Magic Parcel Read Online Free PDF

Reuben.
    â€œ... and the same place as I ...?” Tommy went on.
    â€œYes, indeed,” Reuben continued. “The same as you visited. I thought he needed a little adventure, don’t you know. So I gave him the Parcel to post. He should be there by now. Would you like to go through to see that he misses nothing?”
    â€œYes please,” Tommy said, eyes beginning to sparkle again at the thought. “I think so and ...”
    â€œWell, you’ll have to be sharp,” Reuben interrupted. “Light’s going quickly and I can keep the way open for only a short while longer. Down to the bottom of the garden now, and look for the handle in the fence you saw a long time ago. Turn it and go through. The rest is up to you.”
    Here he stopped short and gave Tommy one of his quizzical, piercing looks again, through his glasses this time to see if he really meant business. Satisfied he did, he sent him off with his blessing, and with one piece of advice ringing in his ears.
    â€œLook beyond what you see,” he advised. “Don’t take anything at face value, and above all accept help when it’s least expected.”
    The last sentence floated down to him as he headed for the bottom of the garden, and was the last thing he heard. As he approached the bottom fence, invisible in the heavy shade, a strange feeling of fullness and expectancy crept over him, cutting out all outside noise and enveloping him in a deadening blanket of silence. It was as if he had walked into a thick wall of foam. The fence he could now see as if someone had obligingly turned on a dim light, creating eerie half-shadows around the shrubs and bushes. To him in this light, the vertical staves seemed to form a solid wall of wood, when there, below right, he caught sight of the handle he had used so many times before, glowing faintly in the gloom as if it had been painted onto the wood.
    As his fingers closed to take hold, it became solid in his hand, yielding under his determined pressure. A faint crack appeared around the outline of the door as Tommy pulled the handle towards him, and as the crack grew, brilliant sunshine poured through, flooding the border he was standing on with golden red light. He stepped back two paces to allow the door to swing wide on its unseen hinges, and in doing so he took a deep breath and launched himself into the new world. As his trailing foot crossed the line and trod earth on the other side, the door closed silently behind him, leaving no trace at all. He was surrounded by countryside, trees and a warmth so overwhelming he could have laid down to sleep where he stood.
    A tingling of excitement swept over the boy as he surveyed the already well-known scene; the same excitement he had experienced on numerous other occasions; no panic, no apprehension, no fear. The wonderful and fortunate thing about ‘handle-hopping’, as he called it, was that you were always guaranteed to land in exactly the same place. You couldn’t always guarantee when the handle would appear in Reuben’s garden, but once through, you were sure of where you were. He had been here only once with the parcel - the first time, and every other time through the door in the fence. He had no idea, however, where his brother had ended up. Parcel travel was so imprecise and inaccurate. Each time it was used by successive travellers, it took them to different places. He would have to enlist help he could see that.
    â€œOh well,” Tommy said, taking a deep breath again and moving forward, “here goes. Standing about will not do a jot of good. Think I’ll see if I can find my old friend Tarna. He’ll know where to look.”
    â€œThere’s no need,” a deeply resonant voice split the quiet air just behind Tommy. “I am here.”
    Tommy spun round on his heels, startled by the unexpected presence. He screwed his eyes up for a moment in concentrated thought, trying to recognise