Under the Whispering Door

Wallace begins to accept his death again and he spends time with Nelson, Apollo, Mei, and Hugo. Wallace convinces Hugo to call Naomi and tell her that Wallace did love her and that he was sorry for not being enough for her. Naomi is stunned and asks Hugo if he loved Wallace, which he doesn’t deny. Wallace feels his hook tugging on his chest and tells Hugo he is only making it worse because he is dead. Hugo tells Wallace his feelings are his own and Wallace can’t take them away from him.

The next day, Wallace asks Mei to watch the shop while he goes out into the sun with Hugo, as he knows he will have no other chance to do so. Whatever the risk, Wallace wants to go out into the world of the living with Hugo, and Hugo agrees to take him for a ride on his scooter. After several attempts to sit on the scooter, Hugo takes them in the opposite direction of town. Wallace tells him to go faster, even once his skin starts to flake off. Hugo brings him to an overlook his father had brought him to, and he promises Wallace that he will never forget him. Hugo says that he thinks they will see each other again.

On the way back to the tea shop, Wallace begins to hear the whispers he heard at the door getting louder. He realizes that they’re coming from Cameron as he sees Cameron in the middle of his and Hugo’s path. Wallace manages to pull on the breaks before Hugo. He goes to touch Cameron and see his memories. He sees the memory of Cameron losing Zach, the man he loved. Wallace feels Cameron’s horror as he is told Zach is dead, and his despair at Zach’s funeral. Wallace feels the four months of Cameron being alone after telling his friends he would be okay, and goes through the motions of Cameron’s last day and the period after his death. He sees Hugo through Cameron’s eyes and watches Cameron run from the tea shop, his last thoughts being of Zach and feeling the sun. Cameron asks Wallace to help him, and Wallace thinks about what he has learned about the sacrifices he needs to make for the people he cares about. Wallace sees the hook in his own chest. Pulling it from himself, he tethers it to Cameron.

Wallace wakes up to Mei slapping him and asks her if it worked. She shows him that he is floating above the ground, only held down by Apollo’s leash. He sees Cameron sitting by the fireplace with Hugo, and Cameron thanks Wallace for finding him and hugs him.

Cameron and Wallace talk about how they’ve come to recognize that their lives and feelings don’t end, they just change. Cameron thought running from the tea shop would get rid of his pain, but it just transformed it. Wallace continues to hear whispers from the door that are both scary and enthralling. Everyone joins as Cameron drinks his first cup of tea, which reminds him of an orange tree he and Zach had. After their first sips, Cameron, Nelson, and Wallace all hear the whispers call to them.

Hugo brings Wallace up to his room to spend their last night together. They talk about the daydream Wallace has had numerous times, where he stumbles across the tea shop while he is living and he and Hugo have a normal life together. Hugo tells Wallace that he wishes he could stay, and they both confess their love for one another.

The next morning, Cameron asks Wallace to escort him to the stairs, and Wallace tells him, “every step forward is a step closer to home” (559). He walks Cameron up the stairs with Hugo, and Nelson makes him promise to come back down. Cameron is joyous as he pulls the hook from his chest and goes through the door, and Wallace and Hugo can hear him greeting Zach just before the door closes behind him. The friends drink tea together and joke with one another, but Hugo is stubborn and mournful when the Manager arrives.

The Manager sits down at the table and asks for tea, but Hugo refuses to give him any. Hugo tells the Manager about what happened with Cameron, but the Manager does not care because he believes Cameron made his own choices. Hugo points out that the Manager only cares about free will until it interferes with his order, as he is denying Wallace a choice by forcing him to go through the door. Wallace asks the Manager to tell them what is behind the door. The Manager gives a vague answer, but Wallace insists that the Manager doesn’t actually know, as he does not know what it is like to feel human. Hugo asks the Manager how many Husks there are, but the Manager doesn’t see the point in knowing. Wallace insists that it matters, and that people are meant to help one another. He points out that the people who became Husks were simply scared, which is a very human thing. He tells the Manager that together they could do something important by doing what is human and helping the Husks. The Manager tells him, as he did during his first visit, that he doesn’t make deals.

Hugo insists that the Husks should be brought to him so that he and the others can help them like they helped Cameron. Wallace promises the Manager that he will let go if the Manager agrees, despite Hugo’s protests. The Manager agrees out of curiosity and boredom.

The Manager tells Wallace to let go. Wallace tells everyone that he loves them before he loosens his grip on the table. The others attempt to cling to him and chase him as Wallace floats up to the door. As the whispers get louder, Wallace is suddenly stopped in midair by the Manager. For the first time, Wallace thinks the Manager looks unsure as he contemplates Wallace’s ready acceptance of crossing over. The Manager argues with the whispers coming from the door, telling them he wants to try something different and that he will be responsible for it.

Wallace falls to the floor, and the Manager tells them all that he has made a change of plans. He tells Wallace that he is hired; everyone is confused. The Manager takes one of the flowers from his hair and tells Wallace to open his mouth. Wallace does, letting the flower float inside him. Hugo asks the Manager what he did to Wallace, but Mei points out that Hugo is touching Wallace, which means that Wallace is alive again.

Hugo kisses Wallace and Mei tackles him, while Nelson and Apollo run right through him. The Manager tells them that he is hiring Wallace as a Reaper to help bring in all of the Husks that he will be sending them. Mei shows him how to step between the worlds of the living and the dead so he can touch and communicate with either. The Manager tells Wallace not to take this second chance at life lightly and says he cannot be seen by anyone from his previous life. He leaves, promising to keep an eye on all of them. Nelson, Mei, and Apollo give Wallace and Hugo time to themselves.

Wallace feels odd about suddenly moving into the tea shop in his corporeal form. He suggests he could move into the apartment Nancy vacated once she left town, ready to begin her life again. Hugo shoots down this idea immediately. Wallace convinces Hugo to call his old law firm to admit his mistakes and tell them to rehire Patricia, the paralegal Wallace fired in Chapter 1.

The Manager returns a week later with a Husk, and Mei sees her memories as Wallace had seen Cameron’s. Hugo pulls a hook from his chest and gives it to her, anchoring another hook within his own chest. Other Husks are brought to the tea shop, while some find their way there on their own. They help them all.

The town is excited about Hugo’s new boyfriend, and Mei gets him a new ID with the name Wallace Reed. When Desdemona returns to the tea shop, she thinks she recognizes Wallace but can’t place him. Spirits and Husks continue to come to the shop. Some threaten to remove their hooks, but none do.

One day in summer, Nelson tells Wallace he thinks it is time for him to cross. When he turns around, Wallace sees him as a young man. He understands that he only kept his appearance as an old man because that’s how Hugo knew him. Nelson tells Hugo that night over tea and goes to the door the following sunrise. They all follow him up the stairs, where Hugo suggests Apollo should follow Nelson to keep an eye on him. Without hesitation, Hugo pulls both of their hooks free and opens the door for them. As he ascends, Nelson tells Hugo, “[I]t’s real. All of it is real. It’s life. It’s life […] I’m home” (616-17).

That night, Wallace asks Hugo if he is angry with Nelson, but Hugo says he isn’t as both of them know he is in good hands with Wallace. Mei interrupts their intimate moment, telling them they have a new file. Wallace follows Hugo through the door inside. Behind them, in the forest, a great stag watches over them.