was shiny and purple, and looked like it had just been waxed. With the others appearing rather dull, she took her chance on this one.
‘Hello?’ she said as she knocked. ‘Is anyone there?’
‘Why certainly!’ The door’s patron flamboyantly remarked as he swung the door open. ‘And who might you be, young lady?’
‘Hello, I am Jean. And… if you’ll pardon me, what are you, more precisely?’
‘I am a gentleMAN! I like to bedazzle and bewitch and my hobby is to pitch!’
‘Wow, you are so full of… life. Could you please tell me what type of animal you are, though. I don’t mean to be rude, I’m just curious. I want to learn.’
‘I am a purple martin. Please, call me Purple Martin!’
‘Is that your name or your species?’
‘It’s both, honey bunch!’
‘I see. I have to be going now though.’
‘Why, where you going?’
‘I’m just going to… bike home.’
‘With the storm that’s coming? Girl, you must be some sort of oddball. You’re staying right here. Ain’t nobody leaving in the rain, not from my house. Come in! I’ll fix you up some cereal and tell you my amazing life story! I’ve been waiting for someone to hear it for ages!’
‘Why didn’t you tell it to the other animals?’
‘Oh, they don’t talk to me. ‘I guess they can’t handle gentlemen. Probably used to more simple folk.’
‘But I was just at Miss Dolly’s and she seemed perfectly polite.’
‘Well, one time, she told me that if I ever address her again, she’ll go ninja on my feathers.’
‘Did you say something bad to her?’
‘No. I just mentioned she’s a fine piece of rodent!’
‘You did not say that!’
‘What’s wrong with that?! It’s a compliment!’
‘And you pretend to be a gentleman!’
‘I do not pretend! I am the more gentle of all the men within a mile!’
‘There are no other houses for a mile!’
‘Fine, be a smarty pants! If you don’t want to listen to the story, then don’t! I’m used to it!’
‘Oh… I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry. Does your story say anything about this house?’
‘Sure, I was one of the animals that built this house.’
‘Really?’
‘No kiddin’. Now sit yourself down and have a cracker. I’m going to tell you all about it!’
THE MAGICAL HOUSE OF DOORS
PPart III
‘Once upon a time, all the animals in the forest decided they wanted a house of their own. Not just a burrow where the water crawls in from everywhere when it rains. But a house; a real house with a roof and a door and windows, like people have. We thought we could build a village of our own, maybe right inside the forest and we would be safe and warm. But you can’t just start and do something like that in the forest. Not without the blessing of the Forest Godmother.
So one day me, Frisco the bear, Viggo the wolf, Eloise the deer and a few other animals, decided to go and ask the Godmother’s permission. We arrived at the sacred clearing on a full moon night and called for her. The wind started to blow and the leaves of the trees rustled, and we could hear her voice. She asked us why we came to see her. None of the animals dared make a sound.
After what seemed like forever, Frisco finally said:
‘We want a house, Godmother. We want all of us to live in a house with a roof. Each animal to have the ability to keep the door of his house open or closed to whomever he pleases, and to stay out of the rain and snow anytime he wants to.’
‘And why have you come to me?’
‘For permission, Godmother.’
‘Animals are not supposed to live in houses. The forest is your house. It is your home. The trees and the leaves are your roof. They feed you, keep you safe, dry and warm. Why do you want to be like the humans that hunt you?’
‘Well… Godmother… why wouldn’t we be? They don’t hunt us because they live in houses. Animals hunt other animals as well.’
‘You are right, Frisco, but it is not the law of things for animals to be like humans. So I must forbid it from spreading in the forest. Those of you who have come here, you will have your house. But outside and far from the forest it will be. And you will live in it, as you please. Go home now. You will wake up in your house tomorrow.’
So the next morning we woke up and we were here. Ta-da!’
‘And were you happy?’
‘No, not really, to tell you the truth. You don’t have any privacy with this open field in front of you. We’re warm now, but that’s about all we are. We miss our friends. I think we’re all lonely here.’
‘Then why don’t you go back?’
‘We can’t. We tried. Whenever we try to get close to a forest it keeps moving further away. We have to live like this.’
