CHAPTER 4
Edward looks up at the large illuminated destination indicator; it confirms that his train is now standing at platform 10. At least the man had told him the right platform. With one last anxious glance back towards the statue, Edward, now feeling a bit foolish, and even more confused, trudges off towards platform 10.
He slowly makes his way along the platform, looking for his carriage. A railway guard who he had not noticed suddenly blows his whistle right next to him, making him nearly jump out of his skin. ‘Hurry up there and get on board,’ the guard shouts rudely at Edward. He watches as Edward struggles to heave his case up onto the train with obviously no intention of helping him. ‘Come on, we haven’t got all day,’ he shouts. Edward, with much effort, finally gets the bag and himself on board the train. He pushes the bag on to the luggage rack. The train’s sliding doors hiss closed quietly. He walks along the aisle between the seats, studying the number tags on each row, and, finding his seat, he flops down into it, red in the face from the exertion and feeling quite exhausted.
Once he has regained his composure, Edward glances around the carriage in which he will be spending the next few hours. It is very brightly lit by the overhead strip lighting and not very welcoming. It reminds him of the interior of a very scruffy airliner. There is graffiti on the ceiling and discarded food and drink containers and old newspapers littering the floor. The carriage is packed and very noisy; everybody seems to be talking very loudly.
The train starts to move and is soon passing through the city. Tall office buildings pass by the window and these are eventually replaced by thousands of dull looking houses, all under a slate-grey sky. The rain lashes against the window as Edward, feeling lonely, depressed and very tired, settles low into his seat. Gradually the smooth, gentle motion of the train makes him drowsy and even the noisy conversations of the people around him do not prevent him from slipping towards sleep. All the sounds start to fade and become more and more distant as Edward falls into a deep, deep sleep.
CHAPTER 5
Edward starts to wake from his sleep, becoming aware of the clickety clack of the wheels on the tracks and the movement of the train. He wonders how long he has been sleeping; he senses that it must have been quite a long time and peers out of the window. The train is speeding through sombre countryside and it is almost dark and still raining heavily. His attention is then drawn to the reflection of something back inside the compartment. He turns and looks up at the item which has attracted his attention. Above the door, there is a metal chain, underneath a sign reads “PULL CHAIN ONLY IN EMERGENCY – PENALTY FOR IMPROPER USE £5”. He has been on lots of trains before but he is sure he has never seen an emergency signal like that before and £5 seems very reasonable; it is almost worth pulling it and paying the £5 for the fun of it. He then becomes aware of something else; the interior of the carriage appears to be much darker than when he went to sleep. It’s as though the gloom from outside has somehow penetrated into the carriage. He looks up at the carriage lamps above him. What strange lamps, he thinks, they look like real flames, like gas lights. He is sure there was long fluorescent strip lighting when he boarded the train at Paddington. He remembers how bright the train was, dazzlingly so, but now it is gloomy with these yellow flickering lights.
Edward, his senses still dulled by his sleep, gradually notices that everything looks different. The bright airliner-type interior he had noticed earlier is now not quite so bright and the compartment seems much smaller. But how could that be possible? As his awareness increases, so does his amazement. Instead of sitting on the single plane-type seat he had started the journey on, he was now sitting on a long comfy bench seat and instead of looking at the back of the seat in front of him he was now looking at the bench seat opposite him. His eyes are then drawn up to some advertisements above the seats opposite. One of them shows a man with a moustache, wearing a striped blazer and white trousers; he is smoking a pipe and leaning on an old-fashioned open top sports car. The message below the picture says how good his brand of tobacco is. The next advert shows a painting of a seaside resort with children playing with a beach ball; the slogan reads “Newquay – fun for all the family”. The next shows a field full of large yellow flowers, it reads “Buy Carters Sunflower Oil”. Edward’s memory flashes back to the statue. Oh no not sunflowers again, what is this sunflower thing? He thinks.
