When we returned to the house, it was still very interesting to see from the outside, and I must confess the curiosity was killing me to find out about what this large painting meant, and who had painted it. Kelly and I approached the door, put the key in and turned it. As soon as it opened, we found ourselves in amazement to see that the painting filled the entire wall, with a little portion missing in the center, perhaps this was intentional. It seemed to be sprinkled with weird little shapes and scribbles that were perhaps just decorative. There were little figures in it doing all sorts of things, in various different colors. This painting must have taken years to do, perhaps as many as 20 or more, which is why I was surprised that it wasn’t fully completed. I figured either Nido had painted this himself, or had some very talented friends who probably died before he did, I simply couldn’t really tell. Some of the little figures seemed to have very distinct faces, some seemed to be extremely basic, lacking a face at all. Even when they didn’t have a face, all characters were done in great and vast detail, with special attention being paid to shading. It was chocked full of characters and symbols and I couldn’t really tell what any of it meant. It seemed to wrap around the room too. As I looked on, the characters on the very extremities of it seemed to be smaller than the one’s in the center. I was amazed at how much detail went into this… most of the characters were no bigger than my thumb and yet the wall was full of them.
As I examined the wall, Kelly had also seemed obviously amazed at everything. She looked around the room and found a few pieces of odd furniture on the side opposite the mural. Some of it was shape like slings. A lot of it had ropes intertwined throughout the wood, glass and upholstered parts they were made out of. I walked from one end of the room to the other trying to figure out where all of this unusual stuff had come from. It started to make me wonder if perhaps during life, Nido had collected strange and unusual things, or if he had once traveled a great deal and this was what remained of his explorations, but that wouldn’t explain the mural (surely you can’t just gather a painting like that from anywhere. It then occurred to me that I should go and actually touch and see the painting closer and maybe look for an artist’s signature or something. This thing was hugely fascinating to me, and I wanted to know as much about it as possible. Besides, now it belonged to me, so I felt I had every right to know what I was dealing with, perhaps one day I felt I might even hire an art appraiser to come out and tell me about it… art was never my strong subject. I approached the wall and touched it, it was surely part of the wall, and the paint was actually a little course in some areas, meaning it wasn’t simply a print or something like that. When I touched it, it seemed to really come alive to me; it just held my attention for several minutes.
I was utterly fascinated with this, and examined it high and low, I looked toward the unpainted section in the center and it reminded me of an old painting of a swirling cityscape by Escher, where it became as small as it could but the center was never filled in because there was no logical way it could be without distorting the painting. Only this mural I was now looking at didn’t make any logical sense to me yet anyway. I could tell that beyond just the surface appearance there was some real meaning behind it, and normally I never bother with such things, but this just compelled me to wonder. I decided to ask my wife about it, and maybe she would have seen or understood something that was too subtle for me.
“Kelly, what do you make of this painting? Quite extraordinary, isn’t it?” I said.
“Yes, indeed, although I don’t really know what to make of it, what are these figures? Look at their faces, well the one’s that have faces, they’re so expressive. And look over there, some of them look like monsters, but still human, I don’t get it.” Kelly replied. “But, actually I’m quite interested in this furniture, look over here” I looked at a piece she was pointing at. “This looks like pure modernism constructed in the renaissance, doesn’t it? I mean, it is so sleek and smooth, yet it is so ornately painted… I wonder where Mr. Nido bought this.”
“That is really interesting” I said with enthusiasm, “and look at all of those different materials in it, this must have been a huge collaborative effort.”
“Definitely,” Kelly returned.
I then walked over and examined the furniture closer and found it full of little swoops and swirls all over the place, it was simply compelling as had been the mural. I again thought we needed to get someone else out here to see this stuff, it was simply overwhelming. The piece Kelly was looking at, I may point out, seemed to be a chair of sorts, it looked like a person could sit there in pure comfort and never want to leave, due to the contours in its shape. It was laid out like it would fit a person’s body exactly, and I thought I’d try to sit in it. I told Kelly what I was about to do, and she said okay, though it looked a little fragile to her. I knocked on it and it seemed quite sturdy, so I got in. I then heard a loud snap and then the noise clunk clunk clunk clunk chink, like a castle gate being lifted on a self locking pulley. As this was happening, the chair suddenly became very comfortable and form fitting to almost the perfect specifications of my body. My eyes opened widely and I exclaimed “Marvelous!”
Kelly looked over at me, surprised and said “Oh my, dear! Are you alright, that thing looks like it is hugging you far too tightly.”
“I’ve never been more comfortable in my life;” I responded “In fact, it feels like this chair was made just for me. I could sit here all day long. Here, try it.”
