I
said she had chosen the furthest and most inexpugnable of islands to create a
place of bliss there, where a home has been built for every fairy in existence
and where new homes are built for new fairies as soon as they are born.
Ialso
said there was a acatch to all this. You had to want peace to enter the Isle of
Bliss also known as the Land of the Strong Door.
So those
fairies whose hearts are not at peace cannot be happy there. They refuse to
move there, or if they have, they move away again. In the worst of cases, they
are not allowed in, but left to fend for themselves among the humans.
However,
this is not the case of the Dullahans. Mr. And Mrs. Dullahan are so happily
married to each other that they could well while away their lives on the
island. If it weren’t for...the unchagedling. He is why they dwell on a border
of the worlds, so close to the dividing line being overlapped by the mortals.
Well,
two weeks after the garage sale, I stood outside the door to Alpin’s house, afraid
to knock because of what I could hear was going on inside. From the far
distance I could hear Alpin wailing like possessed, probably from his upstairs bedroom.
But that was not new. The doors and windows were all barred save for the
kitchen window. The frightening thing was that through that window I could see Mrs.
Dullahan, who couldn’t have been more upset with my mother for having endorsed
the House, Sheep and Pony policy.
“A curse on all statespeople!” she hissed, clenching her fists. “Meddlers, manipulators and
busybodies! Why can’t they leave well enough alone?”
She
shouted words that turned into snakes and toads. I saw them creep and leap out
through the windows and head for the neighbours’ gardens.
“If
I lose my children, she loses her Oberon! I
swear I’ll go after him! And let the best demoness win!”
“We’re
only curious to see what our houses are like,” I could hear Branna interrupt
meekly. “We aren’t going to desert you.”
“Oh, yes, you are! As
soon as you see them. Yes! Yes!
You’re going to love those houses! They’re designed to fulfill your hearts’
desires. You’ll love them just as I loved mine!”
“But
you left yours, Mum. Why is that?” asked Fiona.
“Everyone
there is so happy, it’s revolting. You can’t stand that unless you’re one of
the blissful yourself. You’ll fit in perfectly, you girls will. Just like Darcy
does. Where do you think he lives?”
“So
that’s why he never lets us visit him. And us suspecting it had to be some
sinister site.”
“Sinister.
Heh! It won’t matter that you are
vampires. You are polite girls.The people there will give you houses close to
the border so you can sneak in and out to go about your dark business quietly
until you are so happy there that you will no longer feel the need to
practice.”
“Mum,
when we decided not to change Alpin for a nicer child, we promised we would
help you with him. And we have and always will. Is all this fuss because you’re
scared of losing him too? Won’t he become nicer once he’s there? Like we will? Little
by little?”
“No
changeling has ever been able to cross The Strong Door. Some have tried to,
once they realized who they were and abandoned their mortal
families.
But none has ever made it inside.That door doesn’t open for them. Alpin can’t
go there. It’s enough they’ve allowed him to remain among us out here.”
“Well,
then, he’lll have to see that for himself. He’ll have to see how they slam the
door in his face, because he is dead set on going and it’s this neighborhood
we’ll all be kicked out of if he keeps screaming night and day that he wants to
see his house and we do nothing to shut him up.”
I
knocked on the Dullahan’s door timidly and it moved aside because it was always
open for me. Still standing in the doorway I volunteered to take Alpin to Apple
Island.
“If
he stands right beside me and we both jump inside when the door opens for me,
and it will,” I said, “because it always does, we might both get in at the same
time.”
"Better jump carrying me piggyback," suggested Alpin.
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