Edward’s attention is suddenly drawn to something outside the window. He can see smoke passing by and he sits bolt upright and his eyes widen. Smoke! Oh no, I think the train is on fire. Edward’s attention suddenly returns to the inside of the carriage as the door to his compartment suddenly slides open and a guard enters from the corridor. Edward recognises him as the guard who had shouted rudely at him earlier and who had watched him struggle with his case. The guard looks different now, like everything else on this train. For a start, his unpleasant scowl has been replaced by a warm, friendly smile. His uniform looks different too; it looks old-fashioned and there is a gold watch chain looped across his waistcoat. Hold on! Corridor? Edward thinks in confusion, there was not a corridor there earlier. What has happened to this train? It has completely changed. It is totally different to the train that I fell asleep on earlier. Edward’s muddled thoughts are interrupted as the guard announces that very shortly the train will be arriving at Dainton Station, Edward’s destination. Edward is shocked that the train is arriving at his destination already. He must have been asleep a lot longer than he had realised.
Edward suddenly remembers the smoke outside the window. ‘Excuse me,’ he says to the guard. ‘I think the train is on fire.’ ‘What!’ says the guard, looking very alarmed. Edward points out of the window. ‘Look, there is smoke.’ The guard quickly approaches the window and looks out. The shock on his face disappears almost instantly and he turns to Edward. ‘That’s just the smoke from the engine laddie, haven’t you ever been on a train before?’ Edward peers back out of the window. Smoke, he thinks, confused.
Edward now notices for the first time that his case is now on the netting luggage rack above the seat opposite. The guard follows his stare. ‘Oh allow me,’ he says, and takes the case down from the rack. ‘Thank you,’ says Edward in a small voice, still thinking about the smoke outside the window. What engine? he thinks to himself.
The train starts to slow down and outside, through the rain-spattered window, Edward can see that they are coming into a station. The train jolts to a halt and there is a loud hissing sound like escaping gas.
Edward steps down from the train; the rain is torrential and is streaming down from the top of the train and the platform roof. The guard climbs down from the train and places Edward’s case on the platform next to him. ‘Thank you,’ says Edward. The guard smiles warmly, then steps back onto the train and closes the door behind him. He leans out of the window and once again smiles down at Edward, then, looking along the platform, he shouts, ‘All aboard now!’ Placing his whistle in his mouth, he blows a long sharp blast.
Edward glances along the train and gasps in shock when he sees the huge steam engine at the front of the train. The sleek modern electric express he had boarded in London has somehow been transformed into a large, dirty, black steam engine. Smoke is pouring from its chimney on top. Is that what it is called, a chimney? Or is it a funnel? Edward thinks. He did not know, but what he did know was that he was sure it had not been there when he had started his journey. Then he notices the carriages, the modern silver streamline carriages that he had passed as he walked along the platform at Paddington have now been replaced by old dark green ones. How could this be? Edward racks his brains. Perhaps the train broke down when I was asleep. He thinks, and someone carried me onto this train, not wanting to wake me. No, that’s ridiculous, why would someone not want to wake me. Besides I am sure that I would have woken up as soon as someone tried to pick me up.
CHAPTER 6
Edward looks around him at the station. The buildings appear to be ancient, the brickwork st
ained and grimy. Then his attention is caught by a porter loading luggage onto a trolley. This is all so weird, he thinks; it is quite unlike any station he has ever seen before, at least not in real life. But he has seen similar stations in pictures in books and magazines and in films. He suddenly realises that this station looks like it is from an old film, from a bygone era. Everything is old-fashioned, so dark and gloomy. He looks up at the large brass lamp above him and is surprised to see a flickering flame inside the glass bowl. The lamps are hardly making any impression on the dark night. On the walls of the station there are old-fashioned advertisements similar to those he saw on the train. His attention is caught by one. The slogan, in large yellow letters, says “Don’t Forget the Sunflowers”. I don’t think there is much chance of that, he thinks, this railway seems to be obsessed with sunflowers.
