Kingdom of Oz

The first one to visit me today aroud nine in the morning was Aparecida. I had her come in, we went to the kitchen. I started making coffee witout a lot of conviction ans she took some time before she brought up the subject.

"I heard of Renan going back home. I realized that when I saw the boy together with his family again. I understood why you wouldn't come to your own party. You have grown attached to the boy, haven't you? I'm so sorry, Miss Grisam."

"I want to apologize for not going to the party. I felt it was an offense especially to you as you helped get everything ready for the party."

"Oh, definitely no harm done. I think you did what you thought was right at the moment. What good is it to be in a party without the pleasure to be in one? Adding to all this complication my son and Renan have brought up with the boys from the other side," that was what she called Guilherme, Bruno and Arthur, "I've been dead worried with this all. What if they make those trees grow and tear down our houses?"

"The boys from the other side, as you say, brought me gifts yesterday. As though they were the Three Wise Men."

"But you didn't refuse them, did you?", she looked startled.

"No, I did accept them."

I saw she looked relieved after hearing this. It must be the ultimate insult to refuse presents whoever they might come from in Taurinos, something that has positively ceased to amaze me.

Later on, master Danilo dropped by, wary of bothering me after yesterday. I offered coffee still hot from the thermos jug and we were talking in the kitchen.

"What happened at the party yesterday? Everybody must be hating me, mustn't they, master Danilo?"

He took a while to answer as if he compiled his mental notes of the night before. Told me he had stayed almost to the end, because he wanted to observe the movement. I asked him about Renan and he said the kid cried most of the party.

"It was the strangest party I've ever seen. But see, people were not angry at you for not attending, there was a lot of concern for your situation as people knew you were not feeling nice. Arthur said you were feeling like that for having gotten attached to Renan and it was one of the times I saw him cry before he and his family went home."

"So what's Arthur's agenda after all? It's been a while since I started wondering what it could be, master Danilo. You heard of it, he made birds come down with seeds…"

"He seems to be testing you, "sá" Stella", the countryman had a worried tone in his voice, "maybe he wants to know whether you're taking this all personally and it seems you are."

Told him that Arthur, Bruno and Guilherme brought me presents yesterday. He looked surprised and asked me if he could ask me what the presents were. Replied I was only going to open them as soon as things here had settled down. I saw he seemed to frown, as if he found something was missing.

"But they went away like this, only gave you the presents and went away? Didn't they say anything, what they were for instance?"

I mentioned Arthur trying to tell me something about one of the presents shortly before I sent them on a ride back where they came from. The countryman seemed to come to a conclusion. Said I should have at least heard what the boy had to say.

"What were they dressed like, do you remember?"

"No."

"It's important, "sá" Stella. Do try to remember."

"I can't, master Danilo."

"Remember if they were in common clothes they wear every day?"

"Oh, yes, they expected a party, you know. That kind of clothes."

"So you didn't do fine when you didn't allow him time to speak. They put on their best clothes to come to visit you and bring you gifts, but you were angry as hell and shooed the three away. I do understand your reaction, they do too, but if you keep taking things to heart like this, things can go crazy."

"What do you know about this Celestial Gardener?"

"The Celestial Gardener is a kind of association kept by the three kids who came over to visit you yesterday. The Celestial Gardener is one of these two, Arthur or Bruno, no one knows who. The other uses the energy of Renan's brother, Guilherme. The other that is the one and only Celestial Gardener doesn't need Guilherme's energy."

"Then just what does Guilherme do?"

"He lets one of the two use his energy. Guilherme is an acolyte to the Celestial Gardener."

"Acolyte? Guilherme?"

"Yes, like an alter boy…"

"I know what an acolyte is, master Danilo; was just surprised to learn Guilherme was one."

"So he is an acolyte, his function is to generate energy for the one who'll use it. They combine the two and together they are like the other that doesn't need Guilherme's energy. He doesn't do or decide anything by himself, only generates energy. The other can't manage without him or without the energy of the Gardener himself."

