Reason tapped into alignment the sheaf of papers that made up her book query and slipped them into a large, yellow envelope. She also inserted a slightly smaller envelope, pre-stamped and self-addressed, that the publisher would use to return the query. She sealed the outer flap, rose from her desk, and went downstairs to put it in the mailbox.
She had found the writing of The Pride Story to be a welcome diversion while the latter stages of her pregnancy kept her from her job at the Mammon Mart. During the same time, her husband Truth had been much absent as his pastoral duties increased during the Christmas season, so the book had helped to fill that void too. Her doubts about the book’s value were only occasional. After all, solid logic was behind it. She was commanded to spread the gospel, and she felt she ought to do so in such a way as to reach the greatest number of people. She had writing talent, and her cousin had a cracking good story to tell. In all, it just felt ‘to be.’ When the money would begin to roll in from book sales, she hoped it would be enough that she could quit her job and become a professional writer. Of course, that was strictly secondary to the good the book might do.
Approaching the great entry hall, she heard the doorbell ring. When she came to the tall double doors and opened one leaf, she found on the threshold a woman wearing the sort of gray uniform one associates with plumbers or heating duct specialists. On her shirt was a patch that read ‘Big O Security.’ Her long hair, in contrast to her pretty, young face, was pure white. Even her eyebrows were white.
“Hello, I’m with security,” said the woman, and she shook hands with Reason.
“I’m Reason. Uh, we haven’t called anyone.”
“Sent over by the Heavenly Embassy,” the woman explained. From a belt bag she produced an ID card and showed it to Reason. The green and gold card looked right. It bore the Embassy’s dove hologram and included the woman’s picture. Her name was Obscurity.
Reason handed it back. “Well, all right. I didn’t think we needed any security here. It’s such a quiet neighborhood. What do you need to do? Check the locks, or—”
“Oh yes, the locks and everything else,” Obscurity said. “I’ll just find my way around. No need to show me, especially in your condition. Boy or girl?”
“We’re waiting to find out. We decided to skip the ultrasound.”
“Well, I’m sure it will be beautiful. Say is that going out in the mail? Here, let me take it. I have to go back out to my van anyway, so it’s no trouble.”
Dignity met the newcomer not an hour later. As he came from a minor shopping trip, he found her on dirty knees in the front yard and surrounded by the younger children of the house. They were in the midst of planting a cedar tree. The tree, which was quite large for a transplant, had just been lowered into a hole at the top of the slope, and the security woman and the children were putting dirt back in. She stood up and smiled as the children competed to tell him all about it.
“This is just one! We get to plant lots of trees.”
“This is Obscurity. Do you know Obscurity?”
“I got to use the shovel, Uncle Dignity.”
“Did you see Obscurity’s van? We’re going to get to go for a ride in it sometime. She said so.”
After exchanging a few polite words with Obscurity, Dignity carried in his purchase and found Faith running a vacuum cleaner in the entrance hall. “Who’s the gardener?” he shouted over the roar.
Faith shut off the machine and explained that Obscurity was the owner and proprietor of Big ‘O,’ a small business often called upon by the Heavenly Embassy. Dignity was as puzzled as Faith as to why the house needed more security, but thought that Ambassador Grace must know what he was doing. Besides, she had looked rather lovely, even with a streak of dirt on her chin. But what, he wondered, had happened to her hair?
“And that’s your uncle?” Obscurity asked of Peace as they gathered up tools from around the newly planted cedar. (The other children had run off to the back yard.)
“No, he’s not really our uncle. He’s Dignity, and we all live here together.”
“Don’t I recognize him? Isn’t he the guy who was Fame Vainglory’s boyfriend last year?”
“Yeah.”
“And he was married to someone else at the same time?”
“Oh, you mean Aunt Honesty. They got their marriage annulled the night we came here to live. They’re not married anymore and never really were.”
The security expert considered this.
“Is he dating anyone?”
“Huh-uh.”
“You might let me know if that changes.”
She knocked the caked dirt off the shovel by hitting the edge against the walk. Then she looked up at the house, an old and somewhat crumbling three-story edifice with a crooked roof line.
Peace became impatient while Obscurity stood staring. “What are you looking at? Do you like our house?”
She looked down at Peace. “It’s an old beaut’. But I’m thinking how vulnerable such houses are. It’s too easy to lose control of a place like this. It could be lost.”
“We’re not going to lose it,” Peace insisted. “It’s ours.”
Obscurity’s dark eyes looked rather wild under her white eyebrows. “They’ve been lost before,” she said.