He felt like he was being squashed through a thin tube. Everything was dark and he was moving, sliding downwards. He tried to move his arms, but they were pinned at his side. He closed his eyes and opened them again, and repeated this several times - still there was nothing but the ever-pressing darkness.

He opened his mouth to scream but nothing came out. There seemed to be no space around him at all. He felt terror building up in him again, stronger than ever. His stomach churned and tears welled up in his eyes. Even the tears had a hard time escaping.

At last, after what seemed like an age, he gave up trying to move or scream and let his body relax. A shred of logic reappeared in his mind and he tried to use his considerable intelligence to think of what to do. His panic was spent for the time being.

Before he had come to any conclusion about what to do, and very suddenly, a light shone up at him from beneath his feet. The light was trickling in from below. It was like a small dribble of water, but from the wrong way. He still couldn't look down because he was squeezed in tight, his head included.

Then he felt his feet become free of whatever was holding him and felt his entire body sliding downwards as well. The sliding feeling was more pronounced now that he could wiggle his legs.

He imagined that being regurgitated by a giant snake would feel like this. He tensed, bracing himself for something. He expected an impact or attack or something.

A moment later his arms were free and then his head. His stomach leapt as he fell through the air and landed. His glasses fell off his face and he was momentarily blinded by the bright light but, surprisingly, the landing was a soft one.

He reached out with a hand and felt gingerly around him searching for his glasses. His hand and face were in contact with material or cloth of some kind, and his blurry vision showed him that whatever he had landed on was something of many colours. He found his glasses and perched them back on his nose, looking around. He was on a mountain of socks.

He looked at the sky - it was a bright pink - with deep blue clouds floating by. The bright sun was a glowing, royal blue, slightly deeper than that of the clouds. All around him socks were appearing in the sky and falling onto the pile. He looked up and couldn't see any evidence of the tube he had fallen through. He looked down and recoiled, his stomach dropped with a flash of fear, he was rather high.

He lay still for some minutes with his eyes closed. When he opened them he looked down again. He had moved down. He could see the ground now. It was red. Bright, cherry-tomato red. All around the mountain of socks for as far as he could see were holes, about the size of a cellar door. And in between every two holes was some kind of strange, moving machine. They were picking away at the mountain of socks rapidly. The mountain was reducing and as it reduced he closed in on the ground. They were fast!

As he became accustomed to his surroundings he noticed the sound. He had been too occupied to notice before. Voices. High pitched, squealing voices. Many of them, joined in unison. They were singing. He realised it was coming from the strange "machines" he could see between the holes. He listened closely:

"Counting socks and moving socks

"Welcome them to sockland!

"Counting socks and moving socks

"Giving them a quick hand!

"Counting socks and moving socks

"Moving them all somewhere!

"Counting socks and moving socks

"Some are made with sheep's hair

"Counting socks and moving socks

"That's just what we do!

"Counting socks and moving socks

"We will see it through!"

By this point Arnie was at ground level. Socks were steadily falling on top of him and around him, the mountain of socks raised high above him into the odd coloured sky.

What he had taken to be a machine seemed actually to be a living thing. But it was the strangest thing he had ever laid eyes on. He wouldn't call it an animal, but it certainly wasn't a person. He stared at it. It was a giant yellow clothes peg. But not just that - it had 4 skinny arms, and its bottom half was legs. It had eyes and a mouth. Big, orb-like eyes, deep blue, like the clouds, with small black pupils. He looked left and right - sure enough they were all giant clothes pegs!

This one paid him no attention at all. It was grabbing a sock at a time, rapidly looking at it, and then throwing it in one of the holes behind it. Arnie looked over and saw, that each peg-man had two holes and they were labelled simply: CLEAN on the left and DIRTY on the right. They were sorting the clean from the dirty.

His initial fear had subsided and he started to feel excited. He was in a parallel universe! He pinched himself several times and it hurt! He closed his eyes and opened them again a few times and still, here he was. It had really happened.

Arnie cleared his voice loudly. The creature carried on sorting and singing in complete unison with all the others. He would have to say, if asked, that it looked like it was enjoying itsel.

"Em.... excuse me" He said. Nothing. It seemed not to hear him.

"HELLO!" He shouted at the top of his lungs.

