'Now I'm going to show you something very exciting' said Miss Wise, leading Corky out of the school and across a lawn bordered with beautiful flowers. They came to a huge building which was so colourful, he imagined that some giant artist had emptied all his paints onto the roof and they'd trickled down the walls. 'This is our Rainbow Repair Works' she told him, 'and it's run entirely by the children'.
They entered the open doorway and stood surveying the room. Corky gaped! He was getting used to surprises by now, but this was beyond anything even he could imagine! At the far end of the room with its arched ceiling, was a RAINBOW! Its colours were so dazzling they made him blink, but gradually his eyes became accustomed to the brilliance. 'COR! A rainbow INSIDE! '
Stretching down the whole length of the room were seven of the longest tables he'd ever seen and each one covered with an exquisite cloth. 'My Mum wouldn't 'arf say somefing if she 'ad to iron one of them' he thought. Children were standing round each table and they were all staring at the left side of the rainbow. There was silence everywhere as if they were waiting for something to happen. Corky had a funny tingling feeling like the moment before a firework goes off.
Suddenly, to his utter astonishment, each separate colour of the rainbow began to move and it rolled very slowly up and up and up, then across the top of the great arc, and down and down and down until it reached the ground where it stopped. Then several children ran forward and carefully picked up the rolls and placed them on the ends of the tables which had the same colour - purple, indigo, violet, red, orange, yellow and green.
'Would you like to walk down and have a closer look. Corky?' Miss Wise's voice startled him as if he had been woken up from a fantastic dream. She introduced him to some of the boys and girls who were eager for him to feel the rainbow material which was as light and delicate as a spider's web.
'Before you start repairing' she suggested, 'what about letting Corky, our new boy, hear your song?'
They left the tables and forming a group around him, this is what they sang:
'Grown-ups are unweaving the rainbow
They keep on researching, and soon
All magic and dreams will be shattered
Already they've gone to the moon
The mystery threads we're repairing
For science explains things away
And we want to go on pretending
We children want wonder to stay'
Corky clapped enthusiastically. He found it hard to believe that everything here operated by THOUGHT, which was what Geraldine had told him when he first arrived in THINK LAND. Now it was actually happening before his very eyes!
He watched fascinated as the coloured rolls began to unwind themselves and move slowly down the tables, stopping occasionally when a child put up his hand. This meant only one thing to Corky! 'But they don't need to be excused 'ere' he realised. At his school he used to put up his hand regularly, especially during Arithmetic lessons and always just before it was his turn to answer a question. By the time he returned to the classroom he hoped the teacher would have forgotten him, but he never did! Still, it had been worth trying.
Miss Wise explained that the rolls stopped because there was a fault in the material which was noticed as they passed along. 'Then wot 'appens?' he asked.
"Then the child who spots it, concentrates on the word 'PERFECT' and immediately the WONDER threads repair the fault!* Corky thought of Priscilla. 'PURRfecf was her favourite word.
'They must be good finkers, Miss' he said.
'Oh yes. That's why they're allowed to work here'.
'Wot 'appens when the rolls reach the ends of the tables then?'
"Then the colours are put back into the rainbow and it's perfect'.
' 'Ow often do they 'ave to mend it? My Mum only mends fings when she 'as to, 'cos we've nuffing to wear wot 'asn't got 'oles in'
'It depends on the grown-up'
'You mean the way they fink?' Corky said, continuing his barrage of questions. Miss Wise nodded.
'When they stand and stare and wonder at the beauty in the world all around them, then the colours remain perfect' she explained.
'I bet that don't 'appen very often Miss! Why don't grown-ups never 'ave time to stop? Funny that. They never even notice a RAINBOW!!! ' Corky felt very sorry for them as they missed so much.
