The Accidental Time Travellers

Chapter 1

“You see,” said Mum, “a bit of fresh air is what you both need. Enjoy yourselves, and don’t get lost.” Despite the fact that she had already said it, Jack knew that she wouldn’t be able to rest all afternoon if she didn’t also say it to Jess. Mum was strange like that.

They weren’t going far, and Jack didn’t want to be carrying a back pack around with him, so he found a Tesco’s plastic bag and put their food in that, then they both said “Bye” to Mum, went out the back door and down the side of the house to the front.

 The two of them lived in a house in a village with their mum, dad, two cats and a fish tank. Dating back over a thousand years, there were some very old houses there, but the one they lived in was only about twenty years old, in the middle of an estate that was had one main road and a few some side roads that branched off from there. Pretty much like any new estate, really.

The ‘woods’ were at the end of the road, not much more than a hundred metres from their house. Although it was only a few trees deep, it stretched for a few hundred metres in both directions, with a path running alongside high garden fences that connected all the cul-de-sacs on this side of the main road. At the end of the road they turned right and walked about fifty yards along the path to their favourite spot, where there was a fallen tree they could sit on. It also had the added advantage of being out of sight of any of the houses in the area, and had some seclusion from walkers on the path.

They had found this spot when they had first moved in, and so far no one else seemed to have discovered it.

Jack sat astride the trunk, while Jess sat sideways, like on a chair. It was a warm summer’s day, and the shade from the trees was very welcome. What wasn’t so welcome was the amount of insects, flies, wasps and other pests that were flying around. Jack wondered if jam sandwiches had been such a good idea, but it was too late now. He wasn’t going to go back and get something else.

Jack passed one of the sandwiches to Jess, and carefully unwrapped his own, so that he could eat it without the rest of the sandwich being exposed to any passing wasps. He took a big bite, got his penknife out of his pocket and started to make a hole in the tree trunk between his legs.

“What are you doing?” asked Jess, spraying crumbs over Jack’s trouser legs.

“Just playing. You know, we’ve got another four weeks holiday, and nothing to do. Everyone else has gone away, and we’re doing nothing.”

“Well, if we could go anywhere, where would you like to go?” she asked, taking another bite.

“Somewhere more interesting than here, that’s for sure.”

“Disney World?”

“Yeah, maybe. I’d rather go exploring than a large funfair, but I suppose it would be fun for a bit.”

“I’d love to go. Emily went last year, and she got the autographs of all the characters, and all the princesses.”

“Really? Their autographs? A cartoon character signed his name. How does that work?”

“Well, I don’t know. But she had them all in a special autograph book she’d bought there. I’d love one of those.”

Jack really wanted to tell her that cartoon characters can’t really write, but he also didn’t want to upset her, so he resisted and changed the subject back to where he would like to go on holiday.

“Anyway, I quite fancy a canal boat. But I don’t think we’ll be doing that this year, somehow.”

The hole in the trunk was getting bigger. Unfortunately, the blade was getting blunter at the same time, but as he didn’t intend on using it to skin any rabbits that afternoon, he wasn’t too bothered. He’d sharpen it later when they got back home.