The tunnel

John was running away from Billy as fast as he could. Billy was a year older and had given him a good start and promised him a sweet if he could reach the London windows first. John would do anything to be given a sweet. His parents said they were bad for him and if he ate too many he would have to go to the dentist, but so far he’d been lucky.

He hurtled round a corner of the corridor, holding the rail secured to the wall to change his direction. He could hear Billy puffing away behind him and put on an extra spurt of speed just winning the race to a window before Billy arrived.

True to his word Billy gave him a sweet from the tube in his pocket and together they chewed in sticky silence as they stared in wonder through the glass.

John was a typical kid of his generation. He lived in London and like all children in the block, was taught his name and address as soon as he was able to speak. In case of real emergencies a tag carrying the same information was sewn into his clothes as well.

“My name is John, I live in the south west corner of London,” he would proudly reply when asked, “Room 22907, floor 75.” He was quite proud of this statement because he knew that many poor people lived below ground on one of the many minus numbered floors.

The children had just raced to a favourite window that was on one corner of the huge domestic block of London. By moving only a few feet they could look either south or west over the countryside. Even at this height there was nothing to mar the landscape. Fields stretched away in endless shades of green profusion. Tiny little dots occasionally showed where a farm machine was tending the crops, but there was no sign of a human being in sight.

Once they’d eaten their sweets and got their breath back John asked if Billy was going to be around to play the next day.

“My family are taking me to the seaside tomorrow,” Billy replied, "but I’ll see you on the next day to tell you all about it."

John couldn’t wait for Billy to come back and describe his adventures at the seaside. He spent most of the day searching the screen in his dad’s apartment for tales about the sea. Then eventually Billy called round to ask his mum if they could go out in the corridors to play.

The boys went to their favourite spot at the windows and John waited for Billy to tell him what had happened the day before. Once Billy began speaking he could hardly stop for breath.

“The sea goes on for ever,” he said, “much further than we can see from here. And the smell! Dad says it’s fresh air, and the wind blows in your face and you can make sandcastles and buy ice cream to eat.” Billy took another deep breath and went on and on, telling John about some of the delights of the seaside. Apparently you could have rides on animals rather like the horses you could see in the cowboy films shown on the screens, but these animals were much slower and they were called donkeys. Providing you stayed near the edge of the water you could paddle and if you got splashed the water tasted salty.

John listened to his friend going on and on about the wonders of the sea, until his brain felt as if it was at bursting point.

He could think and talk of nothing else and kept bothering his parents to take him there.

“Can we go there one day dad?” He kept repeating until at last his father relented.

He promised his son that when his turn to use a car came round he would take the whole family to the seaside. Then one night after John had gone to bed and was beginning to dream about the seaside, he heard his parents talking.

“We’ll take a chance this coming weekend. The weather’s going to be fine and it’s our first time out, so we should be safe enough.”

“I suppose with a child we have to go out sometime,” replied John’s mum in a quiet voice, “though I can’t bear the thought of us having to drive through that tunnel.

John drifted off to sleep happily; he couldn’t understand most of what his parents were talking about but he did wonder what on earth a tunnel could be.

“Today we’re all going to the seaside,” dad announced proudly at breakfast on Saturday. Mum packed some sandwiches to take for their dinner and hopping with excitement John followed his family as they took an express lift down to the garage area of London. There was a special space to wait in until your car was called, so John looked round and saw some of his friends from the 75th floor equally excited as he was.

“We’re going to the seaside,” he boasted.

“That’s nothing,” replied one of his friends, “we’re off to a block called Portsmouth and then we’re crossing the sea to the Isle of Wight!”

Eventually John’s father’s name was called and the family followed a man in uniform who lead them out to a paved area where a long line of small cars was waiting.

