Chapter 26 Reason in Paradise
The little boy Kindness ran to the couch with a small plastic robot in his hands and offered it to Reason. When she accepted it solemnly and added it to the pile of toys already in her lap, he gave her a heart-melting grin and ran off to find something else. They were in the living room of the guest wing of the Divine Embassy, and Humility and Faith were seated nearby.
“No, no,” said Humility, setting down an empty cup of coffee. “I know that you and your grandfather pretty much ran the Pride place when Pride was growing up, but by yourselves you weren’t enough to keep him from taking over.”
“But surely if Pride gives us legal control...” suggested Reason.
Humility shook his head. “Pride’s parents would bring a lawsuit charging that Pride signed under duress, or even that he was temporarily out of his mind. They’d win and take the house back. You see, unlike our home country, the law of this land is mostly a fiction. The City authorities brush it aside or find ways around it at their convenience.”
“So,” said Reason, while receiving a stuffed rabbit from Kindness, “you want Pride to give the house to your government?”
“That’s right.”
“And with diplomatic immunity you can’t be dislodged by a lawsuit,” she observed. “Or anything else.”
Faith leaned forward over the coffee table. “We know what you must be thinking,” she said smiling, “that there’ll be nothing to keep us from being unreasonable dictators. But by now you know what sort of people we are. We love that old house, and we’ll turn it into a beautiful place. Reason, if we can do that, then everyone who lives there can become a naturalized citizen of Heaven. And just think! When the house falls, all of us can go to the Old Country and live there.”
In her excitement she stood up. “We’re practically in Heaven now,” she said, “because our King has never broken a promise and never will. Oh, I wish it would all hurry up. It’s like being on the wrong side of a shop window full of wonderful things. We can see but we can’t touch.”
“But what about my cousin Pride?” Reason asked.
Faith sat down, paused for one sober moment, and then started laughing. Humility and Reason smiled uncomprehendingly.
“I can’t help it,” Faith said. “It’s just so wonderful.”
“What is?” asked Humility.
“I mean that, even though it’s impossible, Pride and Doubt will be saved, too.”
“Them in Heaven?” Humility protested.
“I can’t explain,” said Faith. “Sometimes I don’t understand the very things I know. Of course, Pride is hopeless. I don’t know how to answer you.” She laughed again.
Reason took an empty water pistol from Kindness. “It seems so ill-defined.” she said. “You seem to be telling me that it will turn out all right, yet you don’t know why or how.”
“That’s because we’re just servants,” said Humility. “As soon as we secure the house, Ambassador Grace will follow us in, and he’ll put things right, believe me. Whatever needs doing, he’ll do.”
“But I’ve never met him,” Reason said, her voice straining. “You’re not expecting me to trust my house to a stranger, are you?”
“Shhhhh.” Truth was in the doorway with a finger to his lips. He came and sat by Reason, taking her by the hand.
“Miss Reason,” he said with mock seriousness, “are these rapscallions trying to scam you?”
She looked into his eyes and forced a smile. “I don’t know, are they? I mean it sounds as if I’ll be providing a base of operations for a hostile foreign government.” Her voice was shaky.
Truth took a plastic car from Kindness and then lifted the boy to his lap.
“Do you think that’s what it really is?” he asked.
“You tell me,” she said simply.
“These folks have already told you. They’re saving your house and you. If this country’s government takes a dim view of that, that’s their hang-up.”
She nodded slowly.
Faith said to Reason. “Arguments against giving up to God are always based on a terrific flaw: the person doing the arguing doesn’t know God.”
“Well, what is God like?” asked Reason.
Faith gestured to Humility and Truth. “We are his servants. Does that tell you anything about Him?”
“Yes, it does. Very much. But even if all this is true, and I can just throw aside a lifetime of loyalty to my country, well, how are you going to get Pride to sign? You can’t force him.”
“No, and we don’t want to,” said Humility.
Truth said, “Ambassador Grace has gone to arrange about that today. He’s going to make Pride stop stalling and come to a decision.
“How?” asked Reason.
“Oh, the Ambassador is an astute fellow. I don’t know exactly how, but if he wants something, he gets it. He told me it will all be over in the next couple of weeks.”
A short silence followed.
“Well, Reason,” Humility asked presently, “are you with us?
She turned to look at Truth and gripped his hand tighter. Then she lifted the empty water pistol from her lap, aimed, and pretended to shoot invisible enemies.
“Bang, Doubt,” she said. “Bang, Tedium. Bang, Confusion. Bang, Worry! And bang! evil, old Edgar.”
Kindness screamed his approval.