Pearl Proves Herself and Finds a Similarity with the Most Important Bird in All of Paris
Just When You Think You Are the Only One and Suddenly Find Out That You Aren’t!
This week’s newsletter shares several chapters from the midpoint of Through the Gate. They set out the first steps towards a dynamic conflict that has been brewing since there were indications that Professor Accipiter was also in Paris. We also move closer to the opportunity Gracie needs to present her ballet The Rose Garden Princess and to keep her promise with Nate that she will not forget that her first stage was his shoe even when she is dancing on the finest stage in the world. And we also get closer to reuniting with the last two of our travelers: Nate and Amelia.
When we last left off, The Principalis Bibliothèque and Pearl had been talking together on the roof and surveying Paris, and Pearl was given some important insights and would be told even more once off of the roof.
They went into the GreatHall.
“Here in The Great Hall, the Table of the King is at one end and the Choirbook Candelabra is at the other end. The people do what benefits them at the end with the Table of the King, and we birds do what brings us joy at this end with the Choirbook Candelabra by singing the Ancient Words. In this Great Hall space these two worlds meet in the most beautiful way.
“Here, follow me into this small room to the side. It is were an almost duplicate candelabra is kept.”
Once inside the small room, Pearl examined the candelabra carefully. It was as she expected it to be, the reverse of ornamentation on what might at first appear to be a twin of the other candelabra. It was another signal to the importance of palindromes as a clue left by the ancient ones.
“When the people assemble here each week, The Principalis Bibliothèque calls out for a Choirbook of Pages to take its place on the branches of the candelabra. Once they are given the line where their song should begin, they sing. Their songs seem quite endless in beauty. Each songbird must sing its own parts and in the correct order to complete the whole. Not every Page is up to this challenge, but no Pages are discounted from holding such an honor. Each Page depends on the one that comes before it and after it.
“Why don’t you give it a try?” suggested The Principalus Bibliocarius and called for a favorite Choirbook.
As they began to sing, Pearl recognized what she was hearing and said, “That is the song that Tippity sang when we first arrived and before I went off to find The Moulin Rouge.”
“Who is this one called Tippity?”`
“She is the daughter of Lefty and Rudy, two of Nates first flock. Nate gave her that name, but did not know what it meant. She is very talented in dancing, and Rudy, her mother hen, has worked with The Living Library back home while her father has worked with The Raven and The Squadron of Crows.”
“She is also just what we are looking for, someone who is young and who can look at things in a completely different way. She will be helpful in reshaping The Living Library back into what the original founders desired it to be, but stepped up for our modern times.”
Pearl looked relieved, “That is wonderful, I think. Maybe you should just train Tippity to take your place when you retire.”
As much as being in charge seemed like the great fame and celebrity that Pearl had wanted for most of her life, she wondered if she was up to the task. More than anything she wanted to return to Le Moulin Rouge and Monsieur Henri after helping Gracie and Nate with fulfilling their promises to each other.
“Actually, I think the two of you could share the job quite nicely,” said the Principalis Bibliothèque. “Then success would practically be guaranteed.”
“Quite honestly, the fame and the notoriety are very appealing, but I don’t want to forget our reason for coming to Paris.”
“Then I will make a deal with you, Pearl. If you will promise to be a replacement for me in my position, I will promise to make a way for Gracie to dance on the stage of the Palais Garnier.
“Your friend may be Monsieur Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec—the perfect one for arranging a performance at Le Moulin Rouge, but my friend is Monsieur Edgar Degas, and he is perfect for arranging a performance at Le Palais Garnier.”
If you see a resemblance to The Healing Tree back home in The Garden, you are correct! Not in the facts—but rather in how it makes Pearl feel.
In the side room, Pearl studied the Candelabra, and she saw songbirds waiting on the topmost shelves and at the capitals held up by the columns.
No one seemed to be doing anything yet, and then Pearl realized that they were waiting for direction. They were waiting for her to give them direction.
She leaned over and whispered to The Principalis Bibliothèque, “How do I let them know where I want them to start?”
“You just start, and they will join you. Eventually, you will learn the page and song and verse designations. In their memories, they hold it all and can begin exactly where you tell them.”
So Pearl began with a bit of song that she had heard once by a mockingbird back home in the magnolia. It always sounded so mysteriously incomplete, and she realized that this may be her only chance to hear the complete song, and so she sang what she knew.
Before she had finished her last note, the songbirds had joined in and were singing enthusiastically. They picked up on the small inflections and emphatic tweaks in Pearl’s voice and magnified them.
In that moment, it felt to Pearl that this was what she was intended to do. It wasn’t as flashy or as grand as dressing up in silly hats and costumes, but it felt important and useful for those she loved in the world of people and in the world of birds.
She felt strengthened by this story named “David and Goliath” that was about judging by outward appearances and defeating gigantic obstacles in life. Pearl knew a great deal about being judged falsely by outward appearances, and she longed to know more about defeating gigantic obstacles.
