cathedral for a while

The family that lived on Brucksbin Avenue sought out very original ways of staying within themselves. First there was Betty Bubbles, who loved nothing in the world better than surrounding herself with her soft, furry, warm and fuzzy stuffed animals. She had 92 in all, and they covered nearly every square inch of the floor and bed. She loved to immerse herself in them so she could not be seen by anybody in the outside world. She had a name for this place that she called Bettlonia. In here, she felt safe and warm, and quite comfortable and quite content in her cushy invisibility. Betty Bubbles is only six years old, and has an older brother named Lucas.

Lucas Bubbles’ favorite place in the entire world is inside the chimney. Lucas loves to get dirty, so dirty in fact that it is almost impossible to tell who he is with all that ash and soot covering his face. Since Lucas is always inside it, the Bubbles never use the fireplace, and have placed a plank of wood on top of the chimney in order to keep bugs and birds and other things outside from getting in their house. His favorite place is right in the middle of the chimney: not too close to the bottom so he can’t be seen, and not too close to the top in case he might accidentally knock the wood plank out of place. He likes the middle best because when his mother calls for him, he can stay silent as an oak tree, and still as a rock, and pretend he is just one of the bricks, part of the chimney. Lucas Bubbles is nine years old. Neither Lucas nor Betty have ever been outside of their house.

Of course, his mother knows full well that he is up there. He always is. She likes to let him play his little game. Lucas and Betty’s mother’s name is Margaret Bubbles. She runs a molding shop up Brucksbin Avenue and to the left two blocks on Beefles Lane. She doesn’t like to stray too far from the house. The name of her shop is Margaret’s Molds. She molds everything people bring in, including their faces, ornaments, boxes, road signs, shells found on the beach, playes, chicken bones, umbrella sticks and handles, you name it, she’s molded it. People bring in the most curious of items to her, just to see if she can make a mold. And she does, almost every time! Margaret loves everything to fit in a mold; it makes her content and comfortable. The only thing Margaret couldn’t mold was a human heart. A person brought theirs in one time, and as much as she wanted to mold it, she couldn’t figure out how without killing him. Margaret Bubbles is 39 years old, and has been married to Matthew Bubbles for nine years.

Matthew Bubbles uses his car as a taxi service for the town. He knows the streets backwards and forwards, every shortcut and time saver. Since he married Margaret and became a father nine years ago, he spend easily over half of his awake life inside his car. He spent nearly all his time in his car before that. He cherishes the comfort of having people in his taxi with him and not having to talk to them. They tell him where they want to go, he goes, gets paid, and that’s it. Matthew Bubbles is 42 years old, and likes going home to dinner at his house, every day at six o’clock.

At this time, the Bubbles family leaves their own bubbles to join in the bubble of themselves. They don’t talk very much, but Lucas sits there covered in soot (except for his hands of course), Betty has her three most favorite stuffed animals with her, Margaret displays her latest mold (today it was a tiara), and Matthew leaves his keys on the table. They eat and stare at each other until they finish. Then Matthew grabs his keys, and the jingling symbols that it is okay for everyone to return to their respective worlds, very warm, comfortable and safe.

Now on one electric, fall day, Betty Bubbles did something very strange.

She said, “Daddy? Hewgret wants to go to school.”
“Who’s Hewgret honey?” asked Betty’s father.
“Daddy, you know Hewgret is my medium sized brown owl you got me last Groundhog’s Day,” replied Betty.
Matthew told her, “Okay, well Hewgret and you can go to Mommy and Daddy school downstairs, just like Lucas is, okay?”
“No Daddy, Hewgret and I think there’s a school where other boys and girls go, who have other stuffed animals so Hewgret and me can make new friends and see new things and have new ideas,” said Betty.
This notion made Matthew uneasy. If his daughter experienced another world, and liked it, and didn’t want to go back to the Bubbles, what would that say about the Bubbles family? The idea scared him. He discussed it long and hard with Margaret, and she didn’t like it one bit either. But, after enough persistence on Betty’s part, they decided to let her try one day at Pin Point Elementary.

Betty packed her things and grabbed Hewgret by the wing and jumped in her dad’s taxi and went to school. Matthew’s heart dropped right down to his stomach when she stepped out of his taxi and waved goodbye. He watched her go in the classroom and when the door to the classroom closed and his daughter passed out of sight, he drove away.

