James and the Giant Peach Read online

  But what was it that the old man had said? Whoever they meet first, be it bug, insect, animal, or tree, that will be the one who gets the full power of their magic!

  Good heavens, thought James. What is going to happen in that case if they do meet an earthworm? Or a centipede? Or a spider? And what if they do go into the roots of the peach tree?

  'Get up at once, you lazy little beast!' a voice was suddenly shouting in James's ear. James glanced up and saw Aunt Spiker standing over him, grim and tall and bony, glaring at him through her steel-rimmed spectacles. 'Get back over there immediately and finish chopping up those logs!' she ordered.

  Aunt Sponge, fat and pulpy as a jellyfish, came waddling up behind her sister to see what was going on. 'Why don't we just lower the boy down the well in a bucket and leave him there for the night?' she suggested. 'That ought to teach him not to laze around like this the whole day long.'

  'That's a very good wheeze, my dear Sponge. But let's make him finish chopping up the wood first. Be off with you at once, you hideous brat, and do some work!'

  Slowly, sadly, poor James got up off the ground and went back to the woodpile. Oh, if only he hadn't slipped and fallen and dropped that precious bag. All hope of a happier life had gone completely now. Today and tomorrow and the next day and all the other days as well would be nothing but punishment and pain, unhappiness and despair.

  He picked up the chopper and was just about to start chopping away again when he heard a shout behind him that made him stop and turn.

  Six

  'Sponge! Sponge! Come here at once and look at this!'

  'At what?'

  'It's a peach!' Aunt Spiker was shouting.

  'A what?'

  'A peach! Right up there on the highest branch! Can't you see it?'

  'I think you must be mistaken, my dear Spiker. That miserable tree never has any peaches on it.'

  'There's one on it now, Sponge! You look for yourself!'

  'You're teasing me, Spiker. You're making my mouth water on purpose when there's nothing to put into it. Why, that tree's never even had a blossom on it, let alone a peach. Right up on the highest branch, you say? I can't see a thing. Very funny... Ha, ha... Good gracious me! Well, I'll be blowed! There really is a peach up there!'

  'A nice big one, too!' Aunt Spiker said.

  'A beauty, a beauty!' Aunt Sponge cried out.

  At this point, James slowly put down his chopper and turned and looked across at the two women who were standing underneath the peach tree.

  Something is about to happen, he told himself. Some thing peculiar is about to happen any moment. He hadn't the faintest idea what it might be, but he could feel it in his bones that something was going to happen soon. He could feel it in the air around him... in the sudden stillness that had fallen upon the garden...

  James tiptoed a little closer to the tree. The aunts were not talking now. They were just standing there, staring at the peach. There was not a sound anywhere, not even a breath of wind, and overhead the sun blazed down upon them out of a deep blue sky.

  'It looks ripe to me,' Aunt Spiker said, breaking the silence.

  'Then why don't we eat it?' Aunt Sponge suggested, licking her thick lips. 'We can have half each. Hey, you! James! Come over here at once and climb this tree!'

  James came running over.

  'I want you to pick that peach up there on the highest branch,' Aunt Sponge went on. 'Can you see it?'

  'Yes, Auntie Sponge, I can see it!'

  'And don't you dare eat any of it yourself. Your Aunt Spiker and I are going to have it between us right here and now, half each. Get on with you! Up you go!'

  James crossed over to the tree trunk.

  'Stop!' Aunt Spiker said quickly. 'Hold everything!' She was staring up into the branches with her mouth wide open and her eyes bulging as though she had seen a ghost. 'Look!' she said. 'Look, Sponge, look!'

  'What's the matter with you?' Aunt Sponge demanded.

  'It's growing!' Aunt Spiker cried. 'It's getting bigger and bigger!'

  'What is?'

  'The peach, of course!'

  'You're joking!'

  'Well, look for yourself!'

  'But my dear Spiker, that's perfectly ridiculous. That's impossible. That's - that's - that's - Now, wait just a minute - No - No that can't be right - No - Yes - Great Scott! The thing really is growing!'

