The Second Forever Read Online Free Page B

idea, but actually re-writing the book. Some people didn’t agree with it, but as the water rose higher and yet another gallery had to be abandoned, it became our only choice. No one knew if it would work or not, but there were no other options.’
    Festival had arrived on the last possible full moon. The water had risen so much that the Journey Bell the two children had climbed up the steep path through the forest to reach was about to vanish beneath the waves. By the time the next full moon arrived, the water would be lapping at the bell’s rim and Festival wouldn’t have been able to summon the bat.
    â€˜Another couple of days and the bell would not have rung,’ said Festival.
    â€˜Did the deaf, dumb and blind man . . .’ Peter began.
    â€˜Earshader?’ said Festival. ‘Yes, he sailed me out to the island again. Even with our whole world aboutto drown, people were still too scared to go out there.’
    The children could see Peter’s grandfather had grown tired and was struggling to keep his eyes open. Their words were drifting over him.
    With a month to wait until the next full moon, Peter took Festival around the library. He took her to places no other living person had visited, through the hidden doors and along the dusty corridors to long-forgotten storerooms full of fantastic things. There were places that only he and his cat Archimedes had visited, places he had never imagined he would show to anyone else. Now, sharing them with Festival was exciting and wonderful. This was not simply just another part of the museum. It was his part, his secret world within a world, and taking her there made her part of it all.
    â€˜In your entire world,’ said Festival, ‘which is the place you love the most?’
    â€˜Here,’ answered Peter. ‘The museum, every single square inch of it.’
    â€˜But what about outside?’
    â€˜There is absolutely nowhere outside that I would rather be,’ said Peter.
    â€˜Will you take me outside while we wait for the next full moon?’ said Festival.
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜I can’t imagine a place that looks as though it goes on forever,’ said Festival.
    â€˜It doesn’t,’ said Peter. ‘If you start anywhere and travel in a perfectly straight line, you will eventually end up where you started. The world is a huge ball.’
    â€˜But you can’t stand anywhere and see all the boundaries like in my world, can you?’
    â€˜No, of course not,’ said Peter. ‘It’s not so much because your world is a lot smaller than mine. It’s because your world is the inside of the ball and mine is the outside.’
    â€˜But my world is much smaller.’
    â€˜Yes, and if you got in a rocket and shot off up into the sky in my world you would go on forever,’ Peter said. ‘You’d be able to look behind you and see earth getting smaller and smaller. If you flew in a rocket in your world, you’d just crash into the opposite side of it, no matter what size it is.’
    â€˜I like that,’ said Festival. ‘That you can see all of it in one go. You always know where you are.’
    â€˜The museum’s like that,’ said Peter. ‘But there’s also outside.’
    This ended the discussion because they had reached the where-did-everything-come-from point, which can never have an answer.
    â€˜All right,’ said Festival. ‘But there must be some places outside the museum that you do like.’
    â€˜Actually, there is one place I like nearly as muchas this museum,’ Peter said. ‘And I think part of the reason is that it’s got a really tall brick wall surrounding it, so it’s got the same sense of a safe boundary that we’ve got here.’
    â€˜Well, can we go there?’
    â€˜Yes,’ said Peter. ‘It’s the botanic gardens, though since the drought came, it has become a really sad