‘Wow! That’s kind of sad. Did you ever think about asking the Forest Godmother for permission to go back?’
‘Yes, we did. But Frisco doesn’t want to. He’s been mad at us all these years. Says we got what we deserved and we should live with it. I think he’s just really, really ashamed. He didn’t want a house so badly, he did it for us mostly.’
‘Is he a friendly bear?’
‘He used to be very friendly. He used to love kids. He was a circus bear when he was a pup so he’s really good with humans.’
‘I’ll go talk to him then. See if we can get this sorted out.’
‘Well, to tell you the truth, I don’t think that will help. But it can’t hurt to try. You know his door, right?’
‘Yes, the big wooden one.’
‘Come back and tell me what happened.’
‘I will. Bye, Mr. Blue Martin!’
‘Bye, honey bunch!’
‘Ugh!’ Jean said under her breath and closed the door behind her.
THE MAGICAL HOUSE OF DOORS
PPart IV
‘Please leave! Stop pestering me! You’ve been here every day for two weeks now. Can’t you take a hint?! I’m not going anywhere!’
‘But Mister Bear, you have to. I spoke to all the other animals. They’re waiting on you and they’re counting on you. You can’t just stay here in this house forever!’
‘Why not? This is what they wanted, isn’t it? To have a house. Well, they have a house now! They weren’t happy before, they’re not happy now either. What if we go back to the forest and they make everybody else unhappy?! Maybe they should be here. Everyone’s safer that way!’
‘So that’s what you’re worried about! You don’t want to see anymore animals suffering!’
‘What do you know? You’re just a little girl. We’ve been here for years and years. I don’t know how long it’s been, I stopped counting. Don’t you think I want to go home?’
‘I… I suppose you do. But isn’t there something we could do to let everybody win? If you can’t go back to the forest, maybe we could plant a new forest.’
‘Goedefrillops! Plant a forest!’
‘Why not? A forest is just trees. I could bring you seeds and we could plant new trees. What’s wrong with that?’
‘It would take forever for the trees to grow. Some of the trees in the forest were over a hundred years old. And a forest is more than the sum of its trees!’
‘A forest is more than the sum of its trees… That’s a lovely thing to say. And I’m sure it’s true. But this one would be too. Each animal that lives in this house would bring something to the spirit of the forest. You’re all wonderful creatures. I don’t see why your forest wouldn’t be as beautiful as any other.’
‘I don’t know. Please go now. I want to rest. I will think about what you’ve said to me.’
Jean looked through the window, at the sky outside. It was clear blue and the field was green. She slowly crept out and rode her bike home. Why was he so stubborn she wondered? Why not plant a forest? What was stopping them? Should she do it by herself?
Or was she supposed to let the animals just figure it out for themselves? She wanted to do good but what if they never learned that you have to fight for what you want?
‘Maybe they’ll learn from example,’ she thought. So on that dirt road, trailing across the rail line, she decided she was going to plant a forest. ‘And then we’ll see…’ she said to herself. ‘Then we’ll see.’
She came back that evening with a small hand spade. She dug seven small holes around the yard and planted seeds in each of them. Oak, beech, birch, walnut, the trees that her grandparents had around their house. She came again the next evening and the evening after that. And, by the end of the summer, there were nearly five hundred holes in the ground and some of the seeds had started sprouting.
The first day of September, when she had to return to the city, she made one last visit to the house of doors. She said goodbye to Miss Dolly, Blue Martin, Helga, even Frisco, and she tried very hard to keep herself from crying. They walked her to the train station and hid behind some bushes when her grandparents came to bring her luggage. She got on the train and waved goodbye again and felt like she would remember this summer forever.
That year, her grandparents moved to a new neighborhood. So the next summer she didn’t go to the village anymore, or to the house of doors. The years passed and she thought about her forest once in a while, but remembered everything like in a dream. How could it be true? She wondered. A magical house filled with talking animals…
Then, one day, she found herself walking towards the train station. Why not see what had happened? Why try to forget about something so wonderful? She got on the same train and travelled to the village where she grew up. And surely enough, she didn’t see a house made of doors