At this point, the talk was interrupted by the sound of a horse approaching the house. I looked through the kitchen's window and it was Arthur approaching the house. Master Danilo was alarmed and suggested that I should let the boy speak freely before speaking myself.

We waited for some time until it felt like eternity. We heard the knocker. I opened the door and there he was in the same blue dungarees and the same tools half-buried in his pockets as on the day he sowed those seeds around my house. The memory of it left me with a bitter taste in my mouth that his presence there in those dungarees only reinforced in me.

"Easy, I won't waste your time asking you to invite me in this time, Miss Grisam", he said smiling and trying to spy into the house as he did yesterday, "but yesterday you expelled us from here and I didn't have time to explain to you about one of the presents. And I need to tell you something about it, you know. Oh, hi, master Danilo, didn't know you were here…"

The excess of politeness annoyed me. As if the young man tried to show us his infinite good will. I cut his blah blah blah by urging him to talk about the present.

"From the three presents you got, one of them is special. I know you only want to open the presents when everything is settled and I'll tell you what: I think it is a very good idea! But the gift I brought has to be opened. You can open the other two presents when you feel it's the right time, but this one must be opened now as it is a plant and it needs sunlight. Also, nobody else can open the gift. Only you can do it."

"What plant is that?"

"A plant you can find in the Sanctuary", he replied, "it's beautiful. You'll love it when you see it."

I glanced at master Danilo and he looked as astonished as I was. Thought that was a trap. First he sowed those seeds around my house. Then, brought me a plant as a gift? I picked up the volume I remembered to have seen him holding. It did have the shape of a vase on its lower part.

"Is this your plant?"

He smiled a luminous smile when he saw me holding the package. He nodded, but it was not necessary. Said I only had to open it and set it in a place where it could get sun and shade.

"So… Won't you open it?"

He was all suspense and expectation. I glanced at master Danilo in expectation too. He said nothing nor did his expression go under any change. He was watchful of the boy's attitude.

"I'm sorry, Arthur. Not opening it."

He felt a bit startled, "but I told you it is a plant, is alive, needs sunlight and you won't open it?"

I looked nervous at master Danilo and he was twice as nervous as I. He measured the kid all the time and by his face I could tell he didn't like the kid's shift in humor. He shut the door and pulled me in. Arthur loomed at the window staring inside at us causing me to have a slight wave of panic I fortunately managed to control in time. The ever-unfriendly face.

""Sá" Stella, I think it's only going to grow worse if you don't open his gift. But it's your decision in the end…"

"Miss Grisam! I'm not going anywhere as you don't want to open my present!", his voice shouted outside, "I'll put up a tent in your lot and I'll only leave it here when you open the gift I gave you, you hear me? Until you do it, I'll be playing like a clown at your door and shouting your name. You hear me, Miss Grisam?", and he opened a backpack, took a tent from inside and really not in a hurry went on to put it up facing my house.

""Sá" Stella, it seems he's not moving", the countryman looked startled.

"Not moving? Soon, he'll get hungry, tired of it and will go home…"

"You're wrong, "sá" Stella. He's going to watch your house night and day without eating or sleeping until you give in. Believe what I say, this force is far beyond him. If he says he'll be playing like a clown at your door, the longer he's doing it, the weirder the clown he's playing is going to be in time, if you know what I mean…"

I still tried to trick myself with useless and vain hopes. Didn't know Arthur to have a facet like this. But I guess I'd have plenty of time to get to know nearly all.

"So, Miss Grisam? Open my present, I want to go home! I'm waiting!", his voice outside was insistent and annoying as hell, "I can't come in, but you can't come out!", master Danilo was scared, "if you are not going to open his gift, better not to step outside either, "sá" Stella."

"What do you think he could do to me in case I go outside?"

