by Rob Summers
Chapter 21 The Bell of the Beast
Dignity was no stickler for traditional meetings and in fact could scarcely have told traditional from untraditional. His idea of a fitting continuation was to have a good little talk with Reason and allow everyone else to talk among themselves as they pleased. He said so, and everyone had to accept it since Grace had put him in charge.
So as the meeting broke up into many separate conversations, Dignity turned to Reason and Wisdom. “Whew, what a muddle! I wish anyone but Confusion and Prevarica had come over here to talk to us about this,” he said. “Those two are like bats in my brain.”
“I wish it had been anyone but Confusion,” Reason said, “but I don’t see why it should have been anyone at all. You aren’t thinking of going along with Guiles’ compromise, are you? Just because of that song and dance we just heard?”
“No, of course I don’t want to. But Reas’, these are my parents I’m trying to see.”
“I know, and they were like parents to me too for a few years, but what’s to be done? We could write to them insisting that you don’t admit that Guiles has any authority over you, but that you truly do want to see them. Only they wouldn’t go for that, I’m sure. They’re too afraid of offending Guiles.”
“But then I could at least say I tried. Write up something, Reas’, go ahead.”
Dignity noticed that the servant woman Fret had slipped up behind them and was looking over Reason’s shoulder as she began to write.
When the meeting broke up into little groups, Wisdom was not surprised that Prevarica sought him out. She commonly spent time with whatever child available was closest to her age, and Wisdom happened to qualify. She certainly wasn’t approaching him because she liked him. As much as he could tell, Prevarica either liked nobody or else had a mind that did not admit such categories. She spent all her energy in manipulating people to agree with her and do her will: there was nothing left for liking.
“I’ll bet you were surprised to see me here,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“I haven’t seen you around much.”
“Yeah.”
He tried to think of something to say. It would be rude to make the observation that almost none of the neighborhood kids was spending time with Prevarica these days, that at present Prevarica’s parrot brigade appeared to be reduced to just her little brothers. She had again lost most of her gang after the night of the shelling had revealed the hell pit beneath the neighborhood, for that dose of underlying reality had made her story of not having seen lizard demons look pretty thin. Wisdom had heard that Mr. and Mrs. Dread were still toadying up to the Leasings, and so had told their children to continue being nice to Prevarica; but Wittily’s independent spirit had returned after Gentleness was brought back to life, and as Wittily went so went Quake, Grovel, and Snivel. The Dread children had had enough of Prevarica and appeared to be out of their parents’ control.
But Prevarica’s reaction to losing her parrots had this time been more measured. She had told anyone who would listen that she didn’t care to shepherd a bunch of little kids anyway. She had moved beyond such things and was presently spending most of her time with adults like Confusion and Folly. Within her own family she was a spoiled little princess, Wisdom knew, so she had chosen to remain within that protective bubble.
“I wish you’d come over here and hang around sometimes,” he ventured.
“I’m not allowed except in a special case like this, for the good of the family. I’m not supposed to be around immigrants from Heaven.”
“That’s just prejudice. My dad immigrated from Heaven.”
She gave him a squinty look that seemed to say, ‘I rest my case.’
He looked glumly at her lapel pin, a jazzed up Christmas tree in shimmering blue and yellow. He had noticed that it matched the one worn by Confusion. Prevarica also had some little techno gizmo in her ear, so small he could hardly see it. She was probably listening to music through it. His parents kept such a firm, sensible budget that he never got to have things like that.
“So what are you doing talking with me?” he said, hoping she couldn’t hear the slight quaver he felt in his voice. “I’m his son, so doesn’t that make me no good either?”
“Are you starting to cry?” she said, pouncing on his weakness. “What’s the matter? Seems like you never grow up. Anyway, I came here to help Confusion make some peace in the family. Of course, nothing will really be any better until Dignity gets rid of all the immigrants in this house. Oh, maybe just your father could stay, since he’s married to a City woman. Why not? But first, you know, we had to do our multi-media presentation in favor of Mr. Leasing’s compromise. Wasn’t Confusion a good speaker?”
Suddenly Wittily Dread was standing beside them. “No, she wasn’t, you little twerp. Good grief, you’re such a smart girl, so why don’t you know that, if Dignity tried that plan, the peace wouldn’t last a week? He’d do something to upset your dad again, and it would all start over.”
“What do you know about it? We’ve got a good plan,” Prevarica insisted.
Wittily shook her head with a smile. “You haven’t got a leg to stand on.”
Prevarica released a little gasp and made a move as if to hit the bigger girl. Thinking better of it, she turned and slapped Wisdom carefully in the face. Then she ran back to her chair.
Wisdom was not completely unhappy with this. It hadn’t been his fault that Prevarica had lost her temper, and while far from love, this was at least some form of attention from her. He rubbed his stinging cheek thoughtfully while Wittily made a sort of apology to him while trying to keep from laughing. Then she moved on, saying that she ought to seek out Gentleness because she hadn’t talked to him since his return from prison. However, before she could do this Dignity called the meeting to order again. She returned to her chair and Wisdom to his mother’s side.
“We’ve got a letter here for Confusion to take back to Leasing House,” Dignity said, indicating the completed clean-copy in front of Reason.
“Yes, here’s our answer,” Reason said. “Wiz, will you hand this to Miss Confusion?”
Wisdom knew that she asked him because she didn’t want to do it herself. She hated Confusion so much that she didn’t want to get near her. He took the paper and hesitated, feeling self-conscious.
Confusion eagerly stretched out a hand to receive it. “Bring it to me here,” she said. “I’ll take it straight back to Leasing House.”
Dr. Therion tensed at his desk and picked up the little hammer. Now was the moment. A few strands of web were about to be thrown around Grace House, and more would follow. Soon they would be able to do nothing but wriggle. He brought the hammer near the bell.
Fret, who was still hovering near the table, plucked the letter from Wisdom’s grasp, and passing by Confusion, whose hand was still outstretched, walked with it to the middle of the room, among the seated household members. She looked it over.
“Just give it to me, dearest,” Confusion said with strained friendliness. “What can you want with it? You’ll just be inventing false fears about it. Here, don’t burden yourself. Give it to me.”
“Says Dignity and Reason will visit Dignity’s parents and won’t discuss the private matters,” Fret said to everyone, “but they don’t recognize Mr. Leasings’ authority to limit what they can talk about. Says they just don’t want to repeat what’s been said before, and so they won’t discuss Relocation or the state of Guiles’ house. Then it says that Mr. and Mrs. Leasing should come and make the invitation themselves, face to face.”
She offered it to the group with a gesture. “Anybody else want to look it over?”
“Fret,” Dignity said, “you’re taking over.”
“Maybe that’s not so bad, Dignity,” Truth said. “I thought the original idea was to get input from the entire household. Fret seems to have remembered that.”
“Oh. Well, OK. Anybo
dy want to say anything?”
Therion slowly lowered the hammer. “Let her be damned,” he said. “She used to work for us.”