THE HOUSE OF 1,000 DOORS: BLACK BIRDS 11-28-2010

Lily and Slone got permission from their momma and papa to visit Mr. Pooka (MP) after their papa called to make sure it was OK with MP.

Then Lily and Slone ran to their bicycles and raced to MP’s cabin in the woods. Slone won the race and was a good sport about it by not teasing Lily.

Slone and Lily saw MP waiting on the porch with a big smile. He enjoyed Slone’s and Lily’s visit very much. He was glad to be their friend and a friend to their mom and dad.

“So, what do you think we should do today?” MP asked.

“The House of 1,000 Doors!” Lily and Slone both shouted, followed by, “Please, MP.”

“OK, my little friends. Let’s go find that house.” MP jumped down the porch stairs, hopped onto his bicycle and yelled, “Yippee! Follow me.”

Lily and Slone raced after MP, laughing with excitement. They followed MP into the woods for a long way.

There was a narrow bike trail because MP had travelled this way a lot. But the trail soon ended at a shallow creek.

“Do you remember the name of this creek?” asked MP.

“Range Creek,” Lily and Slone shouted.

“And do you remember how it got it’s name?”

Slone and Lily looked at each other, then Lily said, “We forgot MP.”

It was not always called Range Creek. A long time ago, it was called Strange Creek because strange things sometimes happened to people when they crossed this creek. Even to this day, very few people come this far into this forest. But you’ll be safe with me, until we get to THOD.”

Lily and Slone looked confused. “THOD?” Slone said.

“Yeah. I sometimes call it THOD: The House Of Doors. Now, let me remind you that this creek is shallow, but there are invisible, water creatures, called Grabbers, that pull at your legs and bite them. That’s why very few people ever cross this creek. So we need to do just like we did before. Go back up the trail; go as fast as you can before you get to the creek and race across the creek. Keep pedaling, don’t slow down even when the Grabbers are grabbing at your wheels. If you’re forced to stop and get off in the creek, then run as fast as you can while pushing your bike. When we are all across the creek I will use my medical magic powder to heal the bites and cuts that you get from the Grabbers.”

Lily asked, “I forgot, MP. Why don’t you use your magic powder to protect our feet? Then we can just walk across the creek without the Grabbers hurting us.”

“Geez, Lily. The water washes off the magic powder too fast. That’s why,” Slone said, teasing Lily.

“Oh, yeah,” Sorry. I forgot. OK. Can we go now, MP?” Lily asked.

They went one-at-a-time and they all crossed the creek safely, although they heard moans and groans from the Grabbers who wanted to bite them.

Once across the creek, they parked their bikes against some trees.

The forest was darker after they crossed the creek. The sun wasn’t able to shine through the many trees, especially with their extra large leaves. It was much more quiet, too. There were no sounds of insects or birds and no squirrels chattering in the trees.

MP picked up Lily and Slone, saying, “The vines sometimes change into ropes and pull animals down into holes and eat them and not all the leaves are really leaves. Some are Leavers. They look just like large leaves, but they have large mouths and can bite at the feet of animals that walk on them. If I carry you, the both of you will be safe. I have my feet and legs soaked with magic powder to protect me.

Slone and Lily didn’t know where the THOD was. They were lost. They wondered how MP knew the way to THOD because there wasn’t a path that they could see.

“Don’t be afraid of what I’m going to do next. Remember last time? You didn’t get hurt and you won’t this time either.” Then MP walked into a huge thorn bush, with three to four inch thorns. On the other side of the bush was a nice looking lawn and a path that went straight to THOD.

As they walked down the path, they had to swat the mosquitoes away. There were more than usual, but in a few seconds the three friends were at the front door.

Before they even knocked on the door, a friendly robot, named Robert, opened the door, saying, “Good to see you, Harvey. I see you brought your two friends again. Welcome Lily and Slone. Oh, Slone. May I ask if you would get rid of those nasty mosquitoes for me? They are all over the lawn and starting to get into the house.”

“Of course. Anything for my good friend, Robert the Robot (RR).”

Slone ran all over the lawn, covering every inch of it.

RR watched Slone and smiled as he saw hundreds of mosquitoes falling to the ground like dead fleas off a dog.

When Slone returned, RR said, “Oh my, Slone, those fart bombs of yours really work wonders at killing those mosquitoes. But, quickly, come inside so I may close the door so the stinky fart bombs can’t get into he house. Slone, you are a really good stinker. I stink you are a really nice boy. You are a real smart stinker and know just how to solve a problem. I stink that you are wonderful. What do you stink about that?”

“I like to stink. Especially in the kitchen where mommy is,” Slone responded while laughing with RR, MP and Lily.

RR walked away, still laughing, as MP, Lily and Slone looked down a long hallway. The hallway was so long that they could not see the end of it, even though, from the outside, THOD was only about sixty (60) feet long. Some sort of illusion was working here, but it made THOD even more mysterious and fun for Slone and Lily.

PART  2

“MP? Is your name really Harvey?”

“Yes, Lily. My first name is Harvey and my last name is Stewart. But a long time ago my mom and dad started calling me Pooka because I became so big.

