Masklin and Angalo looked at each other, and then at the signaller.
'Go fast!' they shouted.
A moment later the entire lorry juddered as the teams tackled the complicated process of changing gear. Then it rolled forward.
'Fast! I said fast!' Masklin shouted.
'What's going on?' shouted Dorcas. 'What about the door?' 'We'll open the door! We'll open the door!' shouted Masklin.
'How?' 'Well, it didn't look very thick, did it?' The world of nomes is, to humans, a rapid world. They live so fast that the things that happen around them seem quite slow, so the lorry seemed to drift across the floor, up the ramp and hit the door in a leisurely way. There was a long-drawn-out boom and the noise of bits of metal being torn apart, a scraping noise across the roof of the cab, and then there was no door at all, only darkness studded with lights.
'Left! Go left!' Angalo screamed.
The lorry skidded around slowly, bounced lazily off a wall, and rolled a little way down the street.
'Keep going! Keep going! Now straighten up!' A bright light that shone briefly on the wall outside the cab.
And then, behind them, a sound like 'whoomph'.
13
i. Arnold Bros (est. 1905) said, A1t~ is now Finished; ii. All Curtains, Carpeting, Bedding, Lingerie, Toys, Millinery, Haberdashery, Ironmongery, Electrical; iii. All walls, floors, ceilings, lifts, moving stairs; iv. Everything Must Go.
From The Book of Nome, Exits Chap. 3 v.I-IV Later on, when the next chapters of The Book of Nome came to be written, they said the end of the Store started with a bang. This wasn't true, but was put in because bang sounded more impressive. In fact, the ball of yellow and orange fire that rolled out of the garage, carrying the remains of the door with it, just made a noise like a giant dog gently clearing its throat.
Whoomph.
The nomes weren't in a position to take much notice of it at the time. They were more concerned with the noise made by other things nearly hitting them.
Masklin had been prepared for other vehicles on the road. The High Way Code had a lot to say about it. It was important not to drive into them. What was worrying him was the way they seemed determined to run into the lorry. They emitted long blaring noises, like sick cows.
'Left a bit!' Angalo shouted. 'Then right just a smidgen, then go straight!' 'Smidgen?' said the signaller, slowly. 'I don't think I know a code for smidgen. Could we-' 'Slow! Now left a bit! We've got to get on the right side of the road!' Grimma peered over the top of The High Way Code.
'We are on the right side,' she said.
'Yes, but the right side should be the left side!' Masklin jabbed at the page in front of them. 'It says here we've got to show cons consy-' 'Consideration,' murmured Grimma.
'-consideration for other road-users,' he said. A jolt threw him forward. 'What was that?' he said.
'Us going on to the pavement! Right! Right!' Masklin caught a brief glimpse of a brightly lit shop window before the lorry hit it sideways on and bounced back on to the road in a shower of glass.
'Now left, now left, now right, right! Straight! Left, I said left!' Angalo peered at the bewildering pattern of lights and shapes in front of them.
'There's another road here,' he said. 'Left! Give me left! Lots and lots of left! More left than that. ... !' 'There's a sign,' said Masklin, helpfully.
'Left!' shrieked Angalo. 'Now right. Right! Right!' 'You wanted left,' said the signaller accusingly.
'And now I want right! Lots of right! Duck!' 'We haven't got a signal for-' This time 'whoomph' wouldn't have done. It was definitely 'bang'. The lorry hit a wall, ground along it in a spray of sparks, rolled into a pile of dustbins and stopped.
There was silence, except for the hissing sounds and pink, pink noises from the engine.
Then Dorcas's voice came up from the darkness, slow and full of menace.
'Would you mind telling us down here,' it said, 'what you're doing up there?' 'We'll have to think of a better way of steering,' Angalo called down. 'And lights. There should be a switch somewhere for lights.' Masklin struggled to his feet. The lorry appeared to be stuck in a dark, narrow road. There were no lights anywhere.
He helped Gurder stand up, and brushed him down. The Stationeri looked bewildered.
We're there?' he said.
'Not quite,' said Masklin. We've stopped to, er, sort out a few things. While they're doing that I think we'd better go back and check that everyone's all right. They must be getting pretty worried. You come too, Grimma.' They climbed down and left Angalo and Dorcas deep in argument about steering, lights, clear instructions and the need for a proper supply of all three.
There was a gabble of voices in the back of the lorry, mixed with the crying of babies. Quite a few nomes had been bruised by the throwing about, and Granny Morkie was tying a splint to the broken leg of a nome who had been caught by a falling box when they hit the wall.
Wee bit rougher than the last time,' she commented drily, tying a knot in the bandage. 'Why've we stopped?' 'Just to sort out a few things,' said Masklin, trying to sound more cheerful than he felt. We'll be moving again soon. Now that everyone knows what to expect.' He gazed down at the dark shadowy length of the lorry, and inquisitiveness overcame him.
'While we're waiting, I'm going to take a look outside,' he said.
'What on earth for?' said Grimma.
'Just to, you know, look around,' said Masklin awkwardly. He nudged Gurder. 'Want to come?' he said.
'What? Outside? Me?' The Stationeri looked terrified, 'You'll have to sooner or later. Why not now?' Gurder hesitated for a moment, and then shrugged.
Will we be able to see the Store,' he licked his dry lips, 'from the outside?' he said.
'Probably. We haven't really gone very far,' said Masklin, as diplomatically as he could.
A team of nomes helped them over the end of the lorry and they swung down on to what Gurder would almost certainly have called the floor. It was damp, and a fine spray hung in the air. Masklin breathed deeply. This was outside, all right. Real air, with a slight chill to it. It smelled fresh, not as though it had been breathed by thousands of nomes before him.
'The sprinklers have come on,' said Gurder.
'The what?' 'The sprinklers,' said Gurder. 'They're in the ceiling, you know, in case of f...' He stopped, and looked up. 'Oh, my,' he said.
'I think you mean the rain,' said Masklin.
'Oh, my.' 'It's just water coming out of the sky,' said Masklin. He felt something more was expected of him. 'It's wet,' he added, 'and you can drink it. Rain. You don't have to have pointy heads. It just rolls off anyway.' 'Oh, my.' 'Are you all right?' Gurder was trembling. 'There's no roof!' he moaned. 'And it's so big!' Masklin patted him on the shoulder.
'Of course, all this is new to you,' he said. 'You mustn't worry if you don't understand everything.' 'You're secretly laughing at me, aren't you!' said Gurder.
'Not really. I know what it's like to feel frightened.' Gurder pulled himself together. 'Frightened? Me? Don't be foolish. I'm quite all right,' he said. 'Just a little, er, surprised. I, er, wasn't expecting it to be quite so, quite so, quite so outside. Now I've had time to come to terms with it, I feel much better. Well, well. So this is what it's like,' he turned the word around his tongue, like a new sweet, 'outside. So, er, big. Is this all of it, or is there any more?' 'Lots,' said Masklin. 'Where we lived, there was nothing but outside from one edge of the world to the other.' 'Oh,' said Gurder weakly. 'Well, I think this will be enough outside to be going on with. Very good.' Masklin turned and looked up at the lorry. It was almost wedged in an alleyway littered with rubbish. There was a large dent in the end of it.