Christopher left home and planned to go to London

Christopher’s flight from home begins when Father’s confession turns the family home into a place Christopher considers dangerous. Rather than leave impulsively, he waits for an opportunity, hides outside with Toby, and reasons through the risks until he settles on a journey to London to live with Mother. The departure combines fear with method: Christopher’s trust in Father has broken, but planning gives him a sequence of decisions he can follow.

Why He Leaves

Christopher’s immediate conclusion is that he must get out of the house: Father has murdered Wellington, and Christopher can no longer trust him, despite Father having said, “Trust me.” Christopher connects the lie about Wellington to a fear that Father might also kill him. Because Father would see him if he left at once, he decides to wait until Father is asleep. It is 11:16 p.m. when Christopher considers this escape.

Once he hears Father asleep, Christopher prepares to leave quietly. He takes both coats and his scarf from the hooks by the front door, then goes upstairs for Toby’s cage. To muffle Toby’s scratching, he puts one coat over the cage. He carries Toby downstairs, retrieves his special food box from the kitchen, unlocks the back door, and holds its handle down as he closes it to keep the click quiet. He leaves the other coat over Toby’s cage so the animal will not get cold.

Hiding in the Garden

Christopher does not choose the garden shed, although it would be warmer, because he expects Father might search there. Instead, he squeezes into the narrow gap between the shed wall and the fence, behind a large black rainwater tub. The hiding place offers a little security, but not comfort: he sleeps poorly because of the cold and uneven ground, while Toby scratches in his cage. He watches the sky and thinks about how distant stars make difficult experiences seem negligible, a way of setting his immediate crisis against a larger scale.

At dawn, after remaining in the hiding place for another two hours and thirty-two minutes, Christopher hears Father calling for him in the garden. He covers himself, Toby’s cage, and the food box with an old fertilizer sack. When Father opens the shed and searches nearby, Christopher stays hidden; after Father leaves, Christopher waits another twenty-seven minutes. He recognizes Father’s van by its sound and waits until it has driven away before emerging. These intervals show how the escape depends not only on a decision to leave but on careful observation and timing.

From a Possible Refuge to London

Christopher initially decides to go to Mrs. Shears’s house. He knows her and has stayed there during a power cut, so she is not a stranger to him. He expects that telling her who killed Wellington will establish that he is a friend, and he thinks she will understand why he cannot live with Father. Carrying Toby’s cage and his extra coat, he crosses the street and knocks at her door. When people from the neighboring house approach, however, he becomes frightened and hides beside Mrs. Shears’s house, behind a dustbin.

From there he considers his choices systematically. He rules out returning home and living with Siobhan, who cannot look after him while school is closed. He also considers staying where he is or hiding in the garden each night, but the prospect of Father finding him makes those options more frightening. Christopher represents the alternatives as a set of possibilities to cross out, comparing the process to deciding which questions to answer in a mathematics exam. His conclusion is that none of the available choices feels safe, but London is the remaining workable option.

Christopher knows Mother’s address from her letters: 451c Chapter Road, London NW2 5NG. London is about one hundred miles away, and he has never travelled there alone; his independent outings have gone no farther than the shop at the end of the road. The journey is frightening, but he knows how train travel works from his train set: check a timetable, buy a ticket, consult the departure board, find the right platform, and board. He connects the departure point, Swindon station, to a remembered detail from a Sherlock Holmes story, showing how familiar knowledge helps make an unfamiliar journey imaginable.

Making a Plan and Asking for Help

The decision to go to London does not resolve every practical problem. Christopher realizes he will need money and food for the journey, and that someone must look after Toby because he cannot take him along. Formulating a plan gives him a sense of order: instead of confronting all the uncertainties at once, he can follow instructions one after another.

Christopher goes to Mrs. Alexander, who lives next door to Mrs. Shears, and asks her to look after Toby. He explains the rat’s food and care, including that Toby needs fresh water each day and must not be given chocolate. When Mrs. Alexander asks why he needs help, Christopher tells her, “I'm going to London.” Asked why, he explains that he is going to live with Mother. Mrs. Alexander points out that Christopher had told her Mother was dead; he replies that he thought so, but Mother is alive, Father lied, and Father said he killed Wellington. The request about Toby thus becomes the moment Christopher communicates both the destination of his flight and the facts that have made home feel unsafe.

Significance of the Escape

The flight is an escape from a particular collapse of trust, but it is also an act of practical reasoning under pressure. Christopher observes sounds, waits through measured intervals, considers people and places he knows, and eliminates options one by one. The plan does not make London familiar or the journey easy; it gives him a sequence through which he can approach a frightening choice. Toby’s care remains part of that calculation, so Christopher’s departure is not simply an attempt to get away but an effort to protect and account for the animal who is with him.

The episode also reverses the meaning of home. Christopher had lived in Swindon with Father, but after Father’s lie and confession he identifies Mother’s London address as home, despite never having been there. He gives up the possibility of becoming an astronaut with sadness, because even that imagined future now seems distant from the immediate need to reach Mother. His decision to leave is therefore both a response to danger and a redefinition of where he believes he belongs.