As they walked down the long hallway, Lily grabbed onto a doorknob. The doorknob immediately turned into a nose and blew snot onto her hand. Lily pulled her hand away and said, “Yuck,” then she wiped the boogers on her pants, where they turned to worms─ Lily did not see this happen─ then crawled into Lily’s pocket to find a dark, warm place to sleep.

Slone laughed at Lily, but when Slone grabbed a doorknob, it turned into a dirty, stinky pig foot and started shaking hands with Slone.

“Oh no,” shouted MP. That pig’s foot stinks more than your fart bomb. MP sprinkled magic powder all over Slone’s smelly hand. Slone’s hand became clean and fresh-smelling in seconds.

“Don’t touch the doorknobs until we choose a room to enter,” MP said.

“OK,” Lily and Slone responded, with a playful giggle.

Lily and Slone followed MP down the hallway, then suddenly noticed that all the doors had eyes. When the eyes were open, they could be seen, but when closed, the eyes disappeared. Then Slone and Lily noticed that the eyes followed them and that was a spooky feeling, like being touched by a ghost.

MP stopped walking and asked, “Who’s going to pick a door this time?”

“Lily picked last time so now it’s my turn,” Slone blurted.

Lily and MP agreed so Slone looked up and down the hallway.

“Hmm,” Slone mumbled, then, “Ahh. I can’t make up my mind.” Then suddenly, “Oh, oh. Look. That doorknob is shaped like a small toilet. I pick that door.” Slone ran a few steps down the hallway and grabbed the doorknob. Immediately he started spinning around and around as if he was being flushed down a toilet, only he was being flushed through the door and into the room.

Lily and MP laughed, but did the same thing and they were also flushed into the room that Slone had chosen.

At first the room was dark, then a light turned on. The room was empty, except for a large mirror. All three of them walked close to the mirror, but they could not see their reflections in the mirror. It was a very strange mirror, they thought.

All at once two large hands shot out and grabbed MP, then pulled him right through the mirror, as easily as being pulled through a curtain.

Slone and Lily were all alone, worried and scared. Suddenly two white arms shot out of the mirror and pulled Lily and Slone through the mirror just like MP. On the other side of the mirror MP was holding them. He smiled at them and said, “Don’t worry. It’s a magic mirror.”

They all looked around, but all they saw was a large field, like a huge field that a farmer would use for hay. The field had very few trees. But it looked beautiful in the bright sunshine with birds chirping and butterflies dancing in the air.

But soon the sky grew darker and darker. The sunshine left and gray skies followed. Then the gray skies were replaced with black storm-clouds. MP felt the stings of danger as if bees were flying in the wind that was created by the bird’s wings.

Then they all saw that it wasn’t dark clouds at all. It was thousands of large black-birds filling up the sky and blotting out the sun.

“Danger!” MP shouted, while quickly giving Slone and Lily each a bag of magic powder. Slone used it to get his super-strength and Lily used it to get her “freeze power.”

“I don’t think that super-strength and freeze-power will work against the black birds,” MP shouted. Then he said, “Sprinkle yourselves with more powder and say the words: ‘Magic powder on my bones, make my skin as hard as stones.’”

When Slone and Lily did that, their skin still felt soft to them, but they trusted MP even though they were scared.

A group of black birds dove at them, going faster and faster as they got closer to the three friends. They had long sharp beaks, like knives and they were going to cut the three friends.

Four angry black birds flew into each person and four dead black birds bounced off the stone skins. More birds came and the same thing happened, then more birds until the ground was littered with dead black birds. It looked like a back rug had been thrown on the ground.

But then the black birds got smart. A hundred of them flew at MP, grabbed him with their feet and carried him away, high up in the sky and far, far away.

Slone and Lily stared at the birds and yelled for MP, but they could not help him. The black birds took MP and left Lily and Slone all alone.

PART  3

Lily and Slone starred into the sky until they could no longer see MP or the black birds. They didn’t know what to do. They sat down on the ground and tried to solve their problem: How were they going to find and rescue MP?

They sat for awhile, not talking when Lily saw a white bag lying on the ground. She ran to pick it up. As she walked back, she said, “This is MP’s magic powder bag.”

“He must have dropped it by accident when those bad black birds grabbed him,” Slone said.

“He dropped it all right, but I don’t think it was an accident. I think he did it on purpose because he knew we’d need it to find him and help him. And you know what? I think he’s right.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because of our problem. It would take us days to walk as far as those birds flew, but that problem would be solved if we had wings.”

“You mean that you think that powder is strong enough to give us wings?”

That’s what I think, yeah.”

“But we don’t know the magic words to say while sprinkling the powder on our arms to change them to wings.”

“Look! Look here,” Lily said with amazement in her voice. “MP’s magic words book is in the bag, too.”

“Great. Wonderful,” Slone shouted. “Find the magic words to give us wings.”

“I’m looking . . . Oh, I found the words. First we have to sprinkle the powder on our arms, so let’s do that.”

When that was done, Lily continued, “Now we have to say: ‘Magic powder do your thing and turn each arm into a wing. Parframatolis’ (par-fram-atol-is).”

