Chapter 3 - Willows End

31 2 0
                                    

Alex couldn't remember climbing from the car. One moment she was in it, the next she wasn't.

The house was enormous.

Sprawled between two oak trees, it looked for all the world like a miniature castle. Roofs slanted this way and that, and peering out from wild climbers (which covered at least two thirds of it) were old fashioned windows - the sort with black lines criss-crossing the glass.

Alex had to drag her eyes away, but she was dying to look at the garden.

Words flitted through her mind like gunshots: Wild. Secret. Magic. Adventure.

Here there was no tarmac - in fact, the trees, bushes and weeds all seemed to fighting each other to cover every scrap of ground.

She didn't know which she wanted most, to explore the outside or the in.

Unaware she was going to do it, Alex took her mother's hand and squeezed.

"Please?"

Mrs Dowling squeezed back but didn't reply.

Instead she spoke to Gordon.

"This can't be the house, surely?"

He smiled at her expression.

"It most certainly is Mrs Dowling. Why don't we go in?"

He set off, not waiting for an answer.

Feeling as though she was dreaming, Alex grabbed her brother and followed the adults up the drive.

Jack was being unusually quiet. He was looking around nervously, perhaps wondering what unseen creatures were lurking in the garden. Alex grinned. She knew she was to blame but couldn't seem to summon up any guilt - she loved telling him about the scary monsters hiding under bridges or up in trees.

Like the gates behind them, the front door was huge.

Gordon took a key from his pocket and slid it into the lock.

"After you," he insisted, standing aside to let them enter.

One by one they stepped over the threshold.

For Alex, the experience could be summed up in a single word: home. For the first time in her life, she was home.

When their eyes adjusted, the Dowlings found themselves in a large entrance hall. Space stretched in all directions, even above, where thick wooden beams melted into the shadows.

"Wow," muttered Mrs Dowling. "Will you look at the size of it!"

Her voice echoed slightly, bouncing off the bare stone walls and floor. It made Alex feel she really was in a castle.

Save for a few fittings (a row of coat hooks, some lamp brackets, and a towering hat stand), the hall was empty. To her left and right were several closed doors, and ahead she could make out a wide staircase curving upwards.

Jack, already bored, had begun stamping his feet, his smile growing as the echoes became louder.

"Impressed?" asked Gordon.

There was no need for Mrs Dowling to answer, her face said it all. She barely seemed to have heard him.

"Come on," chuckled Gordon. "Let's do the tour."

He headed left.

"Over here you've got the living rooms. And this," he opened the first of the doors, "is the small one."

Stepping inside, Alex wanted to laugh.

Small! It was as large as the entire ground level of their old house.

WoodlingtonWhere stories live. Discover now