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=== Later history === | === Later history === | ||
A resident of the House once lay ahead in bed at 3 a.m., unable to slip as thoughts swirled through his head. Getting up, he wandered the corridors until he found [[#The Zen Garden|the Zen Garden]] for the first time, and slowly began to rake. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)|Our Strange and Wonderful House]]'': ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)#Chapter 42: Zen Garden|Zen Garden]]'') | A resident of the House once lay ahead in bed at 3 a.m., unable to slip as thoughts swirled through his head. Getting up, he wandered the corridors until he found [[#The Zen Garden|the Zen Garden]] for the first time, and slowly began to rake. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)|Our Strange and Wonderful House]]'': ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)#Chapter 42: Zen Garden|Zen Garden]]'') | ||
On one occasion, a gardener made a mess in [[#The North West Attic|the North West Attic]], necessitating the intervention of [[Frank the Janitor]]. Realising that he needed the vacuum from [[#The Vault|the Vault]], Frank implemented the rather complex series of steps needed to access it: climbing “the sound of chimes in [[#The Courtyard|the Courtyard]] to pluck a leaf from [[the Bodhi Tree]]”, collecting a [[certificate of sanity]] from the “non-mad-science corner” of [[#the Laboratory|the Lab]], plucking a certain key from underneath the 32nd seashell in [[the Painting]], consuming the leaf, handing the certificate to the [[personification of February]] to gain entry into [[#The hallway to nowhere|The hallway to nowhere]], “turning left at Thursday”, and then chucking the key into “a vase on the ceiling above the painting of infinite sparrow hawks”. The door of the Vault duly unlocked; in the centre of the oppressive room stood the wooden plinth. However, after crossing the final defence, a stream, in the proper manner (jumping twice on his right foot and then landing on his left across the stream), he found a note on the plinth instead of the item he desired. | |||
The note read “''My apologies, I had to borrow the vacuum to clear up the mess made by the gardener in [[the North West attic]] under [[the reverse Koi pond]] next Saturday''”. To his annoyance, it was signed “Frank the Janitor”, and Frank realised that he had taken a wrong temporal turn at Thursday (he was actually meant to turn right instead of left), ending up ''after'' he himself already borrowed the vacuum and thus creating a minor paradox. Grumpily, he set about getting out of [[the Vault]] and retracing his steps. He recalled the rhyme telling him which of the opaque windows making up the walls of the Vault serves as an exit: “''Seven laps clockwise from the north, six counter from your new location, now keep stepping left and enter the fourth''”, and implemented its direction, closing his eyes as he stepped backwards into a window, hoping he had the right one. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)|Our Strange and Wonderful House]]'': ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)#Chapter 43: The Vault|The Vault]]'', ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)#Appendix 43-I: The Note|The Note]]'' | |||
At some point, a man came to lie between the roots of [[the Bodhi Tree]] in [[the Gardens]]. He never moved or aged, although his blue eyes were wide open. He became known as “[[the Bodhi Son]]”, and a [[Loom weaver (Our Strange and Wonderful House)|superstitious old woman]] started a tradition of placing candle-prayers at his feet. Over time, this developed into a full religion, with a cathedral of wood and stone being carefully built in the shade of the Tree, with the Bodhi Son lying in the narthex. Eventually, a fire broke out, burning down the cathedral and the Tree itself, but the Bodhi Son was unharmed, crying in his sleep as his face covered with suit. In the instant when the Bodhi Tree finally died, he blinked as he awoke. When he opened his eyes again, they were no longer blue, but green like the Tree's leaves had been. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)|Our Strange and Wonderful House]]'': ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)#Appendix 39-III: The Bodhi Son|The Bodhi Son]]'') | At some point, a man came to lie between the roots of [[the Bodhi Tree]] in [[the Gardens]]. He never moved or aged, although his blue eyes were wide open. He became known as “[[the Bodhi Son]]”, and a [[Loom weaver (Our Strange and Wonderful House)|superstitious old woman]] started a tradition of placing candle-prayers at his feet. Over time, this developed into a full religion, with a cathedral of wood and stone being carefully built in the shade of the Tree, with the Bodhi Son lying in the narthex. Eventually, a fire broke out, burning down the cathedral and the Tree itself, but the Bodhi Son was unharmed, crying in his sleep as his face covered with suit. In the instant when the Bodhi Tree finally died, he blinked as he awoke. When he opened his eyes again, they were no longer blue, but green like the Tree's leaves had been. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)|Our Strange and Wonderful House]]'': ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)#Appendix 39-III: The Bodhi Son|The Bodhi Son]]'') |
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