Their shoulders started itching, then feathers grew quickly and in a minute they both had wings.

They flew as fast as they could to find MP. They sailed over fields and forests, over creeks and rivers, then over the Monster Mountains (MM) that had dark-chocolate filled lakes.

While flying over the MM they spotted hundreds of black birds sitting in an old , dead tree. The birds moving in the tree made the tree look as it if were alive with its many arms swaying in the air.

But the side of the tree is what caught their attention next. The side of the tree was white. As they got closer they knew it was MP tied to the tree.

Then they saw a group of black birds throwing dark-chocolate, mud-balls at MP. MP’s white fur was getting darker and darker as it got covered with the chocolate.

The birds thought that MP would get angry, but to their surprise MP was smiling and licking the chocolate off his face. The birds had no idea that the chocolate balls were very tasty to MP. The birds thought that if they didn’t like the chocolate, then MP wouldn’t like it.

Then, high up in the MM, the snow started falling fast and the wind started blowing hard. It looked like a blizzard was coming their way.

Slone and Lily flew behind some large rocks, then peeked over the top to see what was happening. What they saw was lightning striking the top of the dead tree and setting it on fire. It made the tree look like a huge candle that lighted up the whole area and showed Lily and Slone that there were many more black birds there than they had seen from the sky.

The heat from the fire caused the birds to squawk loudly as they fell out of the tree, landing in a chocolate mud-puddle. They looked ridiculous with chocolate dripping out their noses and mouths. Then the chocolate started to get hard, in the cold mountain air, so the black birds that were covered with chocolate got stiff and couldn’t move inside their hardened chocolate shell. The other black birds didn’t know what was going on. They looked confused.

Sparks flew off the burning tree top and fell to the ground. Some sparks fell on the black birds feathers and set them on fire. All they could do was jump into the chocolate mud puddle to put the fire out, but then the cold air hardened the chocolate and they were stuck inside a chocolate shell, just like the other birds.

The birds who were not injured were now so scared that they pooped on the ground and farted all over the place. It looked like the birds were doing a poopy-fart dance as they squawked in fear.

MP wished that he could squeeze his nose shut because the bird poop and farts were so stinky. Then he thought, “Wow! This stinks much worse than Slone, but I sure wish he and Lily were here.”

MP felt the ropes moving around his legs, stomach, shoulders and wrists. His wrists were tied behind the tree so he couldn’t move away from it. Then he realized that he was tied-up with snakes, not ropes.

When MP laughed at the birds, some of them flew to his shoulders and tickled his nose with their feathers. It made MP sneeze so hard that he blew all the feathers off those birds. Now the black birds were not black at all because they had no black feathers. They looked pink and naked like a baby.

Slone and Lily decided that they would change themselves into rabbits, then sneak down and free MP. The black birds didn’t pay any attention to the rabbits so Lily and Slone snuck to the back of the tree and tried to untie the snakes that had MP tied up. The snakes would not let go so Lily and Slone made some magic gloves, then took turns rubbing black bird poopy all over the snakes. The snakes stared burping, sneezing and chocking and finally gave up and let go of MP. MP was now free. The uninjured black birds did not know that yet.

MP took the magic powder bag and sprinkled magic powder over the black birds that were close to him. The bird’s color changed to white with red dots so they looked like they had the measles. It was so strange looking that it scared those birds into doing nothing when they finally saw that MP was free.

By now there was six (6) inches of snow on the ground and it was snowing hard and the wind was blowing harder. MP was desperate to get him and his friends out of there.

Then he had an idea. He took more magic powder from the powder bag and sprinkled it all over Lily and Slone, who were still rabbits. “My friends who set me free, you now shall each change into a ski.” Poof. Lily and Slone changed from a rabbit to a ski.

“This won’t hurt so don’t worry,” MP said to Slone and Lily. Then MP stepped on top to Lily with one foot, then on top of Slone with the other foot. They were now his skis and he skied down the mountain side. He was quickly out of sight as the snow came down faster and faster.

At the bottom of MM the wind was gentle and it was snowing only lightly. MP changed the skis back into Slone and Lily. MP smiled and patted Lily and Slone on the head. Then he said, “Good job. Thank you for rescuing me. We should go home now.”

“How do we get home? We are in the middle of a huge forest and at the bottom of the MMs,” Lily asked.

“Can we fly again?” asked Slone.

“No, my friends, we will not fly. We will walk home.”

“But that will take days and momma and papa will worry and be afraid.”

“No. It won’t take days and your momma and papa will not be afraid.”

“I don’t understand how you will do it,” Lily said.

MP grabbed Lily and Slone by the hand and walked right into a large thorn bush and when they came out the other side, they were at MP’s cabin with their bicycles parked by the porch.

When they got inside, MP called Lily’s and Slone’s parents and asked if they could stay for lunch. They gave their permission so Lily and Slone had lunch with MP while they talked and laughed about their adventure.

After lunch Slone and Lily rode their bikes home with pleasant memories, and looked forward to the next time they could come to visit MP, whose real name, they learned, was Harvey Stewart.

THE END