When Hudson first opened the door to Winter, Jack had felt a sensation of comfort and promise. Now he was feeling a whole lot more. He was feeling the place. He was in Winter. Winter with a capital ‘W’. It wasn’t winter slowly pushing out a waning autumn. It wasn’t winter resisting the advances of a strengthening spring. This was the perfect Winter, eternal Winter, Winter as you always imagined it: solemn and unrelenting; beautiful, cold and crisp; majestic, grand and enduring; frosty, piercing and sharp, but not punishing or cruel.
Standing in the doorway was a bear. Not a toy bear, like Hudson, but a real, shaggy brown bear. Wearing a dress and an apron, her face and paws dusted with flour, she had obviously been busy in the kitchen. Behind her stood a hedgehog wearing a dress and a mop cap, and behind the hedgehog was a tumble of furniture.
Sitting in the chair by the fire, Jack alternately stared at the flames, and looked at Hudson out of the corner of his eye. What was he to do with this bear? He wasn’t so bad, he supposed. He had helped in the woods, but Jack still felt a little funny about having a teddy bear for a friend. He was a most unusual teddy bear, to be sure, and Jack reasoned that, in a place like AfterLater, a teddy bear friend was as normal as talking mice and walking furniture. But it was frustrating. Jack had a hundred questions to ask, questions about AfterLater and magical things… and Gran. He was sure that Hudson had answers to all of these questions, answers that the bear would not share.
Dinner, as usual, was lumpy and muddy. They ate in silence, prodding larger clots until they separated, stirring smaller bits until they congealed, swallowing with no particular satisfaction.
“Bed time,” his father ordered when only a smear was left in his bowl. “Wipe up in the morning.” He retired to his bedroom, taking the candle with him, leaving Andrew at the table, in the dark.
Jack put his hands back on the expectaport, and he closed his eyes. He heard Hudson take a quiet step towards him. “What do you see?”
“I see the Gazebo,” said Jack. That was easy. He took another deep breath and let it out slowly. In his head, the picture of the Gazebo became clearer. He saw doors with carvings on them representing the four seasons. He saw an open space, and through it he could see broad steps and a green lawn bordered by a brick wall, with a river, forests and tall mountains beyond. He saw the door to the attic, and a door that went to… a big space with lots of doors. The last door, the seventh door, was different. It was dark in his mind, and he couldn’t tell where it led.
Boom! In the far, shadowy corner of the hall, the lights from the open doors revealed a lone, dark door, barred and chained. Something was pounding on it, trying to get out… or in.
“We need to go, Jack,” said Hudson in his softest, most serious voice.
Jack finally got it. He wasn’t ready for this. His imagination was out of control. There were things in his imagination that he would never want to meet, especially if they were behind a dark, locked door, trying to get out. The very idea was terrifying. He picked Hudson up and ran for the Gallery door. Behind him, the pounding continued.
"Come on up," said the bear's voice from somewhere in the leaves. "You can see better from up here."
Jack put his hand on the lowest branch. It didn't look very sturdy, and he wasn't convinced that it would hold his weight, but Hudson was calling him, urging him on. “What are you waiting for?”
“Hold on,” said Jack. He sat down and pulled his shoes and socks back on, just in case. He double-knotted the laces, then stood, reached for the branch, and pulled himself up.
Jack found himself standing in a bright, cheerful room bursting with color. Colors and patterns danced across the walls, the ceiling, the floors, even the furniture. On one wall, a wide set of French doors opened onto a porch with a sun-filled view of summer in AfterLater. Birds were singing and a cool, fresh breeze blew in. And standing in front of him was a girl. A girl otter. A girl otter who was dressed in overalls and a red and white polka dot scarf.
“Hello again,” she said, grinning mischievously at Jack. “I’m Aggie.”