‘Master Edward?’ The sound of his own name spoken loudly behind him startles him; he spins around to see a large man towering over him. The man is quite elderly and dressed in a heavy old tweed suit. The old man’s hand is large and warm and so is his smile. ‘Hello Master Edward, my name is ‘Arry, I mean Harry.’ The added H sounds exaggerated and awkward when spoken by the old man. ‘Your Aunt Agatha asked me to collect you from the station,’ He puts out his hand, Edward does the same and they shake hands. ‘I ‘ope you ‘ad a good journey,’ he said, his huge smiling face hovering over Edward. ‘Well actually my journey was very odd.’ Edward starts to tell Harry about the mystery of the changing train; just then the train’s whistle sounds loudly. Edward spins around and gasps in shock. The old train with its puffing engine has been replaced by the sleek modern train that he boarded in London. ‘I don’t believe it,’ he stutters. ‘It does not look like an old steam train to me,’ states Harry looking past Edward at the bright gleaming train. ‘But it was,’ says Edward. ‘I saw it when I got down onto the platform. I saw the steam engine at the front of the train and the old carriages, they had changed as well and they had become old and green with dull lights in them.’ ‘Did you sleep on the train?’ asks Harry. ‘Yes but,’ Edward’s speech trails off. ‘You must have still been half asleep,’ says Harry, ‘and dreamed the train had turned into an old steam engine.’ Harry laughs. ‘There has not been any steam engines through this station for a good few years.’ Edward glances around at the station. Well at least this still looks like it’s from an old movie set, he thinks. Perhaps Harry is right; perhaps I was still half asleep when I got off the train and seeing this old station just made me imagine that the train had turned into an old steam engine. Harry picks up Edward’s case. ‘Well let’s be off then, follow me.’ They walk along the platform towards the exit where a man wearing a smart uniform is collecting the tickets. Edward turns and looks towards the train that is now departing, finding it difficult to believe it has all been a dream. He watches until the train has disappeared around a bend, its noise fading away into the distance. He is brought out of his thoughts by Harry’s voice. ‘Come on young Edward, your aunt will be worried if we are late.’
CHAPTER 7
Outside the station, Harry walks over to a large black car, which also looks very old; it reminds Edward of an undertaker’s car. Harry places the case into the boot and opens the back passenger door for Edward to climb in. It is nice and warm inside and smells of old leather. Edward settles back into the soft leather seat. Opposite him there is a glass screen separating him from the driver. Harry climbs into the driver’s seat then, turning around to face Edward, slides the screen open. ‘Now sit back and enjoy the ride, we’ll soon have you out of this storm and nice and cosy in front of the fire at the old ‘ouse.’
Soon they are driving along wet, dark lanes, flood water gushing by in the ditches on both sides of the road and the rain still torrential. There is a bright flash of lightning followed by a large clap of thunder. Harry drives on along the country roads, seemingly not bothered at all by the bad weather as he chats to Edward.
The wipers are fighting a losing battle against the heavy rain; Edward leans forward in his seat so that he can get a better view of the road ahead. They go around a bend and down a steep hill and as they approach the bottom, Edward sees to his horror that the road in front of them is completely flooded. He shouts a warning and points ahead but just then Harry calmly turns the wheel, steering the car through a gateway into a small drive and brings it to a sharp halt.
Harry steps from the car and walks around to Edward’s door and opens it. ‘Have we arrived at Pea Haven Hall?’ Edward asks. ‘No not yet,’ Harry replies. ‘The road ahead is flooded, it’s too deep to continue by car.’
Harry opens the car boot and takes out a pair of rubber boots and puts them on. Then he takes out Edward’s case and closes the boot. He walks around the car, Edward steps out and Harry closes the door behind him. ‘You wait here,’ he says. Harry walks down a slope into the flood water towards what looks like a small barn. The water is part way up its sides; Harry opens the door to the building and enters, closing the door behind him.
