The Accidental Time Travellers

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Every child has been there. And every adult, of course, when they were a child. You spend weeks looking forward to the long summer holiday, counting down the days, longing for six weeks of doing just what you want, with no homework and no teachers. Just lying in bed, playing football with your mates and staying up way past your bedtime.

And then, two weeks after they’ve started, you’re bored and lonely because all your friends have gone to exciting places with their families, and you’re left to spend the time with only your little sister for company.

This was exactly where Jack was.

He was lying on his bed, cleaning his nails with a penknife. Actually, it wasn’t just a penknife, it was his penknife. A Christmas present from last year, he had kept it with him all the time, except at school; for some strange reason, the headmaster didn’t think it was a good idea for twelve year old boys to carry what was to Jack a perfectly useful tool that could be used for all sorts of things. He’d tried to argue, but failed. Never mind.

It was the second week of the summer holidays, and Jack was feeling bored. His friends were all away with their families, and his only source of companionship was his sister Jess. She was eighteen months younger than him, and whilst he needed some form of mental or physical stimulation, she was happy watching TV all day if she could get away with it.

Jack had spent the morning in his bedroom reading, and now it was lunchtime his stomach needed filling and his legs needed some exercise. He went downstairs to find Jess, who he knew would be in the living room watching Cartoon Network or something similar.

“Fancy going for a picnic?” he asked as he walked in the room.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll just finish watching this.” ‘This’ was SpongeBob SquarePants , a programme she watched regularly and that Jack felt he had grown too old for, despite the fact that his dad would sit and watch it with Jess every Saturday morning. Jack couldn’t understand why, but he didn’t say anything. He just felt a little more grown-up than his sister. And his dad.

“I’ll be in the kitchen making a sandwich to take. Come through when you’re ready.”

“OK.”

His mum was in the kitchen, making a cup of tea. “Hi, Jack. It must be time for lunch.”

“It is, yes. I was going to make a sandwich and take Jess into the woods for a picnic.”

“Good idea. It’s a lovely day out there, a bit of fresh air would do you both good. Don’t go too far, though. I don’t want to have to send out a search party.”

“No, Mum.”

‘Woods’ was maybe too grand a name for what was a collection of trees at the end of their road, about three or four deep, the other side of which was a wire fence and a field where a few horses were kept. Jack had never worked out who owned them, but he didn’t really have any interest in horses, so his investigations had been very brief.

“Who owns those horses, Mum?” he’d asked when they’d moved in two years ago. “I don’t know, Jack,” was the reply. And that was it. He’d never bothered to find out, and as they seemed to be well looked after, it didn’t enter his head to enquire further.

Anyway, the idea that they may get lost was, in Jack’s mind, a ridiculous one, but his mum always said the same thing, and he was just young enough not to get annoyed with her about it.

While his mum drank her tea and found two packets of crisps, two apples and filled a water bottle, he made two raspberry jam sandwiches. Jess came through from the living room, yawning as she did so.