Magic Parcel Read Free Page B

uncle followed by nephew. Jimmy became even more confused, and was about to ask Reuben why they were going out, when, suddenly, there it was, to their right. That door certainly had not been there before. Jimmy was definite about that. It stood amidst shadow, slightly recessed from the rest of the wall, forming a small, square lobby in which somebody could stand quite comfortably and not be seen.
    A deep and brooding silence had fallen over the house, so that even the ticking of the kitchen clock could be heard quite distinctly. As they approached the door, Jimmy tried to moisten his dry lips by his even drier tongue. The tiny hairs on the top of his back and base of his neck began to prickle with more than a little fear and apprehension, even though Reuben was there.
    As they neared it, the door became much clearer; dark oak staves fitting closely together to form a thick barrier. Where had he seen that before? The fence! Yes, of course! It matched exactly the fence at the bottom of the garden, except that here there was neither handle nor knob, nor any visible means of entering.
    Reuben stepped forward, closed his eyes and began to whistle softly, almost inaudibly, whilst passing both hands lightly over the smooth surface of the door. After a few moments, it began to move inwards; slowly at first, and then suddenly they were in, door fast shut behind them.
    Jimmy simply stood where he was, unable to move for what he saw around him. Eyes wide with surprise, wonder and excitement, he let his gaze amble around the room, flitting from object to object, quite unable to believe what lay before him.
    Large by the standards of his own home, the room was dominated by an enormous, dark, polished oak desk, carved around with intertwining leaves, stems and faces of animals he did not recognise. The green leather inset top of the desk was clear except for one object - a large blue and green geographical globe set on a golden stand. The countries traced on that globe, however, bore no resemblance to any Jimmy knew of. In fact, they were not countries which were to be found anywhere in his world.
    The walls were half-covered in the most beautiful red rosewood panelling, which was inset with shelf upon shelf of books of all shapes and sizes; leather-bound, or paper-cased, all were well-thumbed as if in continual use. Many of the titles were in foreign languages he didn’t understand, and the others were in an English, which might as well have been foreign for what sense they made to him.
    Although he wanted to look at everything, he couldn’t keep his gaze from being drawn to the most remarkable feature in the room. The walls above the panelling were hung with great sheets of shiny cloth upon which were printed maps of many different countries, some of which were flattened-out versions of countries on the globe. Others, however, were obviously not of that world either, and on closer examination, he discovered that the details on the maps had been picked out in different coloured embroidery silks and were not in printing ink at all. Between the maps, giving further details of the countries, there were dozens of drawings on stiff card. They were of many items; from places to exotic animals to people dressed in strange clothes, clearly not of this land. He must have spent ten minutes in silent amazement before he realised that Uncle Reuben had been watching him all the time, face wrinkled in that irrepressible grin.
    â€œWow!” was the only sound he could utter at first, when the trance had worn off. “Where are these places? We do a lot of geography at school, but I never saw these places in any of our geography books. Mind you, they’re pretty old. Can’t afford any more, Mr Bolam says, and ...”
    â€œThey are not on this world,” Reuben interrupted slowly, quite deliberately waiting to see Jimmy’s reaction.
    As if half-expecting that answer, Jimmy’s voice continued to ramble on but gradually it