The Flying Bedroom Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Elinor's Bedroom

  The Flying Bedroom and the Snowman

  The Flying Bedroom and the Island

  The Flying Bedroom at the Theatre

  The Flying Bedroom in Outer Space

  The Flying Bedroom and the Pirates

  The Flying Bedroom and the Train

  About

  Copyright

  The Flying Bedroom

  Heather Dyer

  Illustrated by

  Chloe Douglass

  For Elinor,

  whose bedroom flew.

  Heather

  For Mam, Dad and Pedro,

  thanks for the unwavering support!

  Chloe

  This is Elinor’s bedroom. It looks ordinary. But it’s not.

  The Flying Bedroom and the Snowman

  Snow was falling over Aberdovey. Outside, through the dusk, large feathery flakes settled on the empty gardens and the quiet roads.

  ‘It looks like it’s sticking,’ said Elinor’s mother.

  When Elinor went to bed it was still snowing.

  ‘If it carries on,’ said Elinor, ‘will there be enough to build a snowman?’

  ‘Perhaps,’ said Elinor’s father.

  Elinor lay awake for a long time, watching snowflakes flurrying like moths around the street lights. But eventually she closed her eyes and slept.

  And while she slept, her bedroom flew.

  Round and round and up and down went Elinor’s bedroom. Snowflakes swirled overhead. A balled-up sock rolled off the edge of Elinor’s bedroom and was lost forever. One of Elinor’s drawings blew off the wall and was carried up, up and away…

  And then down, down, down went Elinor’s bedroom until with a ‘bump!’ and a long, slow slide, it stopped.

  Elinor opened her eyes. Her bedroom ceiling and her outside wall had disappeared, and the sky was crowded with snowflakes. Elinor put on her rabbit slippers and her dressing gown and went to the edge of her bedroom. The snow was falling thickly. ‘Hello?’ she called. ‘Is anyone there?’

  There was no reply.

  Elinor made a snowball and threw it into the blizzard.

  ‘Ow!’ said someone.

  ‘Oh!’ said Elinor. ‘Sorry!’

  Out of the blizzard came a portly figure. He was wearing a black top hat and a red wool scarf and his arms were sticks with mittens on the end. He had two lumps of coal for his eyes, a carrot for his nose, and a pipe stuck in his mouth.

  ‘Are you all right?’ asked Elinor.

  ‘I’ve been worse,’ said the snowman. He was rolling along from side to side, leaving a channel in the snow behind him. He came to the edge of Elinor’s bedroom and with a wag of his twiggy arms he rolled right in across the threshold.

  ‘Whew!’ he said. ‘What a day!’ He took off his hat and his scarf and threw them on the chair. ‘Nice place you’ve got here.’

  ‘Thanks,’ said Elinor.

  ‘Mind if I stop a while and thaw out a little?’

  ‘Not at all. Is it cold out there?’

  ‘Cold? It’s freezing! But that’s not the worst of it.’

  ‘It isn’t?’

  ‘No. The boys are the real problem.’

  ‘The boys?’

  ‘Throwing stones,’ the snowman said, ‘and smashing things. You know what I mean?’

  Elinor did.

  The snowman took his pipe out of his mouth and knocked it on Elinor’s chest of drawers. A little lump of snow dropped out onto the carpet and began to melt.

  ‘Warm in here, isn’t it?’ said the snowman. His carrot nose was no longer sticking straight out but pointing downwards.

  ‘You don’t think it’s a little too warm,’ said Elinor cautiously, ‘for someone like yourself?’ She had noticed that where the snowman stood, a large damp patch was spreading.

  ‘Too warm? Not at all! Good for you, a bit of heat. Sweats out the impurities.’

  ‘It’s just,’ said Elinor anxiously, ‘that I wouldn’t like you to – you know – melt or anything.’

  ‘Nonsense!’ said the snowman. His words were getting slushier. ‘I’m like my gwandfather.’

  ‘Your what?’

  ‘My Gwandfather. He loved the heat. Lived in India.’

  ‘In India?’

  ‘Met my gwandmother on the twain.’

