S 4 ae 5 val \ 7 5 heyy a Fs ° Af ee ay ig, SNE Se ee ‘ Pal / : " , | ~ r me oe es NThe Chrysalids JOHN WYNDHAM Level 3 Retold by Sue Harmes Series Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn PotterPearson Education Limited Edinburgh Gate, Harlow, Essex CM20 2JE, England and Associated Companies throughout the world. ISBN-13: 978-0-582-41980-3 ISBN-10: 0-582-41980-8 First published by Michael Joseph 1955 Published by Penguin Books 1958 Fourth impression 2006 Original copyright © John Wyndham 1955 Text copyright © Penguin Books 2000 lustrations copyright © Paul Young (Artist Partners) 2000 ‘Typeset by Digital Type, London Set in 1/14pt Bembo Printed in China SWTC/04 All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or othenvise, without the prior written permission of the Publishers. Published by Pearson Education Limited in association with Penguin Books Ltd, both companies being subsidiaries of Pearson Ple For a complete list of titles available in the Penguin Readers series, please write to your local Pearson Education office or to: Penguin Readers Marketing Department, Pearson Education, Edinburgh Gate, Harlow, Essex CM20 2JB.Contents Introduction Chapter 1 Dreams Chapter 2 Secret Voices Chapter 3. Questions Chapter 4A Special Baby Chapter 5 A Call for Help Chapter 6 A Dangerous Love Chapter 7 Messages Chapter 8 Escape! Chapter 9 In the Fringes Chapter 10 Brothers at War Chapter 11 The City ActivitiesIntroduction There was nothing terrible about Sophie. She was an ordinary, brave little girl. Why was one little toe so important to God? Years after a terrible war, the world is a very different place. Some parts of the world are dead and black. Nothing lives there. In other areas, plants and animals and people live, but they grow in strange shapes. In Waknuk, people follow the rules of their religion carefully. Their plants and animals must grow correctly. Their children must be perfect. It is wrong to be different. David is growing up on a farm in Waknuk. He is different, but his difference is a secret. Then people begin to ask questions, and life becomes very dangerous for David — and his friends. John Wyndham was born in 1903. His real name was John Beynon Harris. He studied farming and law, and began to write short stories in 1930. These stories were a great success in the USA. In 1951 he became famous when he wrote The Day of the Triffids. Triffids are large, meat-eating plants which can move around. They also kill people. In many of John Wyndham’s books, ordinary people live in an unusual world. In The Kraken Wakes (1953) and The Midwich Cuckoos (1958), the Earth is in danger from aliens. The Chrysalids came out in 1955. These exciting stories have been popular for many years. John Wyndham died in 1969.Chapter 1 Dreams When I was quite small, I sometimes dreamed of a city. This city was by the sea. I could see the streets and houses, and boats on the blue water. But in my real life, there was no sea, there were no boats. The houses in my dream were not like any houses that I knew. The traffic was strange; no horses pulled the vehicles. Big white things flew across the sky. They were shaped like fish; they were not birds. This city was a beautiful and lovely place. Once I asked my sister Mary about it. “There’s no place like that now, she said. Perhaps I was dreaming about times long ago — about the wonderful world that the Old People lived in. This was in the time before God sent great troubles to the world. “You must never tell anyone about your dream, my sister said in a serious voice. ‘Other people don’t have dreams like that’ People in our area always noticed something unusual. 1 also did not tell anyone about my cousin Rosalind. I did not tell them about the special way that we talked. We were just very careful. I did not feel very different from other boys. Not until the day when I met Sophie. ° I was nearly ten years old. I went out alone that day, as I often did. I walked along a path to the south and through the fields. Then I came to a hill. In one place the hill was covered in sand from top to bottom. It was a good place to play. I began to slide down it, going quite fast. I did this three times, and a voice said:‘Hello!” 1 looked around. At first I could not see where the voice came from. Then I saw a tree moving. A face looked out at me. It was a small face with bright eyes and dark hair.