Chapter 15
We renovated the art room.
Not because bad things happened there.
Because Elsie wanted a larger table.
I let her choose.
Dangerous.
Everything became covered in paint.
The hidden service door remained.
Not hidden anymore.
We removed the cabinet blocking it.
Installed normal lighting.
A visible lock.
No secret passage romanticism.
Elise laughed.
“Marina would hate that.”
“Why?”
“She loved secret doors.”
Of course she did.
We kept one.
Not secret.
Just old.
Elsie called it Mommy’s tunnel.
I corrected her gently.
“Mommy used it. It isn’t hers.”
Small distinction.
Objects should not become sacred because dead people touched them.
The landscape painting returned to the wall.
No letters behind it.
No key.
Just mountains.
Elsie added a purple sun with crayon near the lower corner.
I almost stopped her.
Then didn’t.
Marina painted it.
Elsie inherited it.
Use is allowed.
Elise watched.
“She would approve.”
“You sure?”
“No.”
Good answer.
We laughed.
The lullaby became ordinary too.
Sometimes Elise sang it.
Sometimes I did badly.
Sometimes Elsie shouted the notes while painting.
The song that once made Nadine cover her mouth became background noise.
May you like
Exactly right.
Secrets lose power when the thing around them becomes safe again.