I got up, and I heard another loud snap and suddenly the chair readjusted itself to its original form. Kelly then moved over to sit down and when she did, I heard the same loud snap, and Kelly wore a look of horror mixed with fascination, as I’m sure I must have when I first sat down. After the chair had readjusted itself, I saw that it seemed to be constricting her legs and body quite tightly. I thought maybe it was supposed to only sit someone of my size comfortably, because this definitely didn’t look comfortable for a person that much smaller than me, like Kelly, and I exclaimed in the same concerned manner “Kelly, that looks far too tight, are you okay?” To which she only gave out a sigh of pure delight and said marvelous. As I looked at Kelly sitting there, she looked like a reigning queen in contemplation and as comfortable as I’d ever seen her.
“I could die in this chair,” she said languidly, “we’re definitely bringing this back to our house… today.”
“I don’t know, Kelly, it looks kind of heavy” I returned.
“Well, sometime soon then.” Kelly said as if though she were half asleep.
I continued to look at the chair, but closer, with her sitting inside it, it had a slight decline in the back, and a very soft pad for the seat. It was vibrantly colored, as was everything in the room, it seemed. It had carvings in the sides of it, that looked like they were words to a language I hadn’t seen before, in fact it looked to be like the same ‘letters’ that I had seen all over the mural. I was really fascinated by this, so I went and looked and sure enough there they were too. I asked Kelly, if she had seen them, and told me that she had and was very curious about it, and had never seen anything like them before. It hadn’t occurred to me until this point, but the only door in this room that I’d found so far was the one we had come in from that led outside. I wondered how Nido had gotten into the rest of the house, and I asked Kelly about it again.
“That’s actually one of the first thing’s I noticed,” she told me, “I didn’t say anything, because I was marveling over this chair, and that thing on the other side, whatever it is.” She said and pointed to what looked like a very unique table with a bulbous chest on top of it. It was actually very singular, because it was the only thing in the room painted in only one color, white. Even the floor and ceiling were painted. The ceiling had a depiction of heaven and many people with vividly distinct faces, as if in a photograph. The floor was also quite vivid, but it looked like of hell, with the same distinct faces. It appeared we weren’t actually walking on the floor, mind, but on a clear plastic sheet over it. Some of the characters in the ceiling painting looked a little like Nido. There was also a depiction of what I assumed was God in the heavenly painting, but it was surrounded with a bright ray of light coming out and the face was quite distinct as were all of them, and it looked very familiar to me as well. In the hellish painting, likewise, there was a painting of what I assumed was Satan, but he didn’t look grotesque as I’d normally seen him, but rather he looked charming and handsome and actually quite similar to the depiction of God, and very familiar. He had a general scowl on his face and I knew that the same model must have posed for both paintings. Around the devil was a poem that surrounded him in a circle. It read:
What is life,
But a series of blunders,
Full of strife,
And many wonders,
We go on,
And fulfill our duty,
Not to die,
And live in beauty,
The answer is,
In what we make,
It’s what you give,
Not what you take
This seemed fairly mysterious to me, but seeing as it seemed to be the only thing written in English in the room, I figured it must have some importance for Nido or whoever painted it. After reading this, I walked over to the bulbous white chest and ran my hand along it, finding it to be as smooth as the chair was, and simply gorgeous and the white was as pure of a color as anything ever was in my life. It had almost a sparkle of silver in it. I examined it by walking around and found nothing of note, save to say the bulbous head broken off by corners on all four sides, above where the four legs that held it up were. Like the chair, it was ornately carved, but only at the base and the top, the center section was simple and pure and white. I pressed my hand against it, and in another series of loud clinking sounds, like the chair, it began to open. What seemed like a large ‘S’ shaped crack, emerged from nowhere and suddenly this chest was open. Inside seemed to be many paints and brushes, and easels and things. All of these things were placed in their own proper spots, and arranged very methodically in rainbow fashion. It then really occurred to me, that Nido may have actually painted these things himself, and that perhaps he was a much more talented person than anyone had known. If not, he certainly had an affinity for the arts.
I looked over at Kelly, who was now sleeping in the chair, apparently it had relaxed her quite a lot. I knew there had to be more to this house than simply this room, big though it was. I walked around looking at the walls with more scrutiny and thought maybe this was only one way in, and that the way to the rest of the house was somewhere else in the house. Then, I saw something that seemed a little out of place, and as I looked around, I found a piece of rope sticking out of part of the wall on the side that was closer to the rest of the house, it was fairly obscure and I barely even noticed it at first, it was painted to actually match the part of the painting that was around it. I tugged at the rope, which was barely sticking out at all, and it pulled firmly at first, and then more loosely, after a little while, I heard again a series of clinks, which apparently startled Kelly from her nap, since she walked over to me and asked what I was doing. I told her, I was looking for a door to the rest of the house, and she said maybe it was on the outside, and I said I had considered that, but then found this. She asked if it did anything and I said that it hadn’t, besides whatever that mysterious noise was. She looked over to the painting of the devil and read the poem on the ground aloud she then said “what you give and what you take?”
