Periwinkle's Arc

Chapter 13 of 17

The searchers worked well now. The horse flew the far paths. The big bear walked the near ones. But a new trouble began that week. Twice, Periwinkle found the far oven empty when she arrived. The fire burned. Warm bread sat on the rack. Yet the person the searchers had brought was gone. She found their boot prints leading back into the trees. They had come to the fire, seen no face to greet them, and fled. She understood the problem the third night. The little bear rang the bell. Periwinkle ran to the clearing. She reached the door too late. A young woman stood at the tree line, then turned and vanished into the dark. The searchers could bring the lost to warmth. They could not make the lost trust an empty house. Frightened people did not sit alone by a stranger's fire. Periwinkle needed the oven to feel like a home, not a trap. She could not be there each time the bell rang. She was too often at the near oven, or on the trail, or asleep. The fire alone was not enough. The lost wanted a light in a window and a door that looked like welcome. So she asked the winged woman for help once more. She stood at the far clearing at dawn and spoke into the quiet. "They come to the fire and run. They need a house that looks kind. Not just a flame." She placed her hand flat on the cold earth, the way she had once sealed her oath on the bakery door. The air went bright. When Periwinkle opened her eyes, a house stood over the far oven. Its walls shone white. Golden trim ran along the roof and framed the windows. Soft clouds curled at its base. Warm light filled the tall windows and spilled across the ground. The door stood open at the top of white steps. It looked like a place that had been waiting for someone. Periwinkle climbed the steps and went inside. The oven burned in the center, just as before. But now the light reached the trees. Now the lost would see a home, not a bare fire in the dark. That evening the bell rang. She did not run this time. She stayed and set bread on the rack. The big bear came out of the woods with a shivering man. He stopped at the tree line, as the others had. Then he saw the glowing windows and the open door. He climbed the steps on his own. He sat by the oven and ate. He did not run. By dawn, four lost souls had come and stayed inside the bright house. None slipped away. The searchers brought them, and the house held them. Periwinkle stood in the doorway and watched the light fall on the trees. Her home in the forest had grown a second room, and the second room kept the lost from fleeing.