  'It's nearly twice as big already!' Aunt Spiker shouted.

  'It can't be true!'

  'It is true!'

  'It must be a miracle!'

  'Watch it! Watch it!'

  'I am watching it!'

  'Great heavens alive!' Aunt Spiker yelled. 'I can actually see the thing bulging and swelling before my very eyes!'

  Seven

  The two women and the small boy stood absolutely still on the grass underneath the tree, gazing up at this extraordinary fruit. James's little face was glowing with excitement, his eyes were as big and bright as two stars. He could see the peach swelling larger and larger as clearly as if it were a balloon being blown up.

  In half a minute, it was the size of a melon!

  In another half-minute, it was twice as big again!

  'Just look at it growing!' Aunt Spiker cried.

  'Will it ever stop!' Aunt Sponge shouted, waving her fat arms and starting to dance around in circles.

  And now it was so big it looked like an enormous butter-coloured pumpkin dangling from the top of the tree.

  'Get away from that tree trunk, you stupid boy!' Aunt Spiker yelled. 'The slightest shake and I'm sure it'll fall off! It must weigh twenty or thirty pounds at least!'

  The branch that the peach was growing upon was beginning to bend over further and further because of the weight.

  'Stand back!' Aunt Sponge shouted. 'It's coming down! The branch is going to break!'

  But the branch didn't break. It simply bent over more and more as the peach got heavier and heavier.

  And still it went on growing.

  In another minute, this mammoth fruit was as large and round and fat as Aunt Sponge herself, and probably just as heavy.

  'It has to stop now!' Aunt Spiker yelled. 'It can't go on for ever!'

  But it didn't stop.

  Soon it was the size of a small car, and reached halfway to the ground.

  Both aunts were now hopping round and round the tree, clapping their hands and shouting all sorts of silly things in their excitement.

  'Hallelujah!' Aunt Spiker shouted. 'What a peach! What a peach!'

  'Terrifico!' Aunt Sponge cried out, 'Magnifico! Splendifico! And what a meal!'

  'It's still growing.'

  'I know! I know!'

  As for James, he was so spellbound by the whole thing that he could only stand and stare and murmur quietly to himself, 'Oh, isn't it beautiful. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.'

  'Shut up, you little twerp!' Aunt Spiker snapped, happening to overhear him. 'It's none of your business!'

  'That's right,' Aunt Sponge declared. 'It's got nothing to do with you whatsoever! Keep out of it.'

  'Look!' Aunt Spiker shouted. 'It's growing faster than ever now! It's speeding up!'

  'I see it, Spiker! I do! I do!'

  Bigger and bigger grew the peach, bigger and bigger and bigger.

  Then at last, when it had become nearly as tall as the tree that it was growing on, as tall and wide, in fact, as a small house, the bottom part of it gently touched the ground - and there it rested.

  'It can't fall off now!' Aunt Sponge shouted.

  'It's stopped growing!' Aunt Spiker cried.

  'No, it hasn't!'

  'Yes, it has!'

  'It's slowing down, Spiker, it's slowing down! But it hasn't stopped yet! You watch it!'

  There was a pause.

  'It has now!'

  'I believe you're right.'

  'Do you think it's safe to touch it?'

  'I don't know. We'd better be careful.'

  Aunt Sponge and A
unt Spiker began walking slowly round the peach, inspecting it very cautiously from all sides. They were like a couple of hunters who had just shot an elephant and were not quite sure whether it was dead or alive. And the massive round fruit towered over them so high that they looked like midgets from another world beside it.

  The skin of the peach was very beautiful - a rich buttery yellow with patches of brilliant pink and red. Aunt Sponge advanced cautiously and touched it with the tip of one finger. 'It's ripe!' she cried. 'It's just perfect! Now, look here, Spiker. Why don't we go and get a shovel right away and dig out a great big chunk of it for you and me to eat?'

  'No,' Aunt Spiker said. 'Not yet.'

  'Why ever not?'

  'Because I say so.'

  'But I can't wait to eat some!' Aunt Sponge cried out. She was watering at the mouth now and a thin trickle of spit was running down one side of her chin.

