could sense Cart standing directly behind them.

  “Two customers,” said J. “It must be our lucky day.”

  “We just want you to co-operate, that’s all,” said Cart, coming round to join the other two.

  Andrew had noticed what Cart was holding out towards him: a thin, bent cigarette. He knew it contained cannabis. His mum had explained about the half-smoked cigarette ends that littered the alleyway at the end of the road. And he knew that they intended to bully him into buying some cannabis from them. And Vicky, too? Oh, please, not Vicky, too!

  Vicky had not understood exactly what was going on, but she knew it was nothing good. “I’m not going to co-operate with you!” she yelled.

  Andrew was amazed. He had never heard Vicky yell like that. Paulus looked round nervously in case someone had heard her, but the street remained deserted and no one was opening their door to see what was going on. The three edged closer to their two victims.

  “You’ll like this,” said Cart. He had pulled a second cigarette out of his jeans pocket. Andrew felt his heart sink. So they had it in for Vicky, too. “And then you can start buying it from us, see?” Cart went on. “A nice regular order and we’ll all be happy, right?” J was handing Cart a green plastic cigarette lighter when Andrew and Vicky saw two people walking down the road towards them, a boy and a girl. Vicky wondered how they could have got so close without her noticing them.

  “Hallo,” said the boy.

  J, Cart and Paulus spun round. “What do you want? You clear off!” snarled J.

  “What’s that in your hand?” asked the girl. She had an air of quiet authority. Not quite knowing why he was doing so, Cart held out his hand with the two cigarettes on his palm.

  “They’re for burning, aren’t they?” said the girl. She and the boy were looking at the cigarettes with an expression of quiet interest. First one and then the other started to smoulder and then suddenly burst into flame. Cart gave a scream of pain and waved his hand wildly in the air. A cascade of sparks floated down onto the pavement and a sickly sweet smell hung in the air for a moment and then dispersed.

  “Let’s see your hand,” said the girl. Cart obediently held out his hand for her to see. The skin was pink and unburnt. Cart stared at it in disbelief. He was white in the face and trembling.

  “Does it still hurt?” asked the girl.

  “No. No, it doesn’t hurt at all.”

  “I think you can go, then, don’t you?” said the boy.

  “Yes. We’re going now. Right away,” said Paulus. The three of them edged away and then started running full pelt towards the High Street.

  “Thank you,” said Vicky. “Thank you very much.”

  “We’d have been in real trouble if you’d not come along,” said Andrew.

  “I’m glad we could help you,” said the girl. “My name’s Vonn, by the way.”

  “And I’m Akkri,” said the boy.

  “I’m Andrew,” said Andrew.

  “And I’m Vicky,” said Vicky.

  Vonn and Akkri savoured the strangeness of those two names, Andrew and Vicky, the first time they had heard the names of anyone on Earth. Vicky and Andrew, though, living in London, were used to hearing all sorts of names. Vonn and Akkri were probably what his mum called Eastern European, Andrew thought.

  Vicky wondered if she ought to shake hands. There was something special about these strangers, something unusual, though it was hard to say what it was. “Do you live near here?” she asked.

  “No, we come from some way off,” said Akkri, with a mischievous smile.

  Andrew smiled too. He liked these new acquaintances, quite apart from the fact that they had rescued them from the clutches of Cart, Paulus and J. Then his face fell. “We’re going to have an awful time from those three when we go back to school tomorrow,” he said.

  “Do you know,” said Vonn, “I don’t think you’ll have any trouble at all. Don’t worry about it. I don’t think they’ll ever bother you again.”

  Although Vonn did not go to their school and could have no knowledge of how Cart and the others operated, both Vicky and Andrew felt their anxiety fall away from them. Andrew gave an audible sigh of relief. “Well, that’s all right, then,” he said. Mrs Canadine had promised them beans on toast when they came back from playing in the street. “Would you like to come home and have tea with us?” he went on. He was sure his mum would approve of their new friends.

  Akkri glanced at Vonn, who gave a little nod. This first excursion onto the surface of Earth was already proving quite different from anything they had expected. And now they were going to the home of these two Earth children! “We’d love to,” said Akkri.

