There are many parts of Horsmarlonerpool that are like… secrets.
These are places where not many people go: Like hidden bits of riverbank, or old tunnels, or sometimes just streets with one or two houses on them that don’t go anywhere popular or important.These places were often very calm and quiet, and that’s exactly why Colorado and Adora liked them so much.
To the north east of Horsmarlonerpool there’s a huge mountain, called Lomberstack.
It’s snowy at the top, it’s got forests in the middle, and towards the bottom there’s green, open pastures where cows graze, rabbits hop, and a stream of crystal water gives everyone a refreshing drink when they’re thirsty.
Alexis didn’t like bath time. In fact, he really UTTERLY COMPLETELY didn’t like bath time.
Whenever Mummy or Daddy looked at the clock in the evening and saw that it was time for his bath, Alexis had always managed to vanish. Sometimes, he’d be hiding under the kitchen sink. Or pretending to be a statue behind the tall lamp in the living room. Once, he even curled up in Duffy the dog’s basket and pretended he had four legs and a tail.
It was a rainy, gloomy day in Horsmarlonerpool, and nobody was playing outside - even though it was a Sunday and there wasn’t any school until tomorrow.
To Alison, it felt like a waste. This was her day for playing with her best friend Steve and their friends Amechi and Asha. But none of their mummies and daddies liked them playing outside when it was wet —
“You bring mud and yuk back into the house and it goes all over the carpets - there’s plenty for you to do inside…”
The railway that runs through Horsmarlonerpool isn’t very big, and it isn’t very fast, but it is very, very important.
It runs from the Skylands, way up in the north, through Horsmarlonerpool, and out to the Pastures to the West.
Some people say well what’s the use of a railway that only goes north to the Skylands, and west to the pastures? But people who lived in Horsmarlonerpool knew the use: The Skylands were magical, which meant they were cold in summer, and warm in winter.
Every weekend, on a Sunday morning, Kit and his sister Kaolin would sit on the front step of their house and watch their mummy and daddy wash the car.
Mummy and Daddy would each have a big yellow sponge, and a red bucket of warm soapy water, and one would wash the front and left side of the car, and the other would wash the back and right side.
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.
Arturo had always wanted one thing more than anything else. Not his own castle, and not a magic wand, and not long green hair. No, the thing he most wanted, was a pet.
But time and time again his mummy and daddy had told him “Our house just isn’t big enough” or “they take too much looking after” or “they smell of cabbage!”
Sebastian has always been a little bit afraid of the dark.
He wasn’t afraid of it REALLY, he enjoyed running and laughing and screaming through Bluebell wood at night with his friends and they only had one torch between them, and he loved hiding in Mummy and Daddy’s wardrobe when his cousin Amy came around to play - and that was VERY dark.
Most people like going to the airport because it means they’re going somewhere exciting, or somewhere warm and sandy, or somewhere with huge snowy mountains or skyscrapers taller than the clouds, but Leah and Felix liked going to Horsmarlonerpool airport - and go nowhere at all.
You see, Leah and Felix liked going to the airport just to look.
