I DECIDED TO STEP IN Saturdays are far more boring than Sundays when the weather keeps you in. With high wind advisories being announced on the radio every hour or so I had set aside a few candles just in case. I dwell in a 100-year-old house and with the thought of roaming it in the dark carrying a tall-lit candle becomes appealing. I have a strange urge to haunt the dead instead. It’s weird how the violent wind outside can make the naked trees sound like squirrels rummaging through an attic. Have you ever heard the sound a squirrel makes? It sounds like the most wicked laugh. There was barely enough daylight out to complete my chores if the electricity were to go out. But since I’ll be expecting no company and won’t really be spending much time in the den; a single chore of simply dusting could take hours for a doddling mind drifter such as I am. I saved some pages from a newspaper to clean the wardrobe door mirrors. I always wondered why newspapers work best to clean glass. Maybe it has something to do with the ink they use. Maybe they should just put the ink in a Windex bottle. ‘Boots on sale at Payless; buy one get one free, sale ends Saturday’; figures! Have you ever held your hand over one side of your face looking into a mirror and compared it to the other side of your face? An hour had past, had I cleaned anything yet? The wardrobe I’ve had in my den for the past 10 years now is over 100 years old and I rarely put anything in it due to the heavy doors. I recall the day it was delivered to me in pieces from my oldest sister. Desperate to see it whole I spent an entire afternoon putting it together. I was never fully successful because not all the pieces were used. After making a few funny expressions in its mirror I slowly opened the door. With the winds making a gust hard enough to shake this old 3-story house the lights went out. Of course I set out plenty of candles, but where’s the lighter? Fumbling my way to the kitchen to light a candle with the gas stove I noticed my flashlight on the shelf by the basement door. I went and lit the candle instead. With candle in hand I mindlessly, and I do mean purposely, walked up the back stairway then down the front stairway then around through the living room and back to the den; just to freak out any neighbors that might be looking in. With my curiosity focused on the dark interior of the wardrobe I held my candle tight and stepped inside. It smelled like old cedar. It must be from an old cedar block used to keep clothes smelling outdoor fresh or something. As I walked from one side to the other the heavy door creaked closed and snuffed out my candle. I am not the panicky type nor claustrophobic. In fact standing there in the dark made me feel a bit on the youthful side recalling days of hide-n-seek. As I turned back around I could see a light coming from the other side probably where I forgot to put a slot of wood in. To my left I found my old suede jacket that I never could part with even if it no longer fit, hanging on a hook. Taking it from the hook I put it over my shoulders once more. From a world that often shuns the almost needy attachments to material things why are we full of them? Walking closer to the light I began to feel cold. The weather must have gotten worse outside to think I could nearly be able to see my own breath; or was it dust? The light then flickered causing me to blink and have difficulty focusing as though I had been in the dark for hours. After rubbing my eyes furiously due to the light and dust in here I then opened them to see. The wood between the worlds and the pools upon thousands of pools. I was comfortably snug. I have always been here. Standing in the soft green light and there in the distance was snow with flakes whipping around the lamppost like bugs fighting with a light. I have always been here, always. Have I cleaned anything yet? Fortunately for me the way they built wardrobe doors 100 years ago they had a smaller inside knob. Pushing it gently I stepped out. It seems the lights came back on. Turning around and removing my suede jacket from my shoulders I shook the flakes off of it and hung it back on its hook and closed the door. I then sprayed some more Windex on the crumpled ads in my hand and finished the mirror on the other door of the wardrobe. And winking in the mirror I exclaimed in a whisper........... “Long live Aslan!” (It’s true ........................... the wardrobe in my den was built in 1895)