  The day before, after viewing the ring of planets and spending time together in Eedo’s world,
Vonn and Eedo had rejoined the others and told them what they had seen. They followed the two girls out onto the terrace and there, much closer now, it hung in the velvet blackness of space. They could make out details they remembered from that first amazing vision back on Vika. How long ago that seemed, thought Akkri. The star at the centre was so bright they could hardly look at it, but there was the giant planet patterned with clouds, with a big red spot close to the lower edge, and there was the planet surrounded with rings that gleamed in the light of the sun and, further in, a planet of a dull red colour, then Earth itself, marbled blue and white, with a single tiny moon just coming into view round its edge. Even nearer to the sun was what looked like earth’s twin, but gleaming white like their glimpse of their own planet Vika before they headed off into the depths of space. As they looked, one more planet came into view that they had not noticed before, a tiny black speck edging its way around the sun, so close it almost looked as if it would be swallowed up.

  “Nearly there!” said Toln.

  The next morning The Golden Palace slid gently down into Earth’s atmosphere, coming to rest among billowing clouds. Although the surface of the planet could not be seen for the clouds, everyone stood for a long time on the terrace, breathing for the first time the air of another world, subtly different from the air of Vika.

  After breakfast they went out again. The clouds had thinned and the river with its many bridges could be glimpsed from time to time. Vonn knew there was no point in waiting. She looked at Akkri. “Why not?” he said.

  A silver skimmer glided onto the terrace. “Good luck!” said Annilex.

  “Yes, good luck!” echoed Toln. They could see he was longing to come with them.

  The two friends climbed in and the skimmer began its descent, to a flurry of waves and good wishes. As they broke through the clouds the full grey expanse of London came into view, the buildings rapidly becoming larger until they were gliding along a busy street just above the traffic. With so many new things to look at, to the left, to the right, in front of them and behind them, it was almost a relief when the skimmer glided to a halt on a pavement. No one seemed to have noticed their arrival. People were hurrying past them with expressions on their faces that were as strange as their clothes or the vehicles roaring along the street.

  “They don’t look very happy,” said Vonn.

  “And they don’t seem to notice us at all,” said Akkri.

  They stepped out onto the pavement and the skimmer was gone. A man walked by with a little white tube in his mouth. The tip of it glowed red and infra. “He’s burning something in his mouth!” Akkri exclaimed. And then the smell of the place hit them. It was almost unbearable. It stung their eyes and clawed at their throats, while their ears were assailed by the frightening roar of the vehicles rushing along beside them.

  “Let’s go this way,” said Vonn, pausing for a moment to look at a blinking orange ball on top of a black and white pole. To their right was a grimy building with a different smell, a strange, sour smell, coming from it. Above the door was a sign saying ‘The King’s Arms’. “I wonder what that means?” said Vonn. A man came out, red in the face, shouting angrily to some other people inside.

  Like the long red building they had looked at before, this building was joined onto another building. You could see inside this one. People were sitting on a bench looking at big white boxes. Up above was the word Launderette. The next one had pictures of strange animals on it and then came another building with piles of folded material with pictures and writing on them. ‘England All Out,’ Akkri read on one of them. “Down here,” he said. He felt quite certain of it, though he did not know why. They turned right, into Chichester Greenway.

  It was quieter in this side road. The awful smell had subsided a bit, too. “Look,” said Vonn, “there are some people down there. Let’s go and see if we can talk with them.”

  “Vonn, this is the place I dreamed of, the place you dreamed of, too, the place we all saw. This is the starting point.”

  They walked down the road, marvelling at the strangeness of it all, the long, ugly building, the tiny fenced-off areas in front of each section, the strangely menacing grey sky.

  “I knew I saw something yellow!” Akkri exclaimed. They stopped to look at the shiny yellow and black motorbike.

  “It’s some sort of vehicle,” said Vonn. “Look, it’s got two wheels and that curved bit looks like a seat.”

  “But it’s chained to these railings,” Akkri objected. “It couldn’t go along if it was chained up like that.” There were so many new impressions, so many things he did not understand, that he was feeling almost dizzy.

  “I think we’re needed down there with those people,” Vonn put in. They could see now that they were all children, three bigger ones with their backs to them, and a smaller boy and girl facing their way. The boy had a white face and the girl’s face was black or very dark brown, both very different from the golden skin tones of the Vikans. Vonn was again gripped by the strangeness of what was happening. These were aliens, a completely different species, and yet they were clearly human just like themselves. The two younger children looked frightened, she thought.

  And so it was that in Chichester Greenway the historic first meeting took place between Vikans and inhabitants of the planet Earth, and Vonn and Akkri got invited in to tea.

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