Under the Whispering Door

Inside Charon’s Crossing Tea and Treats, there is a sign that reads “The first time you share tea, you are a stranger. The second time you share tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share tea, you become family” (77). A reference to a Balti quote, this phrase also represents Wallace’s journey to finding a family within the tea shop, the place where Wallace Price learns the power of connecting with other people.

Little information is given about Wallace’s real family, other than the fact that he did not have much of a relationship with his distant parents. When the Manager asks Wallace what he will do when he sees his parents again after he goes through the door, Klune writes that Wallace “hadn’t thought about it. He didn’t know what that made him” (568). This shows that Wallace was not raised with warm, familial bonds, a fact that is further proven when Wallace remembers purposely cutting himself off from caring after his grandfather’s death. Throughout the novel, Wallace learns that family does not have to be the family you are born into; it can be the family you create.