But Pearl knew, or sensed, that the best way to defeat your own gigantic challenges is to help someone else defeat theirs!
“So, Pearl, I offered to make a deal with you. My friend Monsieur Degas loves the ballet and The Palais Garnier. He knows all of the important people in Paris. He will ensure that for a single performance, every seat is occupied, especially the important and expensive seats. Those will be for the influential people who can spot a fake or a sham in a moment. If they are not enchanted, they will leave immediately. That is only fair since Monsieur Degas is placing his name and reputation on the line simply because I am asking him to do this.
The show will be advertised as a new, exciting performance by an up-and-coming dance troupe from America performing their own original ballet. If the advertisement doesn’t appeal to the public, then the name of Monsieur Degas surely will.
“If we still have empty seats to fill, the martinets will go out into the streets and compel the people to come in. People need to see that chickens can do more than scratch, peck, and lay eggs.”
Pearl began to wonder if there was something else that The Principalis Bibliothèque was planning in relation to the performance, but wasn’t sharing with her. Perhaps she wants to change the performance in some way, thought Pearl, but what could be added?
“Now, we have to get the remainder of your group here before our martinets begin writing and delivering invitations and then helping out in dozens of other ways behind the scenes.
“My Assistant, the Magpie, will tell Monsieur Degas what he needs to know, now let’s get to Montmartre’s Le Maison Rose and Emily’s Garret Studio.
“We must not waste any time. I have a strong feeling that as good as our intentions are, there are also evil intentions at work as well around this event at Le Palais Garnier.”
Pearl looked at The Principalis Bibliothèque and asked, “Do you have a name that I could call you? It takes so long to call you by your title name, and sometimes I forget what I’m going to say while I am working on getting it all out.”
“As you may have guessed, I was raised by a farmer out in the country before coming here to take on this role. I was given the name ‘Lourde’ as a baby chick by the farmer. At the time it was meant as a joke because I could not do anything right, so I was given a name that means dull or stupid.”
The look on Pearl’s face was one of total amazement. It was as if she had just been told the most precious and protected secret at the center of the universe.
“You were like me as a baby chick then,” said Pearl with great surprise, “but look at how far you’ve come in life! I think I’m going to call you ‘Flipsie’ if you don’t mind,” said Pearl.
“And why is that?”
“Because you have flipped the natural meaning of your name to be its exact opposite.”
“You have done much the same yourself, Pearl. You have shown the great value that someone can have who on the surface appears to not fit in as a good, normal chicken.”
“My Nate says to me, ‘You are my precious girl, my little Pearl,’ and I can tell he means it even when my foot has just turned over everyone’s food bowl.”
“Then we are indeed a couple of Flipsies!” said The Principalis Bibliothèque, “But we should keep it our secret, just between the two of us—except, of course, you can tell your Nate.”
Soon Pearl and The Principalis Bibliothèque stood on a corner, looking at Le Maison Rose. They could hear screeching coming from an open window of a house nearby. The screeching sounded somewhat human and somewhat bird-like.
“Someone has truly revealed their ‘hidden shadow self’ and doesn’t seem embarrassed by it in the least,” said The Principalis Bibliothèque. “Look up there,” she said, pointing with her wing.
One of the things that I enjoyed when writing these chapters was discovering more about this new gift of Pearl’s. Her ability to see “beyond what the eyes see” seems to be a rather useful gift. As you may have guessed, there will be a big altercation concerning the use of Le Palais Garnier coming soon. And just to tease your imagination a bit more here is an illustrations of The Bride of Professor Accipiter. (I have long held a fascination for Elsa Lanchester, the actress who played the part of “The Bride” in The Bride of Frankenstein. We refrained from repeating the almost trademarked wavy white lightning streaks in her hair.) The blueness in the shadows does give a deep sense of not being flesh and blood but rather a creature created by magic. (I did want to make her features more closely resemble The White Peacock, but when I did, she tended to look more like a science experiment gone very very wrong! So, she is left simply turning her head and looking intensely with a bird-like stare without any blinks.)
Hopefully she will not keep anyone up at night while praying to be rescued from her life-absorbing grasp, but she will also clue to any possible reader to how this is not a simple warm and fuzzy, cuddle-up-cozy bedtime story.
Personally, I enjoyed dipping my toes into some gothic-inspired imagery. As my little Pearl pointed out to me, any of the characters can have a “flip” side like her friend Flipsie and herself, but it does seem that flipping good and evil has much more narrative value than flipping clumsy and graceful.
Until Next Time
If you have any comments—good or bad—please share them on Substack or you can also reach me directly at John.Spiers@yahoo.com. We are looking forward to sharing with your exactly what happens next and the last details are prepared for the debut world-premiere performance of Gracie’s The Rose Garden Princess.
Our Best Advice for the Days Ahead: Do what Pearl did—whether musical or not—do what makes you feel important and useful to the ones you love!
Thank you for reading!
John, Gracie, Bessie, Pearl, Blanche, Emily, and Amelia
People will get the reference, I'm sure. The Bride is a very commonly used horror trope now.
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