فصل 07

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 Aunt 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.’