  'My dear Sponge,' Aunt Spiker said slowly, winking at her sister and smiling a sly, thin-lipped smile. 'There's a pile of money to be made out of this if only we can handle it right. You wait and see.'

  Eight

  The news that a peach almost as big as a house had suddenly appeared in someone's garden spread like wildfire across the countryside, and the next day a stream of people came scrambling up the steep hill to gaze upon this marvel.

  Quickly, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker called in carpenters and had them build a strong fence round the peach to save it from the crowd; and at the same time, these two crafty women stationed themselves at the front gate with a large bunch of tickets and started charging everyone for coming in.

  'Roll up! Roll up!' Aunt Spiker yelled. 'Only one shilling to see the giant peach!'

  'Half price for children under six weeks old!' Aunt Sponge shouted.

  'One at a time, please! Don't push! Don't push! You're all going to get in!'

  'Hey, you! Come back, there! You haven't paid!'

  By lunchtime, the whole place was a seething mass of men, women, and children all pushing and shoving to get a glimpse of this miraculous fruit. Helicopters were landing like wasps all over the hill, and out of them poured swarms of newspaper reporters, cameramen, and men from the television companies.

  'It'll cost you double to bring in a camera!' Aunt Spiker shouted.

  'All right! All right!' they answered. 'We don't care!' And the money came rolling into the pockets of the two greedy aunts.

  But while all this excitement was going on outside, poor James was forced to stay locked in his bedroom, peeping through the bars of his window at the crowds below.

  'The disgusting little brute will only get in everyone's way if we let him wander about,' Aunt Spiker had said early that morning.

  'Oh, please!' he had begged. 'I haven't met any other children for years and years and there are going to be lots of them down there for me to play with. And perhaps I could help you with the tickets.'

  'Shut up!' Aunt Sponge had snapped. 'Your Aunt Spiker and I are about to become millionaires, and the last thing we want is the likes of you messing things up and getting in the way.'

  Later, when the evening of the first day came and the people had all gone home, the aunts unlocked James's door and ordered him to go outside and pick up all the banana skins and orange peel and bits of paper that the crowd had left behind.

  'Could I please have something to eat first?' he asked. 'I haven't had a thing all day.'

  'No!' they shouted, kicking him out of the door. 'We're too busy to make food! We are counting our money!'

  'But it's dark!' cried James.

  'Get out!' they yelled. 'And stay out until you've cleaned up all the mess!' The door slammed. The key turned in the lock.

  Nine

  Hungry and trembling, James stood alone out in the open, wondering what to do. The night was all around him now, and high overhead a wild white moon was riding in the sky. There was not a sound, not a movement anywhere.

  Most people - and especially small children - are often quite scared of being out of doors alone in the moonlight. Everything is so deadly quiet, and the shadows are so long and black, and they keep turning into strange shapes that seem to move as you look at them, and the slightest little snap of a twig makes you jump.

  James felt exactly like that now. He stared straight ahead with large frightened eyes, hardly daring to breathe. Not far away, in the middle of the garden, he could see the giant peach towering over everything else. Surely it was even bigger tonight than ever before? And what a dazzling sight it was! The moonlight was shining and glinting on its great curving sides, turning them to crystal and silver. It looked like a tremendous silver ball lying there in the grass, silent, mysterious, and wonderful.

  And then all at once, little shivers of excitement started running over the skin on James's back.

  Something else, he told himself, something stranger than ever this time, is about to happen to me again soon. He was sure of it. He could feel it coming.

  He looked around him, wondering what on earth it was going to be. The garden lay soft and silver in the moonlight. The grass was wet with dew and a million dewdrops were sparkling and twinkling like diamonds around his feet. And now suddenly, the whole place, the whole garden seemed to be alive with magic.

