The Land of Decoration Read Online Free PDF Page A

do,” I said. Grown-ups seemed to think that you could tell a teacher everything. They didn’t see it only made things worse.
    Brother Michaels didn’t say anything for a minute. Then he said: “Have you tried praying?”
    “Yes.”
    “Sometimes prayers take time to be answered.”
    “I only have until tomorrow.”
    Brother Michaels inhaled. Then he said: “Judith, I think I can safely say nothing is going to happen to you before tomorrow.”
    “How do you know?”
    “What you’re facing is simply fear,” he said. “Not that there’s anything simple about fear; fear is the most insidious enemy of all. But good things come from facing it.”
    I said: “I don’t see how anything good will come from this.”
    “Start looking at things differently, then. When we look at things from another vantage point, it’s amazing how problems we thought were insoluble disappear altogether.”
    My heart beat hard. “That would be nice,” I said.
    Brother Michaels smiled. “I’ve got to go, Judith.”
    “Oh,” I said. I suddenly felt afraid again. “Do you think you’ll be coming back?”
    “I’m sure I will sometime.”
    Then he did a strange thing. He put his hands on my shoulders and looked into my eyes, and warmth traveled all the way down my arms to my fingers and right across my shoulders and back. “Have faith, Judith,” he said. Then he looked up. Father was calling me.
    “In a minute,” I said, but Father tapped his watch. “OK!” I said. I turned back and the row was empty.
    I ran up the aisle. “Where did Brother Michaels go?” I said. Alf shrugged. I ran into the foyer. “Uncle Stan,” I said, “have you seen Brother Michaels?”
    “No,” said Stan. “I was just looking for him myself. Margaret and I wanted to invite him back for lunch.”
    I ran into the car park. Gordon was showing the other boys his new spoiler. “Where did Brother Michaels go?” I said, and I felt my eyes prick.
    It was colder now but there still wasn’t a breath of wind. The mist had lifted, but the sky was thick with cloud.
    A hand on my elbow made me turn. Father handed me my coat and bag. He said: “The roast’ll be burned to a crisp.” Then he said: “What have you got there?”
    I had forgotten.
    “Seeds,” I said. I opened my hand and showed him.

Why Faith Is Like Imagination
     
    I KNOW ABOUT faith. The world in my room is made out of it. Out of faith I stitched the clouds. Out of faith I cut the moon and the stars. With faith I glued everything together and set it humming. This is because faith is like imagination. It sees something where there is nothing, it takes a leap, and suddenly you’re flying.
    Circles of paper from a hole punch become saucers for tea parties when you press the end of a pen into them. Glue that has hardened into bubbles becomes a bowl of soapsuds for a pair of aching feet. An acorn cap becomes a bowl, toothpaste caps funnels for ocean liners, twigs knees for an ostrich, an eyelet a small pair of scissors. Matches become logs, drops from the griddle tiny Scottish pancakes, cloves oranges, orange peel a slide, orange tops rows of plants in a garden, the net bag fencing for tennis courts, the bar code a zebra crossing.
    Everything is pointing to something, and if we look hard enough for long enough we can see what those other things are. The real Land of Decoration pointed to the way the world would be again one day, after Armageddon. This is called Prefiguration. Father says Prefiguration is showing on a small scale what will happen on a grand scale, it’s like soaring above things and seeing it all. But we can only see the possibilities with Eyes of Faith. Some of the Israelites stopped seeing with Eyes of Faith and they died in the wilderness. Losing faith is the worst sin of all.
    Once a girl came to my room and said: “What’s all this rubbish?” Because to her that was what it looked like. But faith sees other things peeping through the cracks just itching to be