  ‘On the what?’

  ‘Twain! Twain!’ said the snowman. ‘Chug-a-lug-lug!’

  ‘Oh! Train,’ said Elinor.

  The snowman creaked and seemed to shift a little. Elinor got a towel and pressed it on the damp patch. While she was doing this, the snowman’s pipe fell out. Elinor stuck it in again.

  ‘I sink I’ll shtay a little longer,’ the snowman said. ‘I like it here.’

  ‘I wouldn’t stay too long,’ said Elinor.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘You might begin to – oh!’ One of the snowman’s coal eyes fell out and rolled across the carpet. Elinor went after it.

  ‘Whatsa matter?’ said the snowman.

  ‘Your eye!’

  ‘Wot?’ said the snowman. ‘Stand where I can shee you!’

  ‘Hold still!’ Elinor pressed the coal back into the snowman’s head, where it sat more deeply than it had before.

  ‘Ah! There you are!’ said the snowman. ‘And look! It’s stopped snowing.’

  And so it had. The sky had cleared. The sun was shining and the snow lay still and sparkling as far as the eye could see.

  ‘P’rhaps,’ said the snowman, ‘I should be going.’

  But just then there came a knock at the window – and there was the snowman’s wife, wearing a paisley headscarf and a pair of sunglasses. ‘There you are!’ she cried. ‘Sitting here melting while I’m out looking for you!’

  ‘Oh dear,’ said the snowman.

  His wife rolled in across the threshold. ‘Look at the state of you!’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ said Elinor. ‘I tried to tell him but—’

  ‘It’s not your fault,’ said the snowman’s wife. ‘He’s always doing this. Let’s get him up.’

  The snowman put out his twiggy arms, and Elinor and the snowman’s wife took hold of them and pulled. But the snowman’s arms came right off in their hands. They stuck them in again.

  ‘Let’s push from behind,’ said Elinor. So they went behind and pushed, and the snowman rocked slushily across the carpet and out into the snow again.

  But he was only half the snowman that he had been. His head slumped, his eyes were lopsided and he had lost his nose and two of the buttons on his front.

  ‘Oh dear!’ said his wife.

  ‘Oomph umph,’ said the snowman.

  The snowman’s wife put a mitten to her mouth and began to cry.

  Just then there were voices – and over the brow of the hill came several figures bundled up in scarves and hats and winter boots.

  ‘Oh no!’ said the snowman’s wife. ‘It’s those boys again.’

  The boys were laughing and throwing snowballs at each other.

  ‘HEY!’ yelled Elinor. ‘Hello! Could you give us a hand?’

  The boys came over.

  Carefully, Elinor removed the snowman’s two coal eyes, his pipe, and his remaining buttons, and handed them to the snowman’s wife. Then she pulled off the snowman’s twiggy arms and stood them in the snow like little trees. She picked off his remaining buttons one by one. Eventually there was nothing left of the snowman but two snow balls – a small one for his head and a big one for his body.

  ‘First the head,’ said Elinor, and she pushed the snowman’s head right off so that it fell – plut – into the snow. Then she began rolling it away. As she rolled it through the snow it got
bigger and rounder and by the time she had rolled it back again, it was twice the size it had been.

  ‘Now the body,’ said Elinor.

  The boys helped Elinor roll the big ball in a circle. The further they rolled it the bigger it got and by the time they had rolled it back again it was twice the size it had been. Then Elinor and the boys lifted the snowman’s head back on his body. Elinor replaced the snowman’s eyes, his carrot nose, his pipe, his buttons and his twiggy arms, and before long the snowman was as good as new – better, even.

  ‘I’m a new man!’ said the snowman.

  The snowman’s wife looked doubtful. ‘Don’t you think his head’s a little big?’

  ‘Not at all!’ said the snowman. ‘It’s perfect. Thanks, lads!’

  ‘You’re welcome,’ said the boys, and they went off, singing, through the snow.

  ‘What nice boys,’ said the snowman’s wife.

  ‘Very nice,’ agreed the snowman.

