161. Uncle Gentlerain of the Prudent Siblinghood of Preventers

 161. Uncle Gentlerain of the Prudent Siblinghood of Preventers

That night, I didn’t return to my tree in Teddy Bosk. I made myself as invisible as I could, which is totally, and went to the place my father had shown me when he drew a map on the ground. I knelt on the strange earth there, almost sand it was, but it was not, and with a stick tried to dig as good a hole as the soil would let me. When I had, I bent over it and whispered the magic words that invoked the siblings, whoever they were. Then I covered up the hole with all the earth I could and flattened that tightly, stomping on it a little.

At first, nothing happened. I let a quarter of an hour go by. Then I thought I had been polite waiting and decided they would have to find me elsewhere if they wished to, because I was not staying at that unwelcoming place any longer. And I got up ready to head for my frondose Teddy Bosk tree, though I knew I might not get in there because it was past twilight.

And then I felt a tap on my shoulder. I had made myself invisible, but there was clearly something even more invisible tugging at my shirt´s sleeve. And the next thing I knew, I was standing within a large hall with very long and intricately carved wooden benches running all along the walls.  

“May I speak?” I said. I needed to ask a few questions.

A deep, but very gentle voice answered me.

“With confidence. If you can’t speak here, there will be nowhere where you safely can.”  

“I, like I whispered into the hole, am the fairy prince Arley. And I need to see you because…well, because my parents think I should.”

“We know all that, fairy prince. Don’t bother to tell us anything. We know everything there is to know. And we’re working on learning what can’t be known yet.”

“Well, I don’t know anything. I mean, I don’t know what I am doing here, or why I should be here or even where I am. I don’t know a thing. Is this a temple? It sort of looks like one, except the altar seems to be in the centre.”

There was, indeed, a very large block of stone in the middle of the hall. It was polished so much that it shone.

“Is that malachite?”

“It is today. Don’t worry about not knowing more. You know more than you need to for the present.”

“I can’t even see you.”

“Which is as it should be.”

“Are you cucullati or something like that?”

“Hooded geniuses? We are pretty smart in our own ways, but we don’t usually wear hoods, or uniforms of any kind. No. Why do you ask?”

“I once had a girlfriend who-“

 “Ah! It´s because of that. Rosina Red Hood. The nutritionist. Yes, we know all about her. She lived in one of the hooded geniuses’ bunkers. The one located in Minced Forest. So we remind you of those mad scientists who always need to be kept under control. But only because they choose to hide. We’ve nothing else in common. No, we’re not crazy here. In fact, all we do here is try to remain sane. Change the world! Change the world! Change the world for the better or don’t touch it, darn you, pretentious hooded fools!”

“I’m in a madhouse?” I exclaimed in shock. Had my parents sent me to one? That’s how bad I looked to them?

“No! No, no, no! We try to keep the world from losing its head. But this is no madhouse. The madness is outside. We are perfectly sane and would like to remain so. You’re at the home site of the Prudent Siblinghood of Preventers.”

“What am I doing here? Do I have anything to do with this?”

“Not exactly. But you might one day. You’ll have to wait if you want to find out.”

“Wait?”

“Better do it seated. Sit on one of those benches and wait, will you?”

“Who am I speaking with? Can’t you tell me at least that?”

“Yes, and I suppose I can let you see me too. After all, you’re pretty much like us. And we are family.”

A man that looked as if he were in his thirties appeared before me. He had a very kind face. The kindest face I had ever seen. It was the first thing you noticed. So kind it almost kept you from noticing anything else about him.

“I’m your Uncle Gentlerain. I’m a half brother of your mother’s. And the other half of me is a half brother of your father’s too. So I guess that makes me your whole uncle, being composed of two halves. I disappeared ages ago and no one needs to be reminded I ever existed, so don’t you do that. Now be sensible and sit on one of these benches and wait to be needed, will you?”

I did as he said and slipped onto a bench, though I was not sure why. Not sure is an understatement. There was no understanding anything that was happening.

The man smiled. More deeply than he had been smiling.

“I have to go,” he said.

I felt like saying I had to go too, but it was something else I said.

“You’re going to leave me here like this?”

“Just wait until you are needed.”

“But when will that be?”

“We don’t know yet. It might be never.”

“You want me to sit here forever doing nothing? Knowing nothing? Forever?”

“Wait is a verb. If you are waiting, you’re doing something. It’s more than you were doing under that bear tree. Or were you waiting for something to happen there?”

“No,” I admitted, “at least nothing I knew about. But Teddy Bosk is a much more pleasant place than this windowless hall, lit only by purple torches. I could see the sun and the moon and the stars and watch the seasons change and-”

Suddenly I noticed there was a dome above and it lit up with stars, as if we were in an observatory and one of those shows about the firmament was about to begin.

“You needn’t sing the excellencies of that wistful bit of Toyland,” laughed Gentlerain softly. “If you’d rather wait there, do so. But don’t forget to wait for us to need you, because it could happen. And if you are going to hold still so much, at least do some reading while you’re being sedentary. You might learn something useful. Or knit a shawl.”

“Do I have to wait at just one spot without ever moving?”

I don’t know why I asked that. If he said yes, it would have been better not to have asked.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” smiled Uncle Gentlerain, fortunately. “You may go anywhere you please. And you need not leave a reputation behind you.We’ll know where to find you when we need to without it.”

He departed looking amused. As he was leaving, he  suddenly turned and gave me a last smile and it was the nicest smile I had ever seen.  When he vanished,  I found myself back where I had been when I summoned the Siblings.

I felt as if out of a dream and  was wondering what had really happened out there. But there was a note pinned on the stick which I had used to dig the hole I had whispered into. And it said something that surprised and moved me, enough to make me move.