"He'll find a way to haunt you. You go out and see a heinous scarecrow come dancing your way, with a luminescent smile and eyes and you get trampled by the thing, I guess. I don't know, I really don't know. But I see that until you open that package it's going to be just like that night with the Police in your house."

Someone told me someone's astral hell is over on the day on which it's their birthday. In my case, it proved to be more resistant, maybe a good quality manufacture.

""Sá" Stella, I need to go home. Do it as you please, but he's going to call my name outside and I'll have to leave you."

"Master Danilo!", screamed the voice outside, "good night!"

"See, I've got to go. Don't you forget, if you do not open the gift, do not step outside, not even if he calls you by the name. He is going to. He is going to scare the hell out of you."

"Is he going to try to break in?"

"No, because you don't let him. But he can appear as a scarecrow at the window and if so, don't you ever look in his eyes."

"Master Danilo!", screamed the voice outside, louder, "good night!"

"What is he going to do to you?"

"He is going to greet me good-night as I pass him by."

And he mounted his horse, went past Arthur and the kid greeted him good-night as master Danilo had told me. Suddenly the kid aimed at my open door and came running my way. Now I was the only target left. I felt the waves of panic that came sweeping my garden as he approached and slammed the door against the doorstop. I heard his last steps dying on the porch's wooden floor.

Dead silence. Nothing, not even the sounds of the night around, now I noticed the dead silence of the night that was just starting. Dead silence. I'd been standing next to the door for a minute. Nothing. Suddenly, strong hits on my door knocker well at my ear's level making my heart beat like hell. There is a haunt knocking on my door. My astral hell is still not over.

"Miss Grisam!!! Open my gift, don't do this to me! Let me go home, Miss Grisam!!! Let me go home, Miss Grisam!!!", the boy's voice sounded like it was full of grief, the hits on my knocker wouldn't stop. I was not able to call anybody nor would anybody come. Were it the solution, I would already have done it. I wouldn't have this ghastly thing knocking on my door. I gave in. Wouldn't test the kid, even after having experienced his coercion two times in such a short period of time.

"Arthur! I'll open your gift. You've won!", I wouldn't stand a night like the one with the Police cornering me. Not in such a short period of time.

Dead silence. No sounds, not even the normal sounds of night. No sounds coming from Arthur. All was expectation. I picked up the package, tore the wrapping paper; it happened it was really a plant and, as Arthur had promised, it was beautiful.

"Arthur, I'll step out and you tell me more about the plant. Can I?"

Dead silence. No sounds, but the normal sounds of night, the eternal frog percussion ensemble that is a trait of Taurinos. I opened the door and called his name. There was nothing outside. No horse, no backpack, no tent at all. No Arthur at all. I heard a crescendo of a trot and looked its way. It was master Danilo coming back, "I wouldn't want to go home at a time like that, "sá" Stella; even the kid knew that."

"Did you see where he went to?"

"Well, you opened his gift and he headed home like he said he would. Is the plant nice?"

I showed it to him. It was something gnarled as a liana, with an overly beautiful shape. He admired the plant for a while, said it was easy to find in the Sanctuary because it was on the way to the heart of it.

"Why'd he give me a plant from the Sanctuary?"

"I don't know, "sá" Stella, let alone a liana, but I think it has to do with your stop there."

Children in Taurinos and their cryptographic messages. A pattern, since the cryptic messages on Anderson's bell to the hermetic behavior of my new gardener.

"You've got to leave it in a place with sun and shade, like the lianas", he told me before saying goodbye.

I stood some more time at the porch, the light bulb attracting all kinds of nocturnal insects that sometimes projected heinous and frightening shadows on the porch's wall. Thinking that if that was a kind of private Kingdom of OZ, it had to be a horror Kingdom of OZ. L. Frank Baum would kill me for that. I decided to close the house and go to bed. Try to sleep a wink or two. I thought at that time maybe even Agent Anderson would end up deciding to show up on patrol and then, well, nobody deserves it.