  Elinor looked at the sky. It had clouded over again, and the first few flakes of snow were beginning to fall.

  ‘We’d better be going,’ said the snowman’s wife.

  ‘Just a minute,’ said Elinor. She went and got the snowman’s hat and scarf from her wicker chair.

  ‘Much obliged,’ said the snowman. ‘Goodbye!’

  ‘Goodbye!’ said Elinor.

  The snowman and his wife linked arms and went rolling away through the snow. Elinor listened to their voices grow fainter and fainter until they had disappeared altogether. Then she took off her slippers and her dressing gown and climbed back into bed. She lay there for a moment, watching the snowflakes swirling overhead. But eventually she closed her eyes and slept.

  When Elinor woke up, her ceiling and her outside wall were back again. It was strangely quiet and her room was filled with pale reflected light. Elinor went to the window and looked out. The sun was shining and all of Aberdovey was white – and there was Elinor’s father. He was rolling a huge ball of snow down the middle of the road. Elinor banged on the glass, and her father looked up and waved. ‘Come on out!’ he shouted. ‘I’m building a snowman!’

  The Flying Bedroom and the Island

  Sunday night was bath night. Elinor hated bath night because it meant school on Monday morning. She stood shivering while her mother rubbed her head with a towel.

  ‘Now go and dry your hair,’ said Elinor’s mother. ‘You mustn’t go to bed with it wet.’

  ‘Why not?’ said Elinor.

  ‘Because you’ll wake up with it sticking out all over the place – and you don’t want that, do you?’

  But Elinor didn’t dry her hair. She sat in bed for a long time, playing Angry Rabbit on her mother’s phone.

  ‘Why aren’t you asleep?’ said her father. ‘You’ve got school in the morning.’

  ‘I don’t want to go to school,’ said Elinor.

  ‘I know you don’t,’ her father said. ‘But you have to. Everybody does.’ Then he kissed her goodnight and switched out the light – and eventually, with her hair still wet, Elinor fell asleep.

  And while she slept, her bedroom flew.

  Elinor’s bedroom flew far out across the sea. The curtains billowed out like sails, and the waves splashed up and wetted the underside of Elinor’s room. Straight towards the setting sun flew Elinor’s room until it caught up with the morning. Then down it went – splash! – into the sea.

  Elinor opened her eyes. It was very bright, and where her ceiling had been there was a blue, blue sky. Elinor got out of bed and went to the edge of her room. A small wave slopped up onto the edge of the carpet.

  Her bedroom was at sea!

  Elinor went to the window and leaned out. A breeze was blowing and Elinor’s bedroom began to move. A little wave crested in front, and the water churned up behind.

  ‘Full speed ahead!’ cried Elinor.

  The wind was getting stronger. A pile of Elinor’s school books fell off the back of her bedroom and were soon left far behind. But Elinor didn’t care. She put on her sun hat and binoculars.

  A long way off she could see a small island covered in trees. ‘Land ahoy!’ cried Elinor. She sailed closer and closer to the island until soon she could see a girl standing on the beach. There was a little dog too, barking.

  Elinor waved.

  The girl waved back.

  Straight towards the beach sailed Elinor until, with a grating noise, her bedroom ran aground. Elinor jumped out and waded ashore, and she and the island girl pulled her room up on the sand.

  ‘I’m Elinor,’ said Elinor.

  ‘I’m Elle,’ said the island girl. ‘And this is Monty. I like your room. Can I take a look?’

  ‘Of course,’ said Elinor.

  So Elle climbed aboard and wandered round, picking things up and putting them down again. She looked very much like Elinor except she was much browner, and her hair was sticking out all over the place. She flicked through Elinor’s books and sat on Elinor’s bed and switched Elinor’s bedside light on and off and on again. Then she said, ‘Do you want to see my house now?’

  ‘What about my room?’ said Elinor. ‘Will it be all right?’

  ‘Of course it will. Come on!’

  So the girls ran off along the beach with Monty in the lead.

  Elle’s house was just above the tide line. It was made from bits of driftwood and planks salvaged from shipwrecks, and there were shells and green glass pebbles on a shelf.

