Graham Klebba
Honors Literature
01.05.09
Just a Plain Old Room? Right?
The door handle creaked to the side, then the other side. The door did not move. The handle was still for a moment, then it jiggled spasmodically. The old, wooden door swung up slowly, offering its complains in the form of a long, creaky