NOW PLUNGE INTO HER MAGICAL NEW WORLD
WITH the word ‘lost’, everything beneath Jack’s feet vanished. He was falling — or rather, slowly sinking — down through the place where the floor should have been.
It was as though he was trapped in some thick substance he couldn’t feel or see. The tree lights had disappeared: all was inky blackness.
‘Christmas Pig?’ Jack called in panic.
‘I’m here,’ came the Christmas Pig’s voice out of the darkness. ‘Don’t worry! This is how you
enter the Land of the Lost! It’ll be light in a moment!’
Sure enough, within a few seconds Jack was able to see the Christmas Pig again. Like Jack, he was floating downwards.
Their surroundings became gradually lighter until Jack realised they were both sinking through their own column of golden light. Above them were two round holes in a wooden ceiling that Jack thought must be the floor of the world they’d left — his world, where Mum lived, where everything he knew existed.
Down, down, down they sank, and now Jack noticed that he and the Christmas Pig were far from the only Things sinking slowly through their columns of light. There were thousands upon thousands of them. Weightless, Jack was able to twist and turn, and in every direction he saw more sinking Things.
Nearest to Jack were a teaspoon, a shiny red Christmas bauble, a dog whistle, a pair of false teeth, a glove puppet, a shiny coin, a long string of tinsel, a camera, a screwdriver, a plane ticket, some sunglasses, a single sock, a teddy bear and a roll of wrapping paper patterned with reindeer.
‘You wouldn’t think it was possible, would you?’ the wrapping paper called to Jack. One of the reindeers on her surface was talking and blinking. ‘Third time she’s lost me this evening! I’ve rolled under the radiator … she’s panicking … left the wrapping too late, as usual!’
The roll of paper had barely uttered these words when she reversed direction and began travelling up instead of down, towards the hole in the ceiling. As she rose out of sight the wrapping paper shouted, ‘Yay, she’s found me! Good luck! Hope you’re back Up Top soon!’ Jack didn’t answer, because he was too astonished by everything that was happening around him and, especially, what he could see of the floor below.
At first, he thought he was looking down at a carpet of many different colours, but as he sank further he realised the carpet was really millions of Things. Scared, he scanned the floor for the Loser, but having no idea what the Loser looked like, he couldn’t tell whether he was there or not.
The lower Jack sank, the louder the noise: the Things on the floor were chattering and clattering and clinking and rustling, until the sound was almost deafening.
As their surroundings became lighter still, Jack realised that he was inside a gigantic building like a warehouse, with immensely high brick walls and many holes peppering the wooden ceiling.
The Things that had reached the ground, the rubber balls and diaries, the paperclips and tape measures, the cameras, pens and purses, were all jabbering away in their groups.
Jack was so fascinated by everything he was seeing that his landing took him by surprise. His bare feet touched the warm wooden floor, and the Christmas Pig landed beside him, in a pathway between a mass of jangling keys and an army of rustling umbrellas.
‘We’ll need a ticket,’ said the Christmas Pig briskly. ‘Come on.’ n EXTRaCTED from The Christmas Pig by J.K. Rowling, published by little, Brown Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Hachette Children’s Group, on October 12, 2021 @ £20. © J.K. Rowling 2021.
The Christmas Pig is a registered trade mark. illustrations by Jim Field. Photography Debra Hurford Brown © J.K. Rowling.