Fifteen
Outside in the garden, at that very moment, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker had just taken their places atthe front gate, each with a bunch of tickets in her hand, and the first stream of early morning sightseerswas visible in the distance climbing up the hill to view the peach.
‘We shall make a fortune today,’ Aunt Spiker was saying. ‘Just look at all those people!’
‘I wonder what became of that horrid¹ little boy of ours last night,’ Aunt Sponge said. ‘He never didcome back in, did he?’
‘He probably fell down in the dark and broke his leg,’ Aunt Spiker said.
‘Or his neck, maybe,’ Aunt Sponge said hopefully.
‘Just wait till I get my hands on him,’ Aunt Spiker said, waving her cane². ‘He’ll never want to stayout all night again by the time I‘ve finished with him. Good gracious me! What’s that awful noise?’
Both women swung round to look.
The noise, of course, had been caused by the giant peach crashing through the fence that surroundedit, and now, gathering³ speed every second, it came rolling across the garden towards the place whereAunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker were standing⁴.
They gaped⁵. They screamed. They started to run. They panicked. They both got in each other’s way.
They began pushing and jostling, and each one of them was thinking only about saving herself. AuntSponge, the fat one, tripped over a box that she’d brought along to keep the money in, and fell flat onher face. Aunt Spiker immediately tripped over Aunt Sponge and came down on top of her. They bothlay on the ground, fighting and clawing and yelling and struggling frantically⁶ to get up again, but beforethey could do this, the mighty⁷ peach was upon them.
There was a crunch⁸.

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