Matilda Read online

  'You seemed so far away,' Miss Honey whispered, awestruck.

  'Oh, I was. I was flying past the stars on silver wings,' Matilda said. 'It was wonderful.'

  Miss Honey was still gazing at the child in absolute wonderment, as though she were The Creation, The Beginning Of The World, The First Morning.

  'It went much quicker this time,' Matilda said quietly.

  'It's not possible!' Miss Honey was gasping. 'I don't believe it! I simply don't believe it!' She closed her eyes and kept them closed for quite a while, and when she opened them again it seemed as though she had gathered herself together. 'Would you like to come back and have tea at my cottage?' she asked.

  'Oh, I'd love to,' Matilda said.

  'Good. Gather up your things and I'll meet you outside in a couple of minutes.'

  'You won't tell anyone about this ... this thing that I did, will you, Miss Honey?'

  'I wouldn't dream of it,' Miss Honey said.

  Miss Honey's Cottage

  Miss Honey joined Matilda outside the school gates and the two of them walked in silence through the village High Street. They passed the greengrocer with his window full of apples and oranges, and the butcher with bloody lumps of meat on display and naked chickens hanging up, and the small bank, and the grocery store and the electrical shop, and then they came out at the other side of the village on to the narrow country road where there were no people any more and very few motor-cars.

  And now that they were alone, Matilda all of a sudden became wildly animated. It seemed as though a valve had burst inside her and a great gush of energy was being released. She trotted beside Miss Honey with wild little hops and her fingers flew as if she would scatter them to the four winds and her words went off like fireworks, with terrific speed.

  It was Miss Honey this and Miss Honey that and Miss Honey I do honestly feel I could move almost anything in the world, not just tipping over glasses and little things like that ... I feel I could topple tables and chairs, Miss Honey ... Even when people are sitting in the chairs I think I could push them over, and bigger things too, much bigger things than chairs and tables ... I only have to take a moment to get my eyes strong and then I can push it out, this strongness, at anything at all so long as I am staring at it hard enough ... I have to stare at it very hard, Miss Honey, very very hard, and then I can feel it all happening behind my eyes, and my eyes get hot just as though they were burning but I don't mind that in the least, and Miss Honey ...'

  'Calm yourself down, child, calm yourself down,' Miss Honey said. 'Let us not get ourselves too worked up so early in the proceedings.'

  'But you do think it is interesting, don't you, Miss Honey?'

  'Oh, it is interesting all right,' Miss Honey said. 'It is more than interesting. But we must tread very carefully from now on, Matilda.'

  'Why must we tread carefully, Miss Honey?'

  'Because we are playing with mysterious forces, my child, that we know nothing about. I do not think they are evil. They may be good. They may even be divine. But whether they are or not, let us handle them carefully.'

  These were wise words from a wise old bird, but Matilda was too steamed up to see it that way. 'I don't see why we have to be so careful?' she said, still hopping about.

  'I am trying to explain to you,' Miss Honey said patiently, 'that we are dealing with the unknown. It is an unexplainable thing. The right word for it is a phenomenon. It is a phenomenon.'

  'Am I a phenomenon?' Matilda asked.

  'It is quite possible that you are,' Miss Honey said. 'But I'd rather you didn't think about yourself as anything in particular at the moment. What I thought we might do is to explore this phenomenon a little further, just the two of us together, but making sure we take things very carefully all the time.'

  'You want me to do some more of it then, Miss Honey?'

  'That is what I am tempted to suggest,' Miss Honey said cautiously.

  'Goody-good,' Matilda said.

  'I myself,' Miss Honey said, 'am probably far more bowled over by what you did than you are, and I am trying to find some reasonable explanation.'

  'Such as what?' Matilda asked.

  'Such as whether or not it's got something to do with the fact that you are quite exceptionally precocious.'

  'What exactly does that word mean?' Matilda said.

  'A precocious child,' Miss Honey said, 'is one that shows amazing intelligence early on. You are an unbelievably precocious child.'

  'Am I really?' Matilda asked.

  'Of course you are. You must be aware of that. Look at your reading. Look at your mathematics.'

  'I suppose you're right,' Matilda said.

  Miss Honey marvelled at the child's lack of conceit and self-consciousness.

  'I can't help wondering,' she said, 'whether this sudden ability that has come to you, of being able to move an object without touching it, whether it might not have something to do with your brain-power.'

  'You mean there might not be room in my head for all those brains so something has to push out?'

  'That's not quite what I mean,' Miss Honey said, smiling. 'But whatever happens, and I say it again, we must tread carefully from now on. I have not forgotten that strange and distant glimmer on your face after you tipped over the last glass.'

  'Do you think doing it could actually hurt me? Is that what you're thinking, Miss Honey?'

  'It made you feel pretty peculiar, didn't it?'

  'It made me feel lovely,' Matilda said. 'For a moment or two I was flying past the stars on silver wings. I told you that. And shall I tell you something else, Miss Honey? It was easier the second time, much much easier. I think it's like anything else, the more you practise it, the easier it gets.'

  Miss Honey was walking slowly so that the small child could keep up with her without trotting too fast, and it was very peaceful out there on the narrow road now that the village was behind them. It was one of those golden autumn afternoons and there were blackberries and splashes of old man's beard in the hedges, and the hawthorn berries were ripening scarlet for the birds when the cold winter came along. There were tall trees here and there on either side, oak and sycamore and ash and occasionally a sweet chestnut. Miss Honey, wishing to change the subject for the moment, gave the names of all these to Matilda and taught her how to recognize them by the shape of their leaves and the pattern of the bark on their trunks. Matilda took all this in and stored the knowledge away carefully in her mind.

  They came finally to a gap in the hedge on the left-hand side of the road where there was a five-barred gate. 'This way,' Miss Honey said, and she opened the gate and led Matilda through and closed it again. They were now walking along a narrow lane that was no more than a rutted cart-track. There was a high hedge of hazel on either side and you could see clusters of ripe brown nuts in their green jackets. The squirrels would be collecting them all very soon, Miss Honey said, and storing them away carefully for the bleak months ahead.

  'You mean you live down here?' Matilda asked.

  'I do,' Miss Honey replied, but she said no more.

  Matilda had never once stopped to think about where Miss Honey might be living. She had always regarded her purely as a teacher, a person who turned up out of nowhere and taught at school and then went away again. Do any of us children, she wondered, ever stop to ask ourselves where our teachers go when school is over for the day? Do we wonder if they live alone, or if there is a mother at home or a sister or a husband? 'Do you live all by yourself, Miss Honey?' she asked.

  'Yes,' Miss Honey said. 'Very much so.'

  They were walking over the deep sunbaked mud-tracks of the lane and you had to watch where you put your feet if you didn't want to twist your ankle. There were a few small birds around in the hazel branches but that was all.

  'It's just a farm-labourer's cottage,' Miss Honey said. 'You mustn't expect too much of it. We're nearly there.'

  They came to a small green gate half-buried in the hedge on the right and almost hidde