The Lesson

The Fourth Visit, 3

— What is that? asked the boy cheerfully.

— Tea, said Loring. Tea and a bit of something to eat.

— Can I have some?

— It’s for you, of course. Come over here.

The light had changed a bit in the room. So, too, had the sound. With her entry, the noise of wind and the limbs of trees battering against one another and against the house.

— It is nice to be in a small house, observed Stan. Then you have the outside as well.

— That’s so, said Loring. The main thing is — that you can feel the weather. If you can ignore it entirely, your life is a bit sadder — which is something no one would have predicted.

The boy began to eat. Loring poured his tea and added sugar and milk for him.

— Do you like tea? she asked.

— I must, he said. Because the smell woke me up, and I was in the middle of a good dream.

His voice sounded fuller and richer. It sounded, in short, much more like her husband’s. Loring listened carefully. She shut her eyes, trying to hear every bit of it.

— What was the dream? she asked.

— I was reading a book of myths last night. I think it came from that.

Loring nodded.

— I was at a kind of doorway between one kingdom and another. There was a long wall stretching in either direction. I had a little house…

— A hut?

— Yes, a hut, on top of the wall. When people came, I was supposed to ask them questions. This was my dream.

— What kind of questions did you ask?

— Well, there was a list, but I didn’t read it. I knew the ones I liked.

— Were they difficult questions?

— I remember the ones I asked — there were four of them:

when do you believe you will return to the place you came from?

what is the heaviest thing you are carrying?

have you passed anyone dead or dying?

if you would be paid to turn back now, would you?

— Did you have money to pay them if they agreed?

— I didn’t have anything at all. Just a broom to sweep the top of the wall, and a little barrel of food. Someone would come on horseback every now and then to give me more.

— What if someone came who was to be turned back? How would you do it?

— I don’t know, he said. It doesn’t sound like a very good system, does it?

— It sounds like an excellent system, said Loring. I wouldn’t mind doing that job.

— Well, it is a good system for the one who stays there, but I just don’t know what it does for the kingdom, said Stan.

He took a bite of a black-colored cake.

— It wouldn’t be the same kingdom without the person at the end, would it? said Loring. You could almost say that you serve both kingdoms — the kingdom that employs you, and the other kingdom on the other side of the wall, because you make the difference between them clear. It is an impossible difference to know or understand, but you make it clear.

— The tea is good, said Stan. I like tea, and also black cake.

— Finish your cake, because we have three things left to do today before you leave.