  ‘It’s lovely,’ said Elinor.

  ‘I made it myself,’ said Elle.

  Elinor and Elle crouched inside the house eating ship’s biscuits and swigging water out of green glass bottles.

  ‘Do you live here on your own?’ asked Elinor.

  ‘Just me and Monty,’ said Elle.

  The little dog wagged his tail.

  Elinor wondered what it must be like, going to bed when you liked, getting up when you liked, doing whatever you wanted all day long. ‘It must be wonderful,’ she said.

  ‘It is. Do you want to see the rest of my island?’

  ‘What about my bedroom? Are you sure it will be all right?’

  ‘Of course it will. Come on!’

  So they explored the forest. Elle showed Elinor a waterfall disappearing into mossy rocks, and a hollow tree big enough to hide inside. Then they climbed a mango tree and sat in the branches eating mangoes and throwing the stones to the ground, while Monty sat at the foot of the tree, barking.

  When they were full they climbed down again and washed their hands and faces in a stream. Then they chased Monty along the forest paths, and when they were tired they went up to the lookout point and sat looking out to sea. There was nothing but water in all directions, and the sun was setting low down over the horizon. Elinor told Elle all about Aberdovey and her parents and her friends at school – but it all seemed very far away and hardly real.

  ‘I wish I didn’t have to go home,’ said Elinor.

  ‘Don’t, then,’ said Elle.

  ‘I’ve got to. I’ve got school tomorrow.’

  ‘Don’t go.’

  ‘I have to. Everyone does.’

  ‘I don’t,’ said Elle.

  The sun went down. A chill wind blew. ‘It’s time I was going,’ said Elinor.

  But she didn’t go. Elle collected small twigs and lit a fire and they sat with Monty between them, watching the flames dance and crackle – and except for Elinor’s straw hat and binoculars, they looked so much the same that you could hardly tell them apart.

  ‘It’s getting late,’ said Elinor.

  The stars came out. The sea was black and glittered in the moonlight, and out on the water there was a light – a small orange light – bobbing in the blackness.

  ‘What’s that?’ said Elle, pointing.

  ‘What’s what?’ said Elinor.

  ‘That light.’

  Elinor looked through her binoculars. Then she jumped to her feet. ‘It’s my BEDROOM!’

  ‘Let me see,’ said Elle.

&
nbsp; But Elinor was already running back down the hillside, through the forest and along the beach to the place where her bedroom had been. She could see it, floating some way out. Her bedside light was on.

  ‘You don’t have to go,’ said Elle, catching up with her.

  ‘Yes I do,’ said Elinor. But she hesitated. ‘Come with me, if you want.’

  ‘Would I have to go to school?’ said Elle.

  ‘Yes,’ said Elinor.

  ‘And wash my hair?’

  ‘I’m afraid so.’

  ‘Thanks,’ said Elle, ‘but I think we’d rather stay here.’

  So Elinor gave Elle her straw hat and binoculars, and hugged her tight. Then she hugged Monty, too, who licked her.

  ‘Goodbye, then!’ said Elinor.

  ‘Goodbye!’ said Elle.

  Elinor waded in and started swimming. The water was choppy and waves kept splashing in her face – but the light from her bedroom showed her the way. Soon Elinor was close enough to grab hold of the edge of her bedroom. Then, with a kick of her legs – hup! – she was up and dripping on the carpet.

  She could still see the dark hill of the island, and on the wind came the sound of Monty barking. Elinor switched her bedside light off and on again, to signal that she had arrived. Then she changed into some dry pyjamas, climbed into bed and switched out the light. And eventually, with her hair still wet, she fell asleep.

  When Elinor woke up it was morning and her mother was drawing the curtains. Elinor sat up.

  ‘Good grief,’ said Elinor’s mother. ‘Look at the state of your hair!’

  Elinor got out of bed and went to look in the mirror. Her hair was sticking out all over the place!

  She studied it from the left and from the right.

  Then she smiled. She rather liked it.

  And so did her friends at school.