Familiar and Haunting by Philippa Pearce

Author:Philippa Pearce [Pearce, Philippa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-06-204432-7
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2002-09-17T04:00:00+00:00

Guess

That last day of October a freak storm hit the suburb of Woodley Park. Slates rattled off roofs, garbage cans chased garbage can lids along the streets, billboards were slammed down, and at midnight there was a huge sound like a giant breaking his kindling wood, and then an almighty crash, and then briefly the sound of the same giant crunching his toast.

Then only the wind, which died surprisingly soon.

In the morning everyone could see that the last forest tree of Grove Road—of the whole suburb—had fallen, crashing down onto Grove Road Primary School. No lives had been lost, since the caretaker did not live on the premises, but the school hamster had later to be treated for shock. The school buildings were wrecked.

Everyone went to stare, especially, of course, the children of the school. They included Netty and Sid Barr.

The fallen tree was an awesome sight, partly because of its size and partly because of its evident great age. Someone in the crowd said that the acorn that grew into that must have been planted centuries ago.

As well as the confusion of fallen timber on the road and on the school premises, there was an extraordinary spatter of school everywhere: slates off the roof, bricks from the broken walls, glass from the windows, and the contents of classrooms, cloakrooms, and storerooms—books and collages and clay and paints and nature tables and a queer mixture of clothing, both dingy and weird, which meant that the contents of the lost property cupboard and the dressing-up cupboard had been whirled together and tossed outside. Any passerby could have taken his pick, free of charge. Netty Barr, who had been meaning to claim her gym shoes from lost property, decided that they had gone for good now. This was like the end of the world—a school world.

Council workmen arrived with gear to cut, saw, and haul timber. Fat old Mr. Brown from the end of the Barrs’ road told the foreman that they ought to have taken the tree down long ago. Perhaps he was right. In spite of last season’s leaves and next year’s buds, the trunk of the tree was quite hollow; a cross section revealed a rim of wood the width of a man’s hand, encircling a space large enough for a child or a smallish adult. As soon as the workmen’s backs were turned, Sid Barr crept in. He then managed to get stuck and had to be pulled out by Netty. An untidy young woman nearby was convulsed with silent laughter at the incident.

“You didn’t stay inside for a hundred years,” she said to Sid.

“That smelled funny,” said Sid. “Rotty.” Netty banged his clothes for him; the smell clung.

“Remember that day last summer, Net? After the picnic? When I got stuck inside that great old tree in Epping Forest?” Sid liked to recall near disasters.

“Epping Forest?” said the young woman, sharply interested. But no one else was.

Meanwhile the headmaster had arrived, and that meant all fun was over. School would go on, after all, even if not in those school buildings for the time being.

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