The family climbed into the vehicle, dad pushed a button in front of his seat and they moved off joining a long line of other cars as they passed smoothly through a wide arch and entered a large dark tube at the end of the building. John became very quiet, this must be the dreaded tunnel that mum had been worried about. But his parents sat quietly as they whizzed along, the car keeping its place amongst all the other vehicles in this long concrete tube. John began to relax and look around. There wasn’t very much to see except for the hundreds of other cars travelling beside them, each one with excited small children pressing their noses against the windows trying to get a glimpse of something interesting.

Some of the cars went off along divergent tubes, each vehicle following the instructions programmed into it. John’s car was in a long queue when something happened that he’d remember for the rest of his life! There was an huge archway at the end of the tunnel and outside there was the brightest light he’d ever seen.

He’d always thought that the 75th floor of west London was big, but suddenly they were driving through an endless expanse of green sunny farmland. He’d seen pictures out of the windows and on the screens of course but nothing prepared him for the sheer scale of the actual reality.

Then he turned in his seat to look back at London. The car was travelling very quickly, the scenery flashing past as they drove along, but London was still bulking hugely in the rear window. The top of it was wreathed in clouds. Other than that the colossal block of featureless concrete, looked dull and uninteresting. The rows of cars that had accompanied them from the tunnel were beginning to thin out as they went to their various destinations, but there was still a long line of vehicles behind and in front of them.

“Coming up to the Sussex Block now,” said dad after a while, and John looked round to see another huge block of concrete just across the fields beside the road.

“What do they do with all that space in the fields?” he asked.

“That’s where all the food we eat is grown. A long time ago hundreds of years before I was born there wasn’t enough to eat, and the cities were very small and crowded, then a clever engineer thought of building the tower blocks and after that we had a lot of space left for large fields, we could grow lots of food and the problem was solved.”

They continued on their way, dad told John the names of each place as they passed, until at last they came to the seaside. The car parked itself and they all ran down to the seashore, dad wasn’t quite as quick as his family because he was carrying the folding chairs and all the food they’d brought with them.

It was every bit as exciting as Billy had said. It made the pictures on the screens at home look very dull. Dad rolled up his trousers and started showing Billy how to build a sand castle. Then long before Billy had become too tired and as it began to get dark a siren began to sound.

“Come along then,” said dad “that’s the half hour warning siren. Our car will be leaving soon and we don’t want to get left behind.”

Well Billy would have been quite ready to spend the night sleeping on the beach, but dad said it was dangerous because machines came out at night and cleared up the litter people left behind and they were programmed to leave everything tidy. They would even tidy people away if they hadn’t already got out of the way.

Dad found his car and as it joined the queue John recognised one of the boys he made friends with on the beach, in the car in front as they went home. He was looking out of the back window of his car and as soon as he recognised John he started pulling faces. The journey passed happily in this way with each boy trying to outdo the other to make the ugliest face. Then as the vehicles approached the entrance to the tunnel leading into London, John’s car slowed and stopped while the car in front drove on into the opening, a door closing behind it. Mum looked at her husband and shuddered!

Billy asked why they’d stopped. “The tunnel is closed for half an hour or so,” said his mother, “it’s a bit like the machines that clean the beach, the tunnel needs cleaning every now and then as well.”

For the next two months the family continued with weekly visits to the seaside. Then one day John asked his dad if they could come down here to live permanently.

“I’m afraid I don’t earn enough son, only rich people can afford to live this far away from the towers.”

“When I grow up I’m going to get rich, then we can all live here and play on the beach every day.”

John continued to enjoy new experiences every time they came to the seaside. He remembered one day in particular when it rained. He’d never seen rain, let alone felt it on his face before. It was one of the best days he’d ever had.

When the rain stopped he helped his father make the most splendid castle they’d ever built. They were getting really good at making them now and other people on the sand would come up and make nice comments about the design and construction. Then after that he watched the Punch and Judy show that sometimes came to the beach, finally he had a ride on his favourite donkey of those plying for hire on the sand.

All too soon the half hour warning sounded and the family began the long trip back to London. He was asleep dreaming of becoming rich when the car slowed inside the tunnel and the door closed two cars lengths ahead of them. The computer controlling London immediately began the task of eliminating the excess population of the City.