Chichester Greenway Page 15

  Chapter 15:

  A DREAMLIKE SENSATION

  “Where do you come from, then?” asked Vicky. Her usual shyness had disappeared. She liked these new strangers.

  Akkri glanced at Vonn and again she gave a little nod. Suddenly both of them felt sure that all they needed to do was tell the truth and let life itself take care of the outcome. “At the moment we live up there,” he said, and pointed to a bank of cumulus cloud that was beginning to emerge from the overall greyness. Then the sun came out, and there was the spacecraft, its towers rising up above the clouds.

  “Look, Andrew,” Vicky exclaimed, “it’s The Golden Palace!”

  “That’s what we call it! However did you know that?” Vonn gasped.

  “It’s in a book we’ve got – ‘Trolls, Mountains and Magic’,” said Andrew. “One of the stories is called ‘The Golden Palace that Hung in the Sky’.”

  “It’s one of my favourites,” said Vicky. “And there’s a picture of the palace. It looks just like that.” She and Andrew gazed in wonder at the spacecraft. The sun had come out even more brightly now and the towers and terraces and balconies shone golden in its radiance.

  “Lots of people must be looking at it,” said Andrew. “I hope they won’t shoot it down.”

  “I don’t think they’ll notice it,” said Akkri, “and if they do, it’ll be all right.”

  Vicky was trying hard to understand what was going on. It was so strange it hardly seemed real, and yet here they were, talking to Akkri and Vonn as if it were all perfectly normal. “I hope you don’t mind, I mean I hope it’s not rude, but are you aliens?”

  Akkri laughed. “I hope you don’t mind,” he said, “but we think you and Andrew are the aliens!”

  Andrew thought about this. He found he rather liked it. “An alien! And you, too, Vicky! But we can’t be really. We’re human.” He had been taught not to stare at people, but he did so now, staring at Akkri and Vonn, gradually taking it in that they had come to Earth from somewhere else, some other planet far away. “You look human, though,” he said. He went on staring at them, noticing the golden colour of their skin and their eyes. Yes, their eyes were golden, too.

  Akkri and Vonn were looking just as intently at Vicky and Andrew. Their eyes were very different from Vikan eyes. Vicky’s were dark brown and Andrew’s were blue. Very strange!

  “We’d better not tell my mum that you’re aliens,” said Andrew as he led the way to the front door and rang the doorbell.

  From the moment she opened the door, Mrs Canadine had a strange, dreamlike sensation that lasted until Andrew’s new friends left to go back to their home, wherever that was. Afterwards she found she could remember parts of the afternoon quite clearly while other things were peculiarly blurred. She hoped she was not getting ill.

  She remembered making toast on the ring and warming up two tins of baked beans while Andrew and Vicky showed them round the house. There was really not much of it to show but the two strangers had seemed interested in every detail and she overheard them asking some very odd questions. Once she heard Andrew say, “It’s a cat and that one over the road is a dog.” There was something different about their eyes and she could not place their names at all. From their skin colour she guessed they might be Scandinavian or possibly Russian. She could not recall how they were dressed but she knew there had been something odd about their clothing.

  While they were all sitting round the kitchen table she noticed them watching Andrew and Vicky digging into their toast and beans before they ate anything themselves. It was almost as if they were not sure what to do, and when they did eat she had the distinct impression that they had never tasted beans before.

  She liked them, though. There was a lovely peaceful feeling in the house while they were there. When they went off down the little path to the front gate with Vicky and Andrew, she called out, “Come again, dears, whenever you want to.”

  Andrew was glad she liked them. Some of the strangeness was beginning to wear off and already they felt like the best of friends. “How did you get down here from the spaceship?” he asked.

  “In a skimmer,” said Vonn, then found herself saying, “We can give you a ride in one if you like.”

  “Yes, please,” said Andrew. Vicky remained silent. She supposed it would be all right.

  A small silver craft came gliding down Chichester Greenway towards them, just a few inches above the road. “Wow!” said Vicky. She could see why it was called a skimmer. Her nervousness left her as the skimmer settled on the concrete surface of the road beside them. It was all so strange and new that it was hard to take in all the details of what was happening. They seemed to step into the skimmer without having to open any doors or hatches. They sat down on a comfortable curved seat, just the right size for the four of them.

  “Where would you like to go?” asked Vonn. As far as she was concerned, anywhere would do. It was so exciting just to be on the surface of Earth in the company of these two aliens. No, she must stop thinking like that. They were humans, just as she and Akkri were humans, however strange and different they looked. Perhaps Korriott would be able to explain how the people of Earth were a type of human being even though they lived billions of miles from Vika.

  “St. James’s Park,” said Andrew. “There are pelicans there.”

  “I want to see The Golden Palace,” said Vicky.

