The house is very old and until a few years ago was filled with many cats and
a family by the name of Goodrice. Before it became a house, the beams and
supports and fine wooden doors were a forest of cypress, cedar and zelkova,
the walls a grove of feathery bamboo and fertile earth. Some parts of the
house had been foraged from previous houses stretching its history almost
to the dawn of time for no one had recorded the day the first Goodrice
arrived but everyone knew that it was long, long ago.

One rainy Sunday, two Strangers from a country the Goodrices had only seen
on television appeared at their new front door and said, "Please sell us your
beautiful old house. We would like to take care of it and after only ten minutes
looking around we are certain that we must live in this place."

The bigger one said, "I stood out behind
the house and just listened to the trees."

...Grandmother Star rushed next door to
welcome the Strangers. She took their hands
and said, "A mysterious force has brought you to
this faraway place. Welcome."

And she looked into their eyes and they looked
back and knew that they were home.

From The Village Above the Stars by Patty Christiena Willis
(now on sale in Japanese by Jushinsha Press, Tokyo)

A Visit to the Workshop, photos by Hidenori Obata

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website copyright © 1996 to 2005 by
Patty Christiena Willis and Mary Lou Prince.
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