Corky opened his eyes, shook his head, and stared round in utter amazement. 'Cor! Wot a place!' he exclaimed. 'Wherever am I ?' Never in his life had he seen such beauty. It was a million times more wonderful than Regent's Park, the only other place with which he could compare it.
He found himself sitting on a grassy hillside overlooking a lake of the most marvellous silvery blue, and it sparkled like a giant sapphire ring. All around were trees of brilliant greens. They seemed friendly somehow, as if they were inviting him to climb them.
'Cor' ' he exclaimed again as he always did when he was surprised, looking at the tallest one which seemed like an emerald needle pointing up to the sky.
'Must be 'igher than Big Ben! What a view from up there! ' The landscape stretched for miles and miles and there were no boundaries of any kind, and no hedges or walls. There were flowers everywhere. He'd never seen such a variety of colour, not even on that paint chart Auntie Glad next door had shown his Mum when she was having her kitchen done up. He couldn't believe there were so many different shades - from the palest pink to the brightest crimson, and from mauve to deep purple. The air was filled with their perfume. 'Wot a whiff!' he thought. 'Mum wouldn't 'arf be pleased if she 'ad a bottle of this!' He looked up. There wasn't a cloud anywhere. 'Perhaps it rained in the night' he thought 'Must 'ave done, otherwise everyfinck wouldn't look so fresh'.
He ran his fingers over the surface of the grass and it felt as soft as velvet. It reminded him of the first time he'd ever felt a peach when it had miraculously fallen from one of the fruit-stalls in the street market where he often used to go, hoping for a miracle like that. It gave him the same sensation of smoothness. Even the carpets at Buckingham Palace couldn't feel softer than this!
He took off his shoes and socks and ran excitedly down to the lakeside. He'd never felt so alive and happy. Then he dipped his hands into the crystal clear blue water and to his surprise it was pleasantly warm. Feeling thirsty, he scooped some up and started to drink. Again to his surprise, it was deliciously cool. Puzzling over the fact that something could feel warm and yet taste cool, he was even more bewildered when he looked at his hands. They were completely dry! The water had simply trickled off them! For the very first time he found washing his hands was a pleasant experience!
Corky decided he had a lot of thinking to do and he could always think best when he was chewing. So he emptied the contents of his pockets onto the grass. Among the apple-cores, rubber-bands, bits of string, marbles and milk bottle tops, he retrieved some chewing-gum. It looked the worse for wear as it had accumulated round it the crumbs of a stale biscuit. So he dipped it into the water and then into his mouth and began thinking - Corky's favourite occupation.
To begin with - where was he ? How had he got there ? The last thing he remembered was running across the street to rescue a cat from an oncoming motorbike. There was a loud screech of brakes and then . . . blackness. He'd found himself being gently pushed along a dark tunnel towards a light at the far end. He wasn't a bit scared. In fact he was very excited for he'd a feeling that there would be something wonderful when he reached it. And he was right.
'Perhaps I'm dreaming' he thought, 'but it's all so real'. Puzzled but not unduly worried, as everything around him was so fantastic, he continued to sit and marvel at it all. How the family would love this! He thought of his two younger sisters and little brother and especially his Mum, Rosie. His Dad, a bricklayer, had had a fatal accident, falling off a scaffold three years before, when Corky was seven. Ever since, he'd felt a big responsibility as the eldest, to look after her. ' 'Ope she's orl right. Wish she could see orl this. 'Er eyes would pop out of 'er 'ead! '