“Yeah, I don’t know what that means.” I said.
“Well… you just took that rope, which is where a door should be, right?” She replied.
“Yeah?”
“Try pushing the wall,” she suggested.
I did just that and suddenly, the door gave way and opened up to a wondrous hallway. I found it funny that this poem seemed to be a reference to the locking mechanism of door, meaning that you have to give and take both, but that the giving is what you had to do last. I was quite proud of Kelly for figuring it out. The hallway, not to be outdone by the room we had just come from, was like being in an ocean cavern, with paintings hanging along the sides. These paintings were all done with different and unique styles. Each one looked like it was painted in a different century and depicted different things. I was fascinated with them all, but had noticed that there seemed to be a theme along all of them, though I couldn’t quite describe it. Many of the paintings seemed to be depicting a sort of mythology, like Greek, but not quite that. I looked around and found there were twelve paintings in all. I looked at each one in amazement because the colors were all so bright and parts of that strange language, but prettier, or with better calligraphy perhaps, were written all over them. Along the hallways too, in the sides of the caverns seemed to be sculptures of the figures in each of the paintings.
Each painting had a picture of a figure, that looked divine, and some word or other written in a foreign language above. The paintings were all illuminated by some sort of mysterious blue light shining down, from the hallway ceiling, although it wasn’t obvious what the source of that light was. I thought it would be good to look at some of the more interesting paintings in detail, and on the first one as I entered the room was a man or god wearing a long brown beard with a rather handsome face. He looked to have a subdued kind of calm about him and was wearing a long flowing tunic of purple. He wore a long greenish yellow sash around his shoulder, and carried a scepter. In his right hand was a scepter with a raven on the top. In his left hand he carried a book which again had the strange pretty writing on it. On the ground near his feet was a fox standing with an expression of awe and excitement looking up at its master as if having heard its name called. On the other side was a raven looking on. I figured this character must be a king of some sort, because he wore a crown on his head, but a simple one, it didn’t look to be made of any precious metals, but had a red tint of iron. The background looked very pleasing and it appeared that they were standing in a classical throne room on a cliff, and on the side opposite were high and beautiful mountains. On either side was an obvious sculpture of the same figure in the painting, carved into the cavern wall in one kind of action or other. The first was him giving some sort of command with his scepter in hand. The other was him, reading the book in his hand.
I then noticed that beneath the painting almost chiseled into the rock was the word ‘Sapis’ written in English, but I wasn’t quite sure. I looked at the picture opposite of this one and saw that it was a beautiful goddess who was also wearing a crown. She stood tall and had a proud expression on her face. She wore a long white gown, as if in a Waterhouse painting. She held her hand out, with long sleeves drooping down elegantly toward the floor. She was standing in a similar sort of background, as the last painting, but as if on the other side of the same room. Lying behind her was an elegant white spear, with a silver blade that seemed flawless, but from it dripped what was distinctly blood. Beside her were two wolves and in her hand was a long staff painted in pure white with a very distinctive design of something that may be a swirling pinecone at the top and from the base of this design hung two long golden feathers. Her other hand held nothing but was extended in a graceful gesture of an open palm extending slightly away from her body. She wore a simple tiara of what appeared to be ivory over which her long blonde hair flowed. This shot, as well as the last one was a view from a diagonal angle. The nobility presented in these shots was obvious and I thought whoever had painted it had conveyed a well carried message. On the inscription below this particular painting seemed to be the name ‘Jamalia’. On either side of the painting again were two statues of her either one riding a horse nude. In one she was aiming her spear about to throw it with her right hand, and in the other she was holding her spear in her left hand pointing it toward the sky, and in her other hand she was holding the severed head of an evil looking man.
I looked on and found a couple more paintings that really stuck out, though they were all quite interesting. In one there was another god replete in war attire on a bloody battlefield standing over what looked like his fallen foes. There were manly looking dogs running around too, as if going to chase some of his enemies. In his hand was a well brandished sword soaked in blood, and at the cross guard were lions on either side. His helmet and chest plate almost looked Roman, and he had a look of pure rage and conquest on his face. He was clean shaven, and in the background atop of the pile of conquered bodies were other warriors fighting on with him. Beneath the painting was the inscription of ‘Klax’. I looked to the two carved statues and found him to be in a similar battle like state, but fighting with nothing but his helmet and sword. I asked Kelly if she might know what these figures were, and she said she’d never seen anything like them, or at least they certainly weren’t distinct to her. She was about as lost as I was, but also about as awed by all if it too. In the center of all of these paintings in the hall was a slender table and on the top of it, was a well done leather bound book with a fascinating cover on it. In had the strange characters again written where the title should have been and on the opposite side it said The Book of Knowing.