Martin Living, a student in the same class, immediately fell in love with Betty Bubbles. He sat next to her as they learned about very interesting things, like homeless people, and atomic bombs, and war, but also about foods, different languages, and friendship, and stars and churches and other neat stuff. Then Martin noticed Hewgret.

“Who’s that?” he asked.

“This is Hewgret, my favorite owl in the whole world. He wanted to go to school,” replied Betty.

Martin looked confused. “You mean you didn’t want to go to school?”
“Well, I guess I did, but it was mainly Hewgret’s decision,” answered Betty. Martin Living began to get somewhat jealous of Hewgret, which to him was just an inanimate object.
“That’s weird,” he said. “I didn’t need anyone to tell me what I wanted to do. It’s just something I decided all by myself. I wasn’t scared or nothin’. Were you scared?”
“Well yeah,” Betty said. “Bet then later Hewgret said if I get scared I can just come home and get under my animals and go to Bettlonia and everything will be okay.”
“What’s he sayin’ now?” asked Martin.
“Betty looked at Hewgret for a while. “Nothing,” she said. “Hewgret? Hewgret? How come you’re not talking anymore?”
“Because,” said Martin. “He’s just a stuffed owl. He can’t say anything. You probably just said it yourself and thought it was him or somethin’.” Betty Bubbles started to cry. Martin put his hand on her soft head and said, “Don’t cry. C’mon, it’s recess, let me show you how play on a swing. The wind when you swing is wonderful.”
Betty looked back and forth between Hewgret and Martin Living. Hewgret wasn’t talking anymore, but Martin looked at her with bright blue eyes full of love.
She left Hewgret there and went to play with Marvin Living. Pin Point Elementary had popped her bubble.

She found Hewgret and grabbed him by the tail when school ended and she jumped in her dad’s taxi, which was waiting for her.

“How was school, Betty?” asked her father. She did not respond. They got home
and Betty did something that terrified Matthew.

She grabbed as many of her stuffed animals as her tiny arms could carry and threw them in the fire place. She took a book of matches and lit Bettlonia on fire. Matthew stood still, dumbfounded, not knowing what to do. Lucas cried from his favorite place in the chimney and came crashing down, covered in soot and coughing from the smoke. Eventually the smoke began to fill up the room, and then the house, and finally three of the four Bubbles were forced to leave their home. Lucas saw the outside world for the first time, rubbed the soot from his eyes, and squinted at the sun. He swung his arm through the air and liked how it felt. Betty cried, “Mommy!” and Matthew suddenly snapped out of his trance. He gathered his children in the car and sped with great purpose towards Margarte’s Molds on Beefles Lane.

Margaret Bubbles, baffled by Betty’s decision to want to leave Bettlonia, had been trying to make a mold of her own heart. The only way she could think to do it was to swallow the mold. She knew this would kill her, but at least she would have fit her life in a mold, if she couldn’t fit Betty’s. She was just about to drink when Matthew crashed his taxi through the front of Margaret’s Molds. Every last mold in the building fell to the ground and broke. Margaret dropped the drink from her hands. All the windows in the car had shattered, and the cool, outside air touched Matthew’s face.

Of course, the Bubbles were okay. Not even a scratch. They walked away from the wreck towards their house a few blocks down. It was burning down, down to the ground.

Martin Living told his family what happened to the Bubbles’ house, and they showed up with shovels and bricks to help rebuild their life. Although all their worlds had been demolished, they all turned out okay, and saw things now in a completely different way - they had been afraid of breaking their bubbles, but now they saw there wasn’t any reason to be frightened. Margaret Bubbles didn’t try to fit things in molds anymore; she decided it was better to let things breathe and grow and live, including her heart. Now she paints new, beautiful things from her own imagination. Matthew Bubbles started a walking service. He goes to people’s houses, and walks with them wherever they want to go, and carries wonderful conversations with them along the way. Betty Bubbles continues to go to Pin Point Elementary and sits with Martin Living. Inseparable, they continue to learn together, side by side.
The Bubbles house is now up and running again, with a new kind of life surging through it. Lucas Bubbles can be seen around the neighborhood, causing trouble and having fun. His favorite thing to do however is to get clean in the bath so everyone can see his face, sit with his family, and watch the fire breathe up the chimney.