Disclaimer: Anything you recognize from the Narnia books belongs to C. S. Lewis. Anything you don't recognize probably owes a lot to C. S. Lewis, too.
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The house was as strangely decorated inside as it was outside. The front room had a large mural of a herd of purple-colored cow-like creatures, and the furniture was painted with orange and blue zig-zags. It soon made Peter's eyes ache, but Crystal and Martha seemed perfectly comfortable. Peter supposed that flowers and younger children's toys often came in bright, ill-matched colors, and that they were both used to them.
The strange boy told them to wait there, and went through a doorway. He returned with his whole family. There were three little girls, another boy, a man, and a woman. He introduced them all with long, strange-sounding names that were impossible to remember.
"And what should we call you again?" asked Crystal, as a polite way of saying "We forgot your name because it was too long."
"You may call me Xerxes Nebuzaradan Remaliah Elihoreph Pharez," he said.
"That's too long," said Peter. "How about just Xerxes?"
"That is too short and common."
"I've never met anyone named Xerxes," said Peter.
"I've met several," said Xerxes, "and without the other names, no one would know whose mother was calling them. They all look the same, and they all sound the same."
"But you would know if we were speaking to you. We look and sound very different," said Peter.
"All right. You may call me Xerxes, but you must learn a password if you can't learn my name. That way you will know it's really me you are talking to."
"What should the password be?" asked Peter.
"Not here!" Xerxes exclaimed, and then turned to his mother. "I will show our guests to the spare rooms now."
He climbed a yellow and pink polka dotted staircase, and Peter, Martha, and Crystal followed.
Xerxes led them to a small room with plain, violet-colored walls. "You will stay here, Peter." He motioned towards another doorway. "The girls will stay in that room, but for now let's all talk in yours."
Peter was surprised, but very glad, that he was not expected to sleep in a room with outlandish patterns on the walls. He asked why the guest rooms were not painted 'so creatively,' and Xerxes said, "All the guest rooms in Dailitcen are plain violet. It helps people to feel more at home if a room looks like the guest room in their house. It is one of the few things we want to be exactly alike."
"Why is everything alike, anyway?" asked Peter. "It was quite a shock to us to see that you all have the same face. It's not like that in our world."
"Or mine," said Crystal.
"It wasn't always like that here," said Xerxes, "and that is the problem you seem to know we have. I will tell you the story, but first we must agree on a password."
"Sainollan," said Crystal suddenly. "That is the password."
Xerxes looked at her strangely. "You know more than I thought you did," he said, "but that is a good password."
"Will you tell us your story, now?" asked Peter, impatient.
"Yes," said Xerxes, and he did.