  Vonn could see that her eyes were shining with excitement. For a moment she hesitated. No one had considered the possibility of Earth people coming to visit them. The more she thought about it, the more she realised that all their thinking and planning had been about Vikans coming to visit the people of Earth. Vicky’s request turned it the other way round: Earth people meeting the Vikans. Perhaps they would be bringing something with them that the Vikans needed, something so different that they did not even know they needed it.

  “Right up there?” Andrew sounded alarmed.

  “It’ll be like flying in a plane,” said Vicky. “You’re always saying you want to go in a plane.”

  Just then there came the roar of aero engines as a 727 powered its way up its flight path from Heathrow, bound for some far off destination. Akkri and Vonn stared up at it with interest. Andrew felt the familiar feeling of envy towards the lucky people on board. Vicky was right. This would be even more exciting than flying off to one of those places with white beaches and palm trees. They would be going somewhere no one on Earth had ever been to before. “Oh, all right,” he said. He still felt nervous though.

  “We can go to St. James’s Park another day,” said Akkri.

  The skimmer lifted off so gently and smoothly that Andrew’s nervousness left him at once. He grinned at Vicky. “This is great!” he said.

  Mrs Giles was coming out of her house with her dog Barney as they glided past her front gate. She was looking straight ahead but did not seem to notice them. Barney was a great noticer of anything that moved, and a great yapper, too, but just like Mrs Giles he took no notice at all. The brick wall at the end of the road loomed up ahead of them and then – it did not seem as if the skimmer had gained sufficient height, but somehow they were beyond the wall, with the railway lines stretching out beneath them.

  “Where’s the engine?” Andrew asked.

  “Engine?” said Vonn.

  “But …”

  “Look, there’s the Houses of Parliament!” Vicky exclaimed.

  “I wonder if we should have told Mum where we’re going,” said Andrew, and then they were gently drifting down onto one of the terraces of The Golden Palace.

  It felt strangely normal to step from the skimmer onto the terrace, despite the thousands of feet of empty air below them. Andrew and Vicky were beginning to share the same dreamlike feeling Mrs Canadine had had. Andrew turned back to the silver balustrade. Normally he did not like heights, but now he looked down without fear. The Thames was a brown snake crossed with a multitude of b
ridges. “Look, Vicky! There’s Hyde Park!” He turned to Vonn. “That’s where Mum took Vicky and me yesterday.”

  Vicky leaned over the balustrade. It was like looking at map, but a map covered with wisps of cloud. “That grey bit there is where we got the ice creams,” she said.

  “Let’s go inside,” said Vonn.

  Afterwards it was rather like remembering a dream. They had gone into a large room with comfortable chairs. A man and two girls were deep in discussion as they entered, looking up with surprise to see Akkri and Vonn with their two unexpected visitors. Andrew was glad to see that they looked pleased and welcoming as well as surprised. He had been a little afraid that some of the other aliens might not be so friendly as Akkri and Vonn.

  “We’ve made some friends already,” said Akkri. “This is Vicky and this is Andrew.”

  The man got up and came over, followed by the two girls. “Hallo! I’m Ky. This is a very special meeting. We’ve never met Earth people before. You are very welcome.”

  “I’m Vill.”

  “And I’m Eedo. I’m her sister.” She held out her hand to Andrew with the palm downwards. Andrew looked anxiously at Akkri.

  “It’s how we greet one another on Vika, touching fingertips.” He leaned forward and touched fingertips with Eedo. “Like this.”

  “Let’s all do it together. We do that sometimes when there are several people all meeting or saying goodbye,” said Vill.

  “It’s like a cake with lots of slices!” said Vicky. She liked Vill. She liked them all. They were not threatening like the kids at school or the people out in the streets. They seemed kind and friendly and something extra, too. What was it? Yes, calm, that was it. There was a peacefulness about them, as though they had nothing to be anxious about.

  “Is Vika the name of your planet?” Andrew asked, just as Eedo said: “How do you greet one another?”

  Vill laughed – a light-hearted, happy laugh, Vicky noted. “We’ve all got such a lot of finding out to do,” she said. “I expect you’d like something to eat and drink. Let’s sit down for a while and have a talk and then we can show you round the ship.” She led the way to a group of seven chairs. Just the right number, Andrew noticed. They were clustered around a low table with jugs of a pink-coloured drink, seven glasses, bowls of fruit, and plates of small crunchy-looking cakes. It was strange he had not noticed the table of food before, Andrew thought.

  “This is Vikan food,” said Ky. “I hope you’ll like it.”

  “It looks all right,” said Andrew. He reached for one of the little cakes. Yes, crunchy and delicious. A bit like almond, with some delicate spice added.

  Vill poured out drinks. “I don’t know the name of the berry this drink is made from,” she said. “It grows in the Equatorial Zone.”