I tried to open the book, but found that it was clasped shut. I tried to open it, but found that it had some sort of little lock holding it down. After fidgeting with it for a while, I was finally able to open it. I looked through the pages and had discovered the strange language on one side of the page, and English on the next. I read the first paragraph and it went thus:
IN THE BEGINNING THE GODS AND ALL OF THEIR DESCENDENTS CAME FROM THE ABYSS. THE CHAOS ENSUED FOR AN EPOCH THEN THE FLASH OF LIFE OCCURRED. SAPIS, FATHER OF THE GODS, WAS BEGOTTEN UNTO THE UNIVERSE. HE WAS BORN WHOLE AND PERFECT AND THUS CREATED ORDER. HE TOOK THE CHAOS AND MOLDED IT INTO THE DESIRED FORM SPREADING THE ORDER AND THE MEANING. SAPIS DESIRED COMPANIONSHIP AND THUS CREATED HIS WIFE JAMALIA, WHO WAS WHOLE AND PERFECT…
And it continued in this fashion for some time. I looked at the cover again, and at the characters and found that they were actually the same as the characters on the book Sapis was holding in the painting. I showed this to Kelly, and she was thrilled, she told me I had found a Rosetta’s stone to this strange language and she would like to study it, in the meantime, she had been looking at different paintings, and said that this all looked quite fascinating to her, she would have to research it more when she got back to her university. We walked further down the halls until near the end of it, we found another doorway, which looked like a huge boulder in the way. I didn’t know how to open it, but figured I’d try to perhaps find another rope. Failing that, I just tried to push it, and it opened. Thus we entered another hallway, this time, with blank walls that were quite plain, except they seemed to have different depressions in them, some of them going quite deep. There seemed to be a singular table on the side of this hallway, with a box on it, but before I had time to go and see this, Kelly called me back, and said
“Steven, come here!” I hurried back to see what was the matter, and she pointed to the figures around all of the paintings, and I suddenly heard a low hum, and the lights had gotten less bright. They began to move a little, silently and they each engaged in the actions of whatever it was they were doing before, like a huge mechanical peculiarity. The hum that I’d heard before was getting louder and suddenly there was a little rhythm like the sound of war drums playing in the background. Then there was a chorus and trumpets to join them. Strangely the choral voices all sounded like variations on Nido’s own voice. The movements of the statues became more and more elaborate as the music increased, I stared on at some of them in amazement, particularly the statues around Jamalia. The one on her left, actually threw the spear and, it appeared, hit something, it looked as if the spear had actually disappeared, but on closer inspection I found that it had simply retreated into the wall, and moved back and suddenly appeared to be in her hand again, and suddenly the chanting of the voices stopped and the lights were back to normal. I looked to Kelly and asked, what had just happened. She told me she didn’t understand it either, but she wanted to know how we got that to work. I told her I didn’t know.
I then looked over at the table with the Book of Knowing on it, I went to go look at it again, when it struck me just how clean this hall was. I brushed the table with my finger expecting to find a good deal of dust and was surprised to find that it was spotless. I then thought of picking up the book again, and noticed that when I did, where the book had been resting was a switch and it was slow moving, but after a little while would be put into place. This meant the book must have been the trigger device and after a while, the show would have come on. After it had come on the first time, it had startled Kelly so she must have returned the book as she called me, and in the same slow manner it took to begin, it took to end as well. Either that or the show had simply played itself out, either way, this must have taken a mastermind to get each statue and figure to move just so, and with the elaborations, I was simply stunned Nido would want something like this installed into his house. I explained what happened to Kelly and put the book back. After waiting for a little while, it didn’t happen again.
Curious, I walked on to inspect the depressions and the box in the next room, it seemed that no matter where I went throughout this house, a surprise lie in store for me. It was here I realized that there was much more to Frazer than met the eyes at work. He seemed like such an aloof old fool. I figured he probably just returned home and did things that were about as mundane as his life seemed to be at work, but here it appeared he at least appreciated strange things and had at least a few elaborate and curious things about him. I wished I would have spoken to him more in life, and that he would simply have had someone to be there to remember him, more than me. Obviously, I knew next to nothing about this man, and he apparently had a lot about him. It made me resolve then and there to be less superficial about the private goings on and intimacies of others. I wanted to see what else this fellow had. Maybe this was it, and the table in the next hall was only a table but I was determined to find out what there was.
