through the door, you can't have no part of yourself touching anything here but air. You can't brush up against the doodamb. You can't let a foot linger on the floor. It's not a step through the door, it's a leap."
"And what happens if some part of me does touch?"'
"Then that part of this place drags you down just a little, slows you, lowers you, and so instead of you passing through the door in one smooth motion, you go through in a couple of pieces. Ain't nobody can put you together after that, Mr. Maker."
Peggy was appalled. "I never realized it was so dangerous."
"Breathing's dangerous too," said the boy, "if'n you breathe in something to make you sick." He grinned. "I saw you two get all twined up together here. Congratulations."
"Thanks," said Alvin.
"So what do they call you now, judge woman?" the boy asked Peggy. "Goody Smith?"
"Most still call me Peggy Larner. Only they say Miz Larner now, and not Miss."
"I call her Margaret," said Alvin.
"I reckon you'll really be married when she starts to think of herself by the name you call her, instead of the name her parents called her by." He winked at Peggy. "Thanks for getting me my job. My sisters are glad, too, they had nightmares, I'll tell you. There ain't no love of the loom in them." He turned back to Alvin. "So are you going or what?"
At that moment the door flew open and a tied-up bundle flew through it.
"Uh-oh," said the boy. "Best turn your back. Becca's coming through, and she travels stark nekkid, seeing as how women's clothing can't fit through that door without touching."
Alvin turned his back, and so did Peggy, though unlike Alvin she cheated and allowed herself to watch anyway. It was not Becca who caine through the door first, however. It was Ta-Kumsaw, a man Peggy had never met, though she had seen him often enough in Alvin's heartfire. He was not naked, but rather clothed in buckskins that clung tightly to his body. He saw them standing there and grunted. "Boy Renegado comes back to see the most dangerous Red man who ever lived."
"Howdy, Ta-Kumsaw," said Alvin.
"Hi, Isaac," said the boy. "I warned him about the door like you said."
"Good boy," said Ta-Kumsaw. He turned his back on them then, just in time for Becca to leap through the door wearing only thin and clinging underwear. He gathered her at once into his arms. Then together they untied the bundle and unfolded it into a dress, which she drew down over her head. "All right," said Ta-Kurnsaw. "She's dressed enough for a White woman now."
Alvin turned around and greeted her. There were handshakes, and even a hug between women. They talked about what had happened in Hatrack River over the past few months, and then Alvin explained his errand.
Ta-Kumsaw showed no emotion. "I don't know what my brother will say. He keeps his own counsel."
"Does he rule there in the west?" asked Alvin.
"Rule? That's not how we do things. There are many tribes, and in each tribe many wise men. My brother is one of the greatest of them, everyone agrees to that. But he doesn't make law just by deciding what it should be. We don't do anything as foolish as you do, electing one president and concentrating too much power in his hands. It was good enough when good men held the office, but always when you create an office that a man can lay hands on, an evil man will someday lay hands on it."
"Which is going to happen on New Year's day when Harrison - "
Ta-Kumsaw glowered. "Never say that name, that unbearable name."
"Not saying it won't make him go away,"
"It will keep his evil out of this house," said Ta-Kurnsaw. "Away from the people I love."
In the meantime, Becca had finished dressing. She came to the boy and bumped him with her hip. "Move over, stubbyfingers. That's my loom you're tangling."
"Tightest weave ever," the boy retorted. "People will always know which spots I wove."
Becca settled onto the chair and then began to make the shuttlecock dance. The whole music of the loom changed, the rhythm of it, the song. "You came for a purpose, Maker? The door's still open for you. Do what you came to do."
For the first time Peggy really looked at the door, trying to see what lay beyond it; and what lay beyond was nothing. Not blackness, but not daylight either. Just... nothing. Her eyes couldn't