Edward hears a few bangs and thuds from inside the barn and then, through the cracks in the wooden planking of the barn’s wall, he sees a light moving. Suddenly, as Edward looks, the double doors at the front of the barn open and to Edward’s astonishment a boat starts to emerge. It has a huge brass lantern swinging from a hook at the front, the glow from the lantern illuminating the area around them. Edward, his mouth open and jaw dropped in surprise, watches as the boat slowly inches out of the barn. Then Harry appears, sitting with his back to the front of the boat. He is carefully manoeuvring the boat from the barn with the oars and brings it to rest in front of Edward. ‘Op in.’ He says with a huge smile, ‘we have to do the last bit of the journey by boat’. As Edward starts to clamber into the boat, his attention is suddenly drawn to something at the back of the barn. In the flickering light from the lamp he sees two brightly coloured jet skis bobbing about inside the barn. ‘Can’t we go on them?’ Edward asks excitedly. Harry turns and looks at the two jet skis that have attracted Edward’s attention. ‘You wouldn’t get me on one of those things; I don’t trust these new-fangled contraptions, zipping across the water like demented dolphins. It’s not natural. No, this boat will do us just fine, now ‘op in and let’s be on our way.’
CHAPTER 8
Harry skilfully manoeuvres the boat along the narrow country lanes, the lamp at the front swinging in the strong wind and casting eerie shadows onto the hedgerows on either side of them as they pass by. Edward shivers and pulls his coat closer around him. ’We doesn’t usually have to row up and down these ‘ere lanes,’ Harry tells Edward. ‘But as you can see, we’ve ‘ad a bit of rain in the last few days. This is the worst storm we’ve ‘ad for years; some say it might even be as bad as the great storm that caused the disaster.’ ‘What disaster?’ Edward asks. ‘Why, the Great Pea Haven disaster of course,’ Harry replies indignantly. ‘Surely you have ‘eard about it. What do they teach you kids at school these days?’ ‘I am afraid not sir, please tell me about it.’ Harry chuckles. ‘Sir indeed – I do sound posh; you just call me ‘Arry. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, the Great Pea Haven disaster,’ he says, suddenly serious. ‘Well,’ he begins. ‘It was 300 years ago, in fact it was 300 years ago this very week,’ he says thoughtfully, as if he has just realised the fact. ‘That’s a bit of a coincidence, this storm and all.’ Harry is quiet for a second or two, then continues. ‘There was a most terrible storm – the worst anybody could remember, so they say. There was torrential rain for days and days; no one had seen the likes of it before. Anyway, this constant rainwater must have weakened the cliffs, which caused a massive landslide, because the whole village just slid down into the sea. One minute it was there, the next it was gone, everything – houses, the church, all the villagers – all gone, like they had never existed, down into the stormy sea.’ ‘But how?’ asks Edward. ‘How can a whole village slide into the sea and just disappear?’ ‘Pea Haven was situated below the cliffs on the edge of a deep natural harbour
, the foundations were built into the very cliffs itself,’ Harry explains, ‘I suppose with all that rain and stuff coming down from the moorlands above, the cliffs just gave way and slid down into the sea, taking the village with it.’
‘Oh, that’s terrible!’ Edward exclaims, ‘a whole village gone for ever just like that.’ ‘Well, some folk around here would argue with you about whether it has gone for good.’ ‘What do you mean?’ asks Edward. ‘Well,’ says Harry, with a grim look on his face. ‘Some folk say that the village and them poor souls that was lost that night are still out there in the sea and that sometimes when it’s stormy, when the sea is churned up like, you can ‘ear em.’ ‘Wh, wha, what do you mean?’ asks Edward, his eyes open wide. ‘People say they have ‘eard the church bell tolling, the sounds carried ashore on the wind, summoning that ghostly congregation to church and then there’s the sound of music and voices and singing and laughter as if they are still knocking back their drinks in the old Half Moon Inn.’ A shiver runs down Edward’s back, and suddenly Harry roars with laughter. ‘Still, you don’t want to believe that old nonsense, lad – just folk with too much cider in them, I reckons.’
CHAPTER 9
‘Well here we are,’ Harry says, motioning with his head over his shoulder. Edward looks past him, but he can see only darkness and the black shapes of trees. Suddenly everything is lit up by a flash of lightning and there through the trees he gets his first glimpse of Pea Haven Hall, his aunt’s house.
The Wreckers Page 2