“Hello, I answered. The girl stepped out from behind the tree. She was perhaps a little younger than me. She wore a yellow dress, with the usual cross on the front. | was very surprised to meet a new child. I thought that I knew all the children in the area. “What's your name?’ I asked her. “Sophie; she told me.“What’s yours?” “David, I said. Sophie looked at the sand on the hill. ‘Is that fun?’ “Yes, I told her.*Come and try? Sophie climbed up the hill and slid down. At the bottom, she was laughing, excited. “Again, she said. The third time, she had an accident. She reached the bottom and did not move. I slid down and stopped next to her. “What's the matter?’ I asked. ‘I can’t move my foot. It hurts, she said. Her left foot was under the sand. I saw that it was caught between two stones. “We must pull your foot out of the shoe, I decided. ‘Nol’ she said, frightened.*‘No, we mustn't’ She lay back on the sand and began to cry. “You'll have to take your shoe off} I told her. ‘No!’ she said again. ‘I mustn’t. Not ever. I did not know what to do. The pain was clearly getting worse. I had to decide. ‘It’s no good. If you don’t take your shoe off, you'll probably die here. I pulled her foot out of the shoe. The foot looked strange, because it was red and hurting. It also had more than the usual number of toes. “You mustn’t ever tell? she said. ‘Never! Promise me?’ I promised. Sophie went home slowly, on her hands and knees. I walked with her, carrying her shoe. We arrived at her house and Sophie’s 2I pulled her foot out of the shoe.mother came to the door. She was a tall woman with a fine, handsome face and large bright eyes. Her brown dress, like the dresses of the women at home, had a cross on the front. I told her about Sophie’s accident. She looked quickly at her daughter. ‘Oh!’ she cried. “Your foot!’ She took Sophie into the kitchen and washed the hurt foot. Then she kissed it softly. She looked very sad. “You're a good boy, David, and you've been kind to Sophie, she said to me. ‘Thank you. You like Sophie, don’t you?” “Yes, I told her. ‘I think she’s very brave, too, “Will you keep an important secret, for Sophie?’ “Yes, of course, I agreed. “You — you saw her foot?’ she asked me. ‘Her — toes?’ “Yes, I said again. ‘That's the secret, David. Nobody must know about that. It’s very, very important. People can be so unkind. ‘I promise. Nobody will know, I said. ° On my way home I remembered the words that I heard every Sunday. ‘And God made people to be like Himself. Every man and woman must have one body, one head, two arms and two legs. Each arm must end in one hand: each hand must have four fingers and one thumb .. .’ And it continued. I knew it all, every word. “And each foot must have five toes ... Ifa creature is different from this, it is not a true person. It is a Deviation, and God hates Deviations. Deviations were terrible. Everybody said that. But there was nothing terrible about Sophie. She was an ordinary, brave little girl. Why was one little toe so important to God? It was all very strange.Our house was the oldest in Waknuk, and the largest and best. My father was an important man in the area. He owned more land than other people. On Sundays he spoke in church, telling people about God’s laws. At home he was very angry every time he heard about a Deviation. When a chicken was born with four legs, or a pig with two heads, he killed the animal in front of us. When a field of vegetables grew in strange shapes, he burned them. I learned early to notice what a Deviation was. It was something unusual or different — plant, animal or person. Many people lived in our house. There were my father and mother, my two sisters and my Uncle Axel. Uncle Axel was not my real uncle but he was my best friend. Then there were the farm helpers and kitchen girls and their children: more than twenty people. My father watched all these people carefully. That night I had a different dream. We were all standing in front of the house. There was anothér Deviation. Last time it was a baby pig, and his big eyes followed the knife in my father’s hand. Now I dreamed that it was a little girl, Sophie. She stood there with no shoes on her feet. She was trying to hide her toes. We all stood there, and looked at her, and waited. My father walked towards her, the knife in his hand. Tears ran down Sophie’s face. My father caught her, and pulled her along the ground. Everyone began to sing to God as the sun came up. My father held Sophie with one arm, like the baby pig. He lifted his other hand high, and brought it down quickly. The knife shone in the sun... Chapter 2. Secret Voices Quite soon after my meeting with Sophie, another important thing happened. Uncle Axel learned about me and Rosalind. He saw me sitting behind a tree. Then he heard my voice. But I was 5alone, talking to myself. Uncle Axel stood and listened to my conversation for a minute. I turned and saw him. “Well, Davie boy, who are you talking to? The trees or the sky, perhaps?’ I didn’t answer. He came closer and sat next to me.‘Don’t you want to talk to the other children?’ he asked. ‘It’s more interesting than talking to yourself? I decided to tell him. “But I was. I was talking to one of the others. “Who were you talking to?” ‘Rosalind, I told him. He looked at me, and looked around. ‘I can’t see her, he said. ‘Oh, she isn’t here. She’s at home, in her secret little tree- house. It’s her favourite place? At first he did not understand. He thought it was a joke. But I tried to explain it to him, and his face grew serious. ‘This is true, isn’t it? You're not playing a game with me?’ He looked at me hard as he spoke. ‘It’s true, Uncle Axel, I told him. “You can hear words inside your head? And the words come from someone who isn’t here?’ “Well, you don’t exactly hear the words, and you don’t exactly see them. They’te like shapes in your head. Thought-shapes. And they're clearer if you speak the words, I explained. “But you don’t have to speak the words?’ he asked. ‘Oh no ~ it just helps to make them clear’ ‘It also helps to make things dangerous for you and Rosalind’? Uncle Axel looked worried. ‘I want you to promise me two things, David’ ‘T'll promise if I can’ “You must never say the words when other people can hear you. And you must never, never tell anyone about this. Do you promise?”‘ll promise if I can.’I was frightened by the hard look on his face. ‘All right, Uncle Axel; I promised. ‘But why?” “Other people don’t have these thought-shapes in their heads; he said. ‘That makes you and Rosalind different from other people. Do you know what that means?’ I thought about it. “You think I’m a Deviation?’ I asked in a frightened voice. He shook his head. ‘Of course I don’t, Davie. But some people will’ That evening I talked about the danger to Rosalind and to the others — the others who could talk by thought-shapes. It was not only me and Rosalind; there was a group of us. We all agreed that Uncle Axel was right. Everybody felt the danger, and we all made a promise. We promised never to tell any person outside the group about the thought-shapes. It was a secret, our first secret as a group. 7 Far to the south of us, there was an area called the Fringes. From there, trouble sometimes came to Waknuk. In our area, people worked hard, and most of the plants and animals now grew correctly. In Fringe country, everything was wrong. Plants and animals grew in strange ways. The people from there were not true people, they were Deviations. ‘They do not follow the laws of God, my father said. There were frightening stories of the terrible Deviations there. Sometimes, people came from the Fringes to steal from us. They stole food and clothes and animals. And when they were really hungry, they fought our people. Now, there was news that a large group of men from the Fringes were coming. They did not have guns, but they had knives and arrows. My father called our men together. He told them what to do. Then they rode away on their horses. Our men 8had guns, and after a big fight the men from the Fringes ran away. Their chiefs did not escape, and some of them were brought to Waknuk. In the afternoon some horsemen rode into our farm. I ran to watch. Two chiefs from the Fringes were in the middle of the horsemen. At first they looked like ordinary men. One of them had light hair and a beard. He was very dirty. Then the other prisoner got down from his horse. I saw immediately what was wrong with him. He was very tall and his legs and arms were too long and thin. He looked half-man, half-spider. But when I saw his face, I had a terrible shock. His face was exactly like my father’s. He saw me watching him, and a strange look came over his face. I did not understand what it meant. Then my father came out of the house. He noticed the prisoner in the middle of the group. For a minute he looked at the man, and his face went grey. The man’s face was full of hate. My father went back into the house. The men left Waknuk soon after this. Both the prisoners escaped that night. ° In the long summer days Sophie and I often walked in quiet country places. We discovered a stream with flat rocks in it. It was a good place to catch fish. | took off my shoes and put my feet in the water. Sophie watched me from the side. Then she decided to be brave. She slowly took off her shoes too, and stepped into the stream. Later, we sat on a rock. Sophie looked at her feet.