  Almost without knowing what he was doing, as though drawn by some powerful magnet, James Henry Trotter started walking slowly towards the giant peach. He climbed over the fence that surrounded it, and stood directly beneath it, staring up at its great bulging sides. He put out a hand and touched it gently with the tip of one finger. It felt soft and warm and slightly furry, like the skin of a baby mouse. He moved a step closer and rubbed his cheek lightly against the soft skin. And then suddenly, while he was doing this, he happened to notice that right beside him and below him, close to the ground, there was a hole in the side of the peach.

  Ten

  It was quite a large hole, the sort of thing an animal about the size of a fox might have made.

  James knelt down in front of it, and poked his head and shoulders inside.

  He crawled in.

  He kept on crawling.

  This isn't a hole, he thought excitedly. It's a tunnel!

  The tunnel was damp and murky, and all around him there was the curious bittersweet smell of fresh peach. The floor was soggy under his knees, the walls were wet and sticky, and peach juice was dripping from the ceiling. James opened his mouth and caught some of it on his tongue. It tasted delicious.

  He was crawling uphill now, as though the tunnel were leading straight towards the very centre of the gigantic fruit. Every few seconds he paused and took a bite out of the wall. The peach flesh was sweet and juicy, and marvellously refreshing.

  He crawled on for several more yards, and then suddenly - bang - the top of his head bumped into something extremely hard blocking his way. He glanced up. In front of him there was a solid wall that seemed at first as though it were made of wood. He touched it with his fingers. It certainly felt like wood, except that it was very jagged and full of deep grooves.

  'Good heavens!' he said. 'I know what this is! I've come to the stone in the middle of the peach!'

  Then he noticed that there was a small door cut into the face of the peach stone. He gave a push. It swung open. He crawled through it, and before he had time to glance up and see where he was, he heard a voice saying, 'Look who's here!' And another one said, 'We've been waiting for you!'

  James stopped and stared at the speakers, his face white with horror.

  He started to stand up, but his knees were shaking so much he had to sit down again on the floor. He glanced behind him, thinking he could bolt back into the tunnel the way he had come, but the doorway had disappeared. There was now only a solid brown wall behind him.

  Eleven

  James's large frightened eyes travelled slowly round the room.

  The creatures, some sitting on chairs, others reclining on a sofa, were all watching him intently.

  Creatures?

 
Or were they insects?

  An insect is usually something rather small, is it not? A grasshopper, for example, is an insect.

  So what would you call it if you saw a grasshopper as large as a dog? As large as a large dog. You could hardly call that an insect, could you?

  There was an Old-Green-Grasshopper as large as a large dog sitting directly across the room from James now.

  And next to the Old-Green-Grasshopper, there was an enormous Spider.

  And next to the Spider, there was a giant Ladybird with nine black spots on her scarlet shell.

  Each of these three was squatting upon a magnificent chair.

  On a sofa near by, reclining comfortably in curled-up positions, there were a Centipede and an Earthworm.

  On the floor over in the far corner, there was something thick and white that looked as though it might be a Silkworm. But it was sleeping soundly and nobody was paying any attention to it.

  Every one of these 'creatures' was at least as big as James himself, and in the strange greenish light that shone down from somewhere in the ceiling, they were absolutely terrifying to behold.

  'I'm hungry!' the Spider announced suddenly, staring hard at James.

  'I'm famished!' the Old-Green-Grasshopper said.

  'So am I!' the Ladybird cried.

  The Centipede sat up a little straighter on the sofa. 'Everyone's famished!' he said. 'We need food!'

  Four pairs of round black glassy eyes were all fixed upon James.

  The Centipede made a wriggling movement with his body as though he were about to glide off the sofa - but he didn't.

  There was a long pause - and a long silence.

  The Spider (who happened to be a female spider) opened her mouth and ran a long black tongue delicately over her lips. 'Aren't you hungry?' she asked suddenly, leaning forward and addressing herself to James.

  Poor James was backed up against the far wall, shivering with fright and much too terrified to answer.

  'What's the matter with you?' the Old-Green-Grasshopper asked. 'You look positively ill!'

  'He looks as though he's going to faint any second,' the Centipede said.

  'Oh, my goodness, the poor thing!' the Ladybird cried. 'I do believe he thinks it's him that we are wanting to eat!'