by Rob Summers
Chapter 33 The Doors Swing Out, the Lights Go On
The following morning Peace was waked at dawn when Goodness and Gentleness came into her room and shook the bedposts.
“Stop it!” she said. “This is our last chance to sleep in before we go back to school. Why are you waking me up?”
“It’s here under the Christmas tree!” said Goodness.
“I’m sure glad we didn’t take down the tree yet,” said Gentleness, who believed that he understood these things. “We wouldn’t have had anything to put it under.”
“Put what under?” said Peace.
“The Heaven House!” shouted the twins.
The house was a good five feet high and so broad that it hid the bottom half of the tree. Even the front and back yards were included, complete as advertised with real grass. It was in every respect a perfect model of Grace House, except that, where Grace House sagged or splintered, the Heaven House did not. It was Grace House as it ought to be.
Peace wriggled past the bathrobed members of the household who were standing around it and gently touched one of the walls. She was too happy to speak.
“This is very good of you, Grace,” her father was saying to the Ambassador, “but we can’t accept it.”
“Too late, Humility. If you wanted to refuse shipment, someone should have stopped the delivery men from rolling it in here.” Grace gestured toward Peace. “Do you want me to take it away from her now? I don’t think so.”
“But we’ll have to pay you back.”
“If you insist. You have some funds connected with your Crown Mountain property in Heaven. We can have the cost deducted from that.”
“I didn’t think we were allowed to use that here.” Humility looked to his wife. “Faith, how much do we have at the Crown Mountain Credit Union?”
She looked up from where she was peeping in a miniature window. “Infinite, dear. How many times have I told you infinite?”
The children had begun to sing the Heaven House song, learned from the TV commercial.
And when the doors are opened wide,
The magic takes you right inside!
Peace crouched down and opened the front doors, then stood and held her arms out, prepared to fly into the house as she had seen the children on TV do.
“I’m ready!” she announced.
Reason was behind her with baby Wisdom in her arms. “No, Peace,” she said gently. “Don’t get carried away. It’s just on TV that they fly inside.”
“No, it isn’t. Watch!”
In less than a second, Peace shrank down to tiny size and flew into the house through the open doors. This set off a cacophony of mixed grief and joy until Grace calmed them down.
“What did you expect?” he said. “Would the Heaven Channel be guilty of false advertising? Now, who will be next?”
All the Orchard children were next, one after the other. Then Grace began to coax the adults in. Reason stepped up next to last and floated into the Heaven House, still holding Wisdom. She landed in the same front hall she had left, or nearly the same. But here all the wallpaper adhered strictly to the walls, and every bit of bronze candelabra shone like new. The carpet pattern, too, was clear and clean, the woodwork undarkened by age. She walked to a window and looked out. The ‘real’ front hall was still out there, looking enormous, of course, and shabbier than usual by contrast.
At a leisurely stroll, she began to visit the lamps, switching them on with a free hand; and all the time pondering her sleeping baby. She quoted softly to herself, “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.”
“What’s that you’re saying?” said Faith. She had just ‘landed’ and was looking even more radiant than usual.
Reason said it again and added, “I think I understand, just a little, what this house is for.”
“It’s not just for the children,” Faith said. “Speaking of whom, I suppose they’ve all scattered out? Well, as long as we’ve all come in, we may as well have breakfast here. Come with me to the kitchen?”
“But do you think it will have food too?”
Faith gave Reason a chiding look.
“Oh, OK,” Reason said. “And we can come in here, from now on, as often as we like?”
“Whenever we have time,” Faith said. “We’re not out of the world, but just look what’s come into it.”
Reason nodded as she looked around again. “No wonder the children wanted this,” she said. “How beautiful.”
Meanwhile, after a few minutes of chasing about with her brothers and sisters, Peace had turned aside toward the kitchen because she wanted to satisfy herself on a certain point. When she entered the room, she found Uncle Dignity sitting at the table, leaned over with his face in his arms. Ignoring him, she went to the door of the basement, which was twice her height, and stood looking at it.
“I already looked,” Dignity said from behind her. “There aren’t any stairs going down, no basement. All you see is floor that’s on the same level as this.” He thumped the linoleum with his foot.
Peace trusted her Uncle Dig’, so she did not bother to look. Instead, she sat down by him. He looked drained and he kept blinking. No one needed to explain to her why. She felt the same relief.
“If Dr. Wurldspel and all the bad guys in the world tried to get this house,” she said, “they couldn’t do it, could they? This is a real safe place.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” he said.
“They won’t even come here,” she said. “It’s so little they don’t find it or know about it.” She abruptly changed the subject. “You like Aunt Obscurity. I could tell when you were talking with her last night, and she had on her beautiful dress that Grace gave her, and you didn’t argue with her about anything.”
He smiled. “You notice too much, kid.”
This made no sense to Peace, so she went on. “She asked me, when she first came, to tell her if you got a girlfriend, but you haven’t.” She stood up. “Uncle Dignity? Will you come play cards with me? Do you have time?”
Dignity thought for a moment. “Actually, sweetie, I’ve got loads of time. Sure, let’s play.”