“They’re not really terrible, are they?’ she asked. ‘They're not terrible at all? I told her. ‘They're nicer than my feet’ She was pleased about that. Suddenly, a voice called: ‘Hello, David!’ I looked up. A boy stood on the side of the stream. I knew 9him. His name was Alan; he was about two years older than me. “Oh, hello, Alan, I said. Sophie stood up. I went to get her shoes. ‘Catch!’ I called, and threw them to her. She put them on quickly, then started to walk away down the stream. “Who is she?’ asked Alan. ‘She’s not one of the —’ He suddenly stopped speaking. He was looking hard at the flat rock next to me. On the rock was a wet footprint. It showed all six toes clearly. ‘Oh!’ said Alan. I did not like the way that he looked. “Who is she?’ he asked again. ‘She’s a friend, I told him. “What's her name?’ he asked. I did not answer. I ran up the rock and jumped down on him. He was bigger than me, but I surprised him. We began to fight. I wanted Sophie to run away. I wanted to stop him following her. Now he was on top of me and hitting me hard. Then suddenly, he stopped moving. I got up and saw Sophie. She was standing there with a large stone in her hand. ‘L hit him, she said proudly. ‘Do you think he’s dead?” His face was white and there was blood on it. He didn’t move, but he was not dead. I looked at Sophie and she looked at me. We were afraid. The words of Sophie’s mother were in my head. ‘Nobody must know: nobody!’ And now this boy did know. It frightened us. Chapter 3 Questions Sophie’s father listened carefully to our story. ‘Are you sure that he saw it?” “Yes; I said. ‘He saw the footprint, and he wanted to catch Sophie’ 10On the rock was a wet footprint.‘I understand, he said quietly. He looked at us. Sophie’s eyes were big with fear. Her mother looked pale with shock. ‘Tm afraid that we must leave, my dear, he said to his wife. “When can we be ready to go?’ “Very soon. I’ve kept things nearly ready, always. Sophie’s parents went to prepare, and left us alone. “You're going away?’ I asked unhappily. “Yes, Sophie said. ‘Because that boy knows now’ ‘But — immediately? You'll never come back?’ ‘I don’t think so’ I tried hard not to cry. Everything was changing. I went outside to watch Sophie’s father. He was preparing the two strong horses, Spot and Sandy. They could carry a lot of heavy things. ‘Please, I asked. ‘Please can I come too?’ He turned to look at me sadly. ‘No, David. If you disappear from home there’ll be terrible trouble. It'll be more dangerous for us all. I’m very sorry: Sophie’s mother came to me and held me in her arms. My mother never did that. Sophie and her family left in the evening, when it was almost dark. I stayed at their house all night. It was safer for them if I did not go home. ° I went back the next morning. The area inspector's horse was outside our house. I knew the inspector quite well. He and my father were sitting in the front room. My father looked very angry. “Where have you been?’ he shouted. “You’ve been out all night. Where?’ I did not reply. I felt sick with fear. “Who was this child that you were with yesterday — this Deviation?’ 12“Where have you been?’When I still refused to answer my father’s questions, the inspector spoke. “You know, David, this is a very, very serious thing. People go to prison for hiding Deviations. Young Alan is sure that this child had six toes. Is that true?’ ‘No, I told him. ‘The boy’s lying, said my father. To me he added, ‘Go to your room. I knew what that meant. I turned to go. My father picked up his stick and followed me. In the evening I lay in bed. I was not crying now, but my body was hurting badly. Rosalind and the others were all trying to talk to me. They knew that I was unhappy. So I told them about Sophie. It wasn’t a secret now, and Sophie was just a nice, brave girl with six toes. The next day the inspector came to see me. He brought me some sweets and wanted to ask a lot of questions. “When did you discover that Sophie was a Deviation?’ “Quite a long time ago, I said. ‘About six months.’ “But you didn’t tell anyone? That’s bad, you know, he said. “You knew that was wrong?” ‘It didn’t seem very terrible, I tried to explain. ‘And they were very little toes’ ‘If a child is wrong in any way, it is not a real person. It is something quite different — a Deviation’ “But Sophie isn’t really different — not in any other way, I told him. Then I explained about my dream. The dream where my father killed Sophie. The inspector looked at me seriously. ‘I understand, he said. ‘But you should stop worrying about that. Only animal Deviations are killed, not people’ “What happens to them?’ I asked. The inspector did not reply. Then my father came into the room,‘They’ve got them — all three of them; he said to the inspector. He looked at me with hate in his eyes. The two men went out. I began to cry again, my face to the wall. c Two days later I said to Uncle Axel, ‘I’m going to run away? He stopped his work for a minute. “That's not a good idea, you know, he said. “Where will you run to?” ‘I wanted to ask you about that, I explained. ‘It’s difficult? he told me. ‘If you're in another area, they ask to see your certificate. Then they know who you are. “Not in the Fringes, I suggested. ‘In the Fringes?’ he said. ‘Are you crazy? They've got nothing there. There’s not even enough food — they come to steal from us. If you go there, it’ll be hard to stay alive’ “But there are other places. Uncle Axel, you’ve travelled in other parts of the world, outside Labrador. What's it like?’ “All right, Davie boy. If you promise not to tell anyone, I'll tell you something about it. “Why? Is it a secret?’ I asked. ‘Not exactly. But they tell you in church that outside Labrador it’s nearly all Badlands. If you say something different, you get into trouble. So, you won't talk about it?’ I promised him. “All right. Well, it’s this way —’ he began. ‘I only know the way south. I’ve been south three times. First, you go down the river from Rigo until you get to the sea. After about two hundred miles you come to Newf. You call in there for fresh water. Sometimes the Newf people will give you food, too. After that you go south again and you reach land again. You find that it’s Badlands — or at least very bad Fringes. Many plants grow there, but nearly all of them are Deviations. There are strange animals 15there too. After another day or two at sea, the land is all Badlands. Nothing grows right there. When sailors first saw these places, they were very frightened. It was a forest of Deviations, for miles and miles. ‘That’s bad — but it isn’t the worst. ‘If you continue to the south, at last you come to another place. Nothing grows there at all. The land is dead and black and empty. They call this the Blacklands. Once a ship sailed very close to the land there. All the men in that ship became sick and died. “Some people say that, past the Blacklands, you come to other countries. In those countries there are people and animals and plants. They say that the people there look very different from us. These people believe that they look right. But they tell stories of the Old People as we do. It’s all very strange. You begin to ask yourself: how do we know that we are right?’ Uncle Axel told me many more interesting things about the Southern countries. But I really wanted the answer to one more question. “Uncle Axel, are there any cities there?’ “Cities?” he repeated. ‘No, I don’t think so. Small towns, perhaps.’ ‘No, I told him. ‘I mean big places. I described the city in my dream. He looked at me strangely. “No, I never heard of a place like that. I’m sure, I was sad about that. Perhaps it was not a good idea to run away to the South. I decided not to try it. It was too difficult and too dangerous.Chapter 4 A Special Baby The next great surprise was the arrival of my sister, Petra. For a week or two before her birth, there was some excitement in the house. Nobody said anything, of course. Then one night a baby cried loudly. I was sure that it came from inside our house. But in the morning nobody talked about it. Not yet. First, the inspector had to come and give the baby a certificate. All new babies were given a certificate if they were perfect. Sometimes, there was something wrong and a baby did not get a certificate. Then nobody talked about the child, and it — the Deviation — disappeared. When it was light, my father sent a man for the inspector. The inspector did not come for a long time. In the house, everybody waited and worried. As time passed, my father grew angry. It was very difficult to wait