Roger and the telescope
Every Sunday afternoon Mummy and Daddy take Roger for a drive. Sometimes they visit Nanny and Grandad or Roger's cousins, sometimes they go to a park, museum, fair or circus.
One Sunday they visited the little village of Portwich. They walked around the village looking at the pretty cottages and gardens, visited the church, and had tea and crumpets in the village tea shop. Just as they were about to leave they noticed a little antique shop.
"Let's take a look", said Mum.
They went inside. There were all kinds of things. Old furniture, pictures, ornaments, books and toys.
"Why don't you choose something, Roger?" said Dad. "It will be a reward for getting such a good school report."
Mum and Dad thought Roger would choose one of the old fashioned toys. But instead he fell in love with a telescope.
Dad paid for the telescope and handed it to Roger.
"Take good care of it", he said.
Roger cleaned and polished the telescope until it looked like new.
The next day Roger was playing the telescope looking at different thins around the house. He pointed it at the front door and all of a sudden everything seemed to appear a little bit clearer and brighter. As Roger examined the details on the door so it opened and Dad arrived home from work. Unusually for Dad he was carrying a newspaper under his arm.
Roger ran to the door to greet his father when he realised Dad hadn't really come home at all. Just as Roger was feeling puzzled so he heard the sound of a key in the door. This time it really was Dad, and he really did have a newspaper under his arm. He explained that someone had left it on the train so he'd brought it home for Mum to read.
Roger's bedroom overlooked an old factory that had closed many years before. Roger was using the telescope to explore the view from his room when he pointed it at the derelict buildings. Suddenly the picture became clearer and brighter and Roger saw to his surprise that where the factory had stood there was now a tall apartment building. Roger took the telescope from his eye. The apartment block had gone and the factory was back in its usual place.
A few days later Roger overheard Dad tell Mum that a building company had been granted permission to build high rise apartments on the site of the factory.
One day Roger decided to take his magic telescope to school to show his friends. His journey took him through a park and he decided to stop for a while to look through the telescope. He pointed it at the park gates and again watched as things became clearer and brighter. An old lady came through the gate with a black dog on a lead. She let the dog off the lead and it immediately ran after a ginger cat and chased it up a tree.
Roger took the telescope from his eye. He was alone in the park. Just as he was about to leave through the gate an old lady entered. She had a black dog on a lead. Roger stopped to watch what happened. Just as he'd seen the old lady let the dog off its lead. It immediately spotted a ginger cat, and barking and growling chased it up a tree.
Roger couldn't wait for the weekend. He and Mum and Dad were going to Nanny and Grandad's caravan at Culminster. Nanny's caravan stood at the edge of the cliff overlooking the sea. Roger loved staying there because when he looked out the caravan window he could imagine he was the captain of a big ship.
It was a beautiful sunny day as their car approached the caravan site. Roger put his telescope to his eye and scanned the site for Nanny's caravan. He recognized the blue and pink caravans that stood either side of Nanny's, but to his surprise there was now a gap in the middle. Roger asked if Nanny was planning to move her caravan but Mum and Dad didn't know anything about it.
After they unpacked their things from the car they all went to the beach to enjoy the sunshine. They built sandcastles and Roger had a ride on a donkey. They ate fish and chips from newspaper followed by ice cream.
They were all very tired when they got back to the caravan. As Mum made a sandwich Roger noticed some dark clouds in the distance that seemed to be getting nearer. It started to get windy, making the caravan rock a little. It felt like being on a ship. Roger raised his telescope to his eye and looked out of the window.
But instead of seeing the sea, boats and horizon to his horror he saw a close up of the rocks below. And there on the rocks were the shattered pieces of Nanny's caravan. Roger realised why the caravan had been missing when he looked at the site earlier.
He dropped the telescope and ran out the door screaming.
Mum and Dad ran after him calling out "what's wrong?"
Just as they caught up with Roger there was a huge gust of wind. They turned round just in time to see Nanny's caravan crash over the cliff and onto the rocks below.