The singing abruptly stopped from all around. A sudden, unexpected silence filled the air. It felt like the aftermath of a gun shot. The creature looked at him. It paused for a moment and then opened its mouth

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" It let out a high-pitched squeal. Not only that, but it sounded like all of them were screaming as one. And then, without warning, it stepped back, clear of its holes, turned to the right and ran. Arnie looked around in amazement, and he noticed that they were all doing it!

"No, wait!" He called.

But before he knew it, there was a new peg in front of him - green with purple eyes. To the left and the right - new pegs. They had moved round. And then as one, without any apparent signal and as though nothing had happened, the pegmen resumed their singing and sorting.

Arnie looked out beyond the holes for the first time and then stepped off the pile of socks and attempted to tap the pegman on the shoulder gently.

The singing abruptly stopped. The creature looked at him. It paused for a moment and then opened its mouth

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" It let out the same high-pitched squeal along with all of the other pegs again. And then sure enough, it stepped back, clear of it's holes, turned to the right and ran.

This time he was knocked backwards and landed on the pile of socks as a new, green pegman with glowing silver eyes took up station in front of him. Within moments, the singing and sorting had commenced again.

He lay, dazed and decided that trying to talk to these creatures probably wasn't worthwhile so he pulled himself up and stepped carefully off the pile so as not to disturb the work.

He leapt deftly passed the pegman and over one of the holes. When he was clear of the holes he looked back, the mountain of socks remained constant as new socks were appearing in the sky constantly and falling into the pile. He faced the other way and looked around properly.

The air was hazy and unclear, almost blurry - he could only see for a few feet. The red ground and pink sky made it hard for him to orient himself. He walked forward slowly, uncertainly. After he got about 10 feet from the holes he came to a wall. He looked up and saw that it towered high into the sky. It was a solid wall of deep, purple bricks. He knocked on it to check it was solid and found, as he had expected, that it was. He looked along it to the left and right and from all appearances it seemed to stretch right the way around the sock mountain. They seemed to be enclosed. But as he could not see the other side of the mountain, with his right hand on the wall, he began slowly walking around, looking everywhere as he did so.

He walked and walked and walked for what seemed like hours and the picture remained the same, the same pegmen singing and working, the same wall all the way around, the sky and ground looked the same and the socks kept on coming. He looked up at the glowing blue sun and it had not moved.

Oh dear he thought. The excitement he had felt had vanished and had been replaced with a fear. He sat on the cherry-tomato red ground, finding it remarkably soft to sit on, even though hard enough to walk on, and began to cry.

"Well! Are you dirty or clean?" A voice rang out behind him, almost instantly as though it had been waiting for this moment. He jumped in shock and looked around with his tear stained face.

There was a small pegman. This one was gold, with silver eyes and had the addition of a hat upon its, for want of a better word, head. Arnie stared, still sitting on the ground.

"Well! Are you dirty or clean?" the voice repeated. It was a crisp voice, deeper than the singing pegs.

Arnie managed to choke out some words,

"Where are we? Who are you?" he asked in a shaky voice.

The pegman continued to stare at him but didn't answer immediately. It didn't look unfriendly, but at the same time, didn't look particularly friendly - its facial expression was a bit like a that of a toy soldier. It opened its mouth again,

"Well! Are you dirty or clean?"

Arnie came to his senses enough to understand what was happening. He chuckled, still fearful but feeling a little more confident.

"Ah, I am not a sock. I am a person! Pleased to meet you. Where are we?"

The pegman looked at him.

"Well! Are you dirty or clean?" it said simply, without the slightest change in voice tone.

Arnie felt like crying again, the brief hope he had felt diminishing - but instead of crying he played along.

"Clean, I suppose"

Without any warning at all, and with a speed he wouldn't have thought possible, the pegman's four arms reached out, grabbed him by the arms and tossed him sideways. He flew through the air with butterflies in his stomach and braced himself for the inevitable crash landing. The pegman had thrown him pretty high into air. As he descended, he looked down and saw he was aiming directly for one of the holes. The sign said: CLEAN.

He tried to maneuver in the air, but it was fruitless. Within a second, he was over the top of the hole and began to fall. Darkness engulfed him once more.

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