this time. Everybody in the house knew that the last two times, no certificate was given. The third time, a man could send his wife away. This was the law. The inspector finally arrived in the middle of the afternoon. My father went out to meet him, red in the face. My sister Mary took the inspector to my mother’s room and we waited again. This was the worst time. The inspector looked carefully and slowly at every part of the baby. At last he came out of the bedroom. In the front room he took a piece of paper from his bag and wrote on it.The child was a true female person. Her body showed no sign of deviation. Then he dated and signed the paper. Now we could talk about Petra. 1 went up to my mother’s room to see her. She looked funny and pink, like all new-born babies. For now she seemed to be quite an ordinary child .. . ‘We told the good news to everybody on the farm. Soon they all stopped work. We met in the kitchen and gave thanks to God together. 17Two or three days after Petra was born, something terrible happened. I was sitting quietly in the room next to my mother’s room. My mother was still in bed. I was careful not to make a noise, because I was hiding. I did not want anyone to find me and give me a job to do. A vehicle passed the window and I saw my Aunt Harriet inside. I moved quietly to the window and looked out. Aunt Harriet tied up the horse. Then she picked up something white, and carried it into the house. I heard her footsteps. Then the door of the next room opened. “Oh, Harriet!’ said my mother’s voice in surprise. ‘So soon! Why did you bring a new baby all this way?’ ‘I had to, Emily; said Aunt Harriet’s voice. ‘I heard that your baby came early, so I — Oh, there she is! Oh, she’s lovely, Emily’ There was silence for a minute. ‘Mine’s lovely, too, isn’t she?’ The conversation continued like this for some time. I was not very interested. I thought all babies looked the same. My mother said, ‘I am glad, my dear. Is Henry very happy?’ “Of course he is, said Aunt Harriet. But there was something wrong with the way that she spoke. She explained quickly: ‘I didn’t know what to do. I heard that your baby was here. I knew that yours was a girl too. It seemed like the answer’ She stopped, and then asked, “You've got the certificate for her?” “Of course, said my mother sharply. Then she spoke again, in a hard voice. ‘Harriet! Are you telling me that you have not got a certificate?’ My aunt did not reply, but I could hear her crying. My mother said coldly, ‘Harriet, give me that child’ For a minute I could not hear much. Then my aunt said, ‘It’s a very little thing, you see. It’s not important. “Not important?! my mother said. “You bring this ... this Deviation into my house. Then you tell me that it’s not important!’ 18‘Harriet, give me that child.’‘Oh! Oh! Oh ...! Aunt Harriet was really crying now. After a time my mother said, ‘I understand why you didn’t tell the inspector’ Then she asked, ‘I’d like to know why you have come here, Harriet. Why did you bring it here?’ When Aunt Harriet spoke, it was in a sad voice. ‘When I first saw her, I wanted to kill myself. I knew she was not perfect enough for a certificate. I wanted to save her. I love her. I decided to keep her for a few weeks. Then I heard your baby was here. I thought I had an answer: “What do you mean?’ asked my mother coldly. ‘I thought, Aunt Harriet continued quietly, ‘I thought that I could leave my baby with you. Then I could borrow yours —’ “What?” “Only for a day or two, while I get my certificate, explained Harriet. “You're my sister, Emily. You’re the only person in the world who can help me’ My mother began to shout, ‘That’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard. Are you crazy, Harriet? You're suggesting that I should break the law —’ She stopped speaking at the sound of my father’s step outside the door. ‘Joseph, she said as he came in. ‘Send her away. Tell her to leave the house. And she can take that with her? ‘But, my father said in a surprised voice, ‘but it’s Harriet, my dear. My mother explained everything. There was no sound from Aunt Harriet. Then my father asked her, ‘Is this true?” Harriet spoke slowly. ‘This is the third time. They'll take my baby away again. I think Henry will send me away, too. He'll find another wife. There'll be nothing in the world for me’ Nobody said anything. ‘T understand. I’ll go, she told them in a dead voice. The baby made a little sound as Aunt Harriet picked it up. I 20