The Second Forever Read Online Free PDF Page B

won’t it?’ said Peter.
    â€˜Yes, of course,’ said Festival, ‘but we should check it out.’
    â€˜My dad said he was going to go back up there and build a brick wall across the door so that no one could come after us,’ said Peter, ‘though I’m not sure if he ever did.’

    â€˜Haven’t you been back up there since we came through it?’
    â€˜No, I promised my dad I wouldn’t,’ said Peter.
    â€˜I think we should go and look,’ said Festival. ‘If the door is still there, then it will be below millions of gallons of water. And even if your dad did build the wall, we could drill a tiny hole through and find out.’
    â€˜I suppose.’
    â€˜Listen, if all that water is there and we made a hole though, then the water would start to drain from my world and come back to yours,’ said Festival. ‘If it did, we wouldn’t have to re-write the book.’
    â€˜Yes, we would,’ said Peter.
    â€˜I don’t see why,’ said Festival.
    â€˜Well, suppose we did save your world from drowning and brought water back here. That wouldn’t be enough to fix it,’ said Peter. ‘The river is still running the wrong way. Your world would end up a desert and mine would get flooded. No, we have to re-create the book to make the river run the right way again.’
    â€˜It’s only a single river,’ said Festival. ‘I can’t see how one river running backwards can be that important.’
    But they both knew it was. The drought and the flood it had caused told them that. It was as if that single small river on that remote island was the mother of every other river in Festival’s world and Peter’s world, too.

    Still, they had a while to wait before the next fullmoon, so they decided to return into the attics and find the door.
    â€˜Do you think we should talk to your parents and your grandad first?’ said Festival.
    â€˜I’m sure we should,’ said Peter. ‘But you know that if we do, they’ll stop us from going.
    â€˜And, listen,’ Peter continued, ‘something’s been bothering me. When you arrived, did my grandad ask you why you’d come back? I’d have thought that’d be the first thing he’d have said when he saw you.’
    Festival stopped and shook her head. She hadn’t thought of it before, but it was obvious and he hadn’t asked her. He’d just been pleased to see her and taken her up to the apartment for tea.
    â€˜You don’t think he knew you were coming, do you?’ said Peter.
    â€˜I don’t see how he could have,’ Festival replied. ‘But then, I don’t want to say anything nasty, I mean, he is your grandfather . . .’
    â€˜Something isn’t quite right, is it?’
    â€˜No. I mean, now I think of it, he didn’t seem at all surprised to see me, and he was standing right there in the dinosaur gallery when I arrived,’ said Festival.

    â€˜I suppose he could have noticed the bat had gone when you had summoned it, but I bet if we asked him, he’d just say it was a coincidence he was there,’ said Peter.
    â€˜It’s a bit unlikely, isn’t it?’ said Festival.
    â€˜Especially as he hardly ever goes around the museum anymore.’ Peter paused before starting again. ‘Well, there’s no way we’ll ever know unless he tells us.
    â€˜I’ve always thought there were lots of things he wasn’t telling me,’ continued Peter. ‘I don’t mean now, but the first time too. It was just odd. Like the fact his sister was living in your world. He’d never mentioned he had a sister and he didn’t seem surprised by what I told him.’
    â€˜Maybe he’s just trying to protect you,’ said Festival. ‘After all, it’s obvious he loves you very much, so I can’t see how he wouldn’t tell us anything that might