Pride House: The Quest for Vainglory

Chapter 40 The Furnace Key

  On the way home Pride remembered where the key was. He had loaned his Fiero to Joy to drive and was chatting with Truth in the back seat of the Electra, each with a child on his lap. He was doing his best not to remember that he had just destroyed his worldly prospects in both church and state. Truth, in his usual way, began to turn the conversation in the direction of Pride’s deepest concerns.

  “You afraid you’ll go back to them?” he asked Pride and jerked a thumb in the direction of the downtown they were leaving.

  Pride answered with a jittery nod.

  “They’ll take you, too,” the preacher observed. “They’ve got no shame.”

  “If I could just be sure of Fame staying invisible!”

  “No way, man. You’ll see her again. Probably real soon.”

  “Then what should I do?”

  “Ask Grace. He can solve anything, got all the strings in his fingers. Your trouble is you’ve been trying to do it all on your own, and you’re just not made to carry that kind of load. But Grace will get your neck out of the noose and keep it out.”

  Pride started and, reaching into his shirt, extracted a key that had been hanging on a string around his neck. “This is it,” he said, “this is the key I use to get the lock off the furnace.”

  “Give it to Grace,” his friend said.

  After they arrived home, Pride did give the key to the old man with a few words of explanation. Grace accordingly went down to the basement, reappearing presently in Pride’s bedroom while the young man was putting on his tuxedo.

  “I’ve reconnected the thermostat,” he said, “and reset the temperature.” He pressed the key into Pride’s hand. “You’ll have to keep this,” he said.

  “But I don’t want it. What if I—”

  “Yes, yes, I know. You certainly will sleepwalk again, but less and less as time goes by. And at any time you can give me the key, as you did today, and I’ll go turn down the furnace for you and then give it back.”

  “But why won’t you keep it?”

  “Because I’m from Heaven,” the old man said, “so it’s not for me to direct your worldly affairs. Don’t you see? You’d have one of your black outs or what-you-may-call-’ems one day soon, reach for the key, and it wouldn’t be there. Well, I’m not going to take your freedom away from you. As a matter of fact, that’s why I didn’t turn the furnace quite off—because your mind is still divided.”

  “But if you’d only just wreck it for good, I’d never….”

  “I’ll wreck it for good when I’m good and ready,” Grace answered, grinning. “Say now, Faithfulness is starting to play the piano out back, isn’t she? It’s after eleven and time for a wedding.”

  Pride pocketed the key and hastened to put on his cummerbund. He had delayed the wedding long enough.

  “One more thing,” said Grace. “After the events of this morning, we’re not going to call you Pride anymore. You still have a long way to go, but from now on your name is Dignity.”