The cupboard under the stairs in Jennifer’s house was where her Mummy and Daddy kept the cleaning things. The vacuum cleaner, the cloths and shoe brushes and polish. And there were old coats and scarfs, and walking boots, and crumpled hats on pegs.
It was also where Daddy kept cardboard boxes full of his collection of old bottles. Dusty old bottles that used to be full of sauces or medicine, but were now just empty and dusty.
“Throw away those old bottles,” Mummy would complain to him.
“But some of them are quite nice,” he’d say. “Some of them might be worth something.”
“WORTH SOMETHING? They’re just CLUTTER.”
Jennifer wasn’t really allowed in the cupboard under the stairs, but because it was full of spiders and probably some earwigs, and because the old lightbulb didn’t work properly, and because it was so musty and dusty, that was fine by her. Generally, Jennifer wanted nothing to do with the cupboard under the stairs.
But then came the day she was playing a very competitive game of hide and seek around the house with her bother, Dan. She’d found him four times already and he’d only found her three times, but now here she was - racing around - trying to find somewhere to hide so he couldn’t equal the score to four each.
“I’m coming!” Called Dan from somewhere upstairs as Jennifer rushed through the kitchen.
The rule they had was that you weren’t allowed to hide somewhere where the other had already hidden, and you weren’t allowed to use one of your hiding places twice, and so Dan had used four and she had used three. That was seven hiding places already out of bounds to Jennifer now and their house wasn’t very big.
“I’m coming to get you!,” said Dan, running into one of the bedrooms.
Jennifer had to find somewhere quickly before Dan came downstairs. She ran into the hall and saw that the door to the cupboard under the stairs was slightly open. It might be smelly and dark - but it was probably her only option! She quickly climbed inside, closed the door, and quietened her breathing.
She heard Dan come trampling down the stairs, right past the cupboard door she was hiding behind and run into the kitchen.
“Where are you???,” he called.
Jennifer sat and waited. Dan had probably run out into the garden searching for her. So she decided that she’d just wait here - in the dark - until he gave up looking.
She tried to look around for the light switch which she remembered was on a piece of string that hung from the ceiling but she couldn’t find it. She tried to make her eyes work better but all she could see was a crack of light coming under the door from the hall.
But then she saw a green flicker of… something. Like a firefly, zipping through the air. But there couldn’t be exotic insects in this old cupboard…. There it was again! A tiny green zipping light.
It did a quick loop and then disappeared into one of daddy’s cardboard boxes. Careful not to make a noise, Jennifer crawled over to the box and gently opened it.
And as she did, a rainbow of small lights spilt out. Inside the bottles that Daddy collected were little red lights, and little blue lights, little pink lights and orange and silver and purple.
And as she looked closer, she saw that the lights were in fact little craft - tiny miniature space ships no larger than a stamp - in fact you could land about four or five onto the surface of a stamp at a time.
The ships were unloading goods or taking new goods onboard. Inside the box was a whole hive of activity, and around each craft hundreds of little workers - no bigger than ants but shaped like people - were going about their business.
“Excuse me,” said Jennifer.
All the little men and women stopped and looked up. They looked surprised.
“Are you… a God?,” asked one.
“No, I’m Jennifer,” said Jennifer. “What are you all doing? What is this place?”
One of the tiny figures, a woman in a yellow and green Captain’s uniform, stepped forward.
“This is Spaceport Dax,” she said.
“A SPACEPORT?,” laughed Jennifer. But this is just the cupboard under the stairs where Daddy keeps all his old bottles and junk.
“This silo is hardly a bottle. Here, come and see for yourself.”
She pressed a button on her handset and pointed it up at Jennifer. All of a sudden, Jennifer was INSIDE the bottle, looking the Captain straight in the eye. To their side, the miniature space ship now looked as big as a bus.
“I’m Captain Rosemary,” said Captain Rosemary. “What brings you to the Spaceport? I’ve only ever seen you and the other giants on our travels around the galaxy.”
“I’m hiding,” said Jennifer. “From my brother.”
Many of the other workers took out their guns.
“Oh! No! No! He’s not dangerous! It’s just a hiding game. And I was looking for somewhere to hide and found the cupboard full of Daddy’s old… I mean, the cupboard with the Spaceport.”
“Somewhere to hide…” said Captain Rosemary. Well, I’m sure I know most of the best spots in the galaxy. Climb aboard. We were just leaving.”
From the passenger seat at the front of Captain Rosemary’s ship, Jennifer was soon flying out of the bottle, under the crack in the cupboard door, and up the stairs. They passed over Dan, who was running - looking slightly out of puff - into the spare bedroom.
“The best place to hide in the whole galaxy is up on top of this planet,” said Captain Rosemary, landing on top of the big lamp shade in Jennifer and Dan’s room.
Well Jennifer didn’t want to tell the Captain that the planet was just a light shade, or that the galaxy was just their little house. So she kept quiet and they made friends.
Back at the spaceport - Jennifer thanked the Captain as she climbed down from the ship.
“Oh, Anytime!,” said Captain Rosemany and pressed her handset again.
Dan opened the door to the cupboard. “THERE you are!,” he laughed. “GOOD hiding place!”
Jennifer didn’t tell Dan, or her Mummy and Daddy about the spaceport. It was her secret, to go back and visit whenever she wanted.
And sometimes, as she lay in bed in the dark, she’d see little green or red or purple lights zip in the door and around the ceiling and land on top of the light.
It made her very happy, and very very tired.