  Vicky sipped it cautiously. “Mmm, it’s lovely!”

  Andrew tried some, too. “A bit like raspberry,” he said. “What’s the Equatorial Zone?”

  “It’s the hottest part of our planet,” Ky explained. “It’s too hot for some people, so not very many live there – hot and rather dry. It’s wild and exciting, though. There are quite big areas that have never been explored.”

  “I’d like to go there,” said Andrew.

  Vonn looked at him thoughtfully, with a far-away look in her eyes. “One day, maybe you will,” she said.

  “What’s the rest of Vika like?” Vicky asked.

  “There’s a Summer Zone and a Spring Zone in the North and in the South,” said Eedo. “That’s where most people live, particularly the Northern Summer Zone. That’s where we all come from.”

  “Except Tamor,” said Vill. “He came from the South originally.”

  Vicky and Andrew both noticed how the Vikans seemed to share the conversation, coming in without hesitation and yet seldom interrupting one another. Not like the classroom, Vicky thought.

  Andrew found himself becoming more and more light-headed as the afternoon wore on. It was as if his brain was overloading with new impressions. It was not unpleasant, though, rather like floating along with his feet a few inches above the ground. Perhaps I’m turning into a skimmer, he thought. Vicky had a dreamy look, too.

  The fruit had been delicious, some similar to fruit they knew, while others were very different. After the meal they had gone all round the ship but afterwards it was like trying to bring back the details of a dream. He remembered going up a winding staircase to the top of a circular turret and he remembered asking if they had a swimming pool and trying to explain about indoor pools to Vonn. He remembered Vicky bouncing on Akkri’s bed and Akkri’s surprise that there was no door leading out somewhere else. The Vikans spent some time discussing that.

  “I think they’ve all gone,” said Ky, who had gone to his own rooms to check.

  “Ours weren’t there either,” said Eedo. She sounded disappointed.

  Andrew wondered what they were talking about. “I haven’t seen the engine room yet,” he said. His mind was focussing again, like a sort of waking up. “I suppose the skimmer was pulled up here by some kind of magnetism.”

  “Things are different on Vika,” said Vill. “We don’t make things work. What we need just happens.”

  “Bur whoever built the ship must have put an engine in it,” said Vicky.

  “There’s no engine,” said Akkri. “I’m afraid I don’t know what the word means. We just came, that’s all. And no one built the ship. That just came, too. It’s as simple as that.”

  Andrew again felt his brain buzzing. There were just too many things that did not fit in with the thoughts and ideas he usually had in his head. He looked at the watch his dad had given him. “I think we ought to go home now if you don’t mind,” he said.

  “Right, let’s go,” said Vonn and led the way back onto the terrace where they had first landed.

  There was the skimmer waiting for them. “We’ll come with you, if you like,” said Akkri.

  The idea that they might not have been accompanied had not occurred to them. “Oh, yes please,” Vicky gasped.

  The skimmer glided slowly down towards a London that was taking on the gold and orange tones of an autumn afternoon. “Shall we come in and say hallo to your mother again?” Vonn asked. She had really liked Mrs Canadine.

  “She’ll probably be working on her envelopes, but I’m sure she won’t mind,” Andrew replied.

  The skimmer came to rest in front of Andrew’s house. They climbed out and the skimmer was gone. “Where did it go?” asked Vicky.

  “I don’t think anybody knows that,” said Vonn.

  “How nice to see you again,” said Mrs Canadine as she opened the door. “I’m working in the kitchen.”

  The table was covered with piles of brown rectangular papers with triangular tops. Akkri was wondering what they were for when he noticed that Vonn was trembling with excitement. “Listen!” she said.

  Mrs Canadine had the radio tuned to her favourite classical station. Akkri looked with interest at the metal box that was producing music. There seemed to be a lot more instruments playing than in Vikan music, but the melody was strangely familiar.

  “Don’t you recognise it?” Vonn asked. “It’s the piece that Karwi and Ferroll and I composed together. Or I thought we composed it.” She stood in rapt attention. The music drew to a close and a voice began to speak: “That was Elgar’s ‘Chanson de Matin’ played by …” The voice became scratchy and distorted and then faded away completely. Mrs Canadine leaned over and tried moving the box around, then gave up and clicked something on the top. “Sorry about that,” she said.

  “I think I’d better go home now,” said Vicky.

  “All right, Vicky, dear. See you tomorrow after school perhaps?”

  “Mm, probably,” said Vicky. She reached her hand out and touched fingertips with Vonn. “Bye.”

  “Bye,” said Vonn. It was still strange how easily new words and expre
ssions came to her lips. She and Akkri left soon afterwards. Andrew watched them from the front window, looking out for the skimmer. No skimmer came. Instead he had the weirdest impression that they had somehow stretched out their arms and glided off into the sky.

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