welcome to paul edmund norman's the gateway

One day a long time ago, Katharine decided to go out for a walk. She walked and she walked, all the way down her block, then into the next block, and then the next and the next and the next.

Now all at once she noticed a street she had never seen, although she was sure she had been here many times before. It was a strange street, and Katharine wondered what manner of houses might be there, and who might live in them. So into the street she wandered.

In no time she came to a very strange house. It stood in the middle of a field, and although the bright sun shone right upon it, it was all in shade!

Overcome with curiosity, Katharine walked up to the house, to the porch window, to peep inside. Again she was surprised. For even though the house had many large, bright windows on all sides, it was altogether dark within!

She went to the front door and tried the latch. It was locked tight.

Then she went around to the east side of the house. There too was a door. She tried its latch. And the door fell ajar. But a great black coffer blocked the door, and no amount of pushing on Katharine’s part would move it.

So she walked around to the west side of the house, and there was another door. She lifted the latch, and the door opened ever so easily. But inside the door there was no floor–only a deep, dark hole. And Katharine stepped back just in time to keep from falling in.

Finally, Katharine walked around to the rear of the house, and there was still another door. She lifted the latch, and this door, too, opened very easily. She stepped inside, and found herself in a dark room, in which she could barely see, by the light of an oil lamp that stood burning on an old table.

But across the room, Katharine could see another door. She tiptoed across the room and opened the door. And there was another room, even darker than the first, except for a tiny candle burning on an even older table. And across the second room was yet another door.

Now Katharine opened the third door and entered the third room. This room was perfectly dark, and she could see nothing at all.

Suddenly she was startled by a voice. “Help me, please! Let me out!” called a sweet, soft little voice. I am only a little child, and I am held prisoner in this bottle! Help me, please!”

Now, Katharine could little imagine what a child could be doing alone n this dark room in this dark house–especially in a bottle--but she felt sorry for the little voice, so she groped about with her hands until they touched a table. Then she groped all about the table-top, and her hands touched a bottle.

And she uncorked the bottle.

Out sprang a great, black, hairy spider!–horrible to behold, whose fur sparkled with electricity, so that the whole room lighted up with a green glow. Now Katharine grew very afraid.

“Aha!” cried the spider, bounding up and down on his great hairy legs. “Now I shall have my supper!” And it grew larger by the second. “Now I shall eat you up!

“No, wait!” Katharine cried. “Why will you eat me up, when it is I who have set you free?”

“Because it was you who imprisoned me in the bottle, three hundred weeks ago,” the horrid thing replied–“and made this room to hide the bottle, and built this house to hide the room. So for three hundred weeks I have been waiting to gobble you up” And the spider grew even larger.

\ Now, Katharine could recall no such thing as having built any house, or made any room, or bottled any spider. But she felt it could do no good to argue with the creature, so she turned and sprang for the door she had come in, with the spider right behind her.

But the door was locked.

So Katharine turned to face her pursuer. “Wait!” She cried, a second time. “Who are you?

“I am the demon of the depths,” replied the hairy spider, “whom you–Katharine–imprisoned in this bottle in this room in this house a lifetime ago, and as you bottled me up, now I shall gobble you down!” And the spider demon crouched to spring.

Katharine was astounded that the black spider could have learned her name–but she cried, “Wait!” yet a third time. “I don’t believe you! It was not you who were imprisoned in that body! You are far too ugly and repulsive to have the voice of a sweet little child!”

At this the spider demon was most deeply offended. It stood as tall as it could stretch, and looked at Katharine with burning anger. “It was I,” it began slowly. “It was I! A demon can change into any form it chooses. Behold!”

And in an instant the spider had changed into a pale litle child with long yellow hair, who stared at Katharine with vacant eyes and cood, “Now, you see, Katharine–I am a sweet little child.” And the child’s chiffon gown sparkled with such electricity that Katharine could see that the huge dark room had but three walls, and where the fourth wall should have been the room went back into the middle of the house forever. And Katharine was even more afraid than before.

But she cried a fourth time, “Wait! Still I don’t believe you! You are much too large to have been inside that tiny bottle.”

Now the little child became enraged, and her vacant eyes shot fire. “I am a demon,” she snarled, and I can take any form and size I wish.

“Turn into a little bug, then,” Katharine said.

And the demon turned out of the little child into a bug. “There!” squeaked the bug.

“And there!” said Katharine, placing her foot right on the bug.

“Stop!” cried the bug. “Do not crush me!

“Why should I not?” Katharine demanded of the bug. “Why should I not crush you? Were you not about to gobble me up?

“No!” cried the bug. “I was not telling the truth! I was not about to gobble you up, I am only your faithful slave, and I was about to help you do wonderful things. Do not crush me! I shall grant you anything you desire, only do not crush me!”

“You must grant me three wishes, then,” replied Katharine firmly, “else I shall crush you flat and gooey in the wink of an eye.”

“Speak!” cried the demon. “Only speak, and your three wishes will be granted!”

“First,” Katharine began, “I wish to find a barrelful of money in the middle of my kitchen floor when I get home.”

“Second,” I wish to live forever, and to make people happy wherever I go.”

“And third,” Katharine began slowly, “I wish, little bug–that you were back in that bottle!”

“Granted!” howled the demon in pain and terror, and popped back into the bottle. And Katharine reached for the cork and thrust it into the bottle and grasped the bottle by the neck and hurled it where the fourth wall of the room would have been into the middle of the house forever.

“Now light streamed in through all the windows of the house, and all the doors of the house clicked unlocked, and Katharine walked out of the room and out of the next room and the next, and Katharine could walk out of the house through any door she chose.

Now, Katharine saw, the dark house stood full in sunshine, and was all bright and light. And she skipped happily home.

And indeed there was a barrelful of money there when she got home, right in the middle of her kitchen floor. And she did live forever and never died, and she is living still, and she lives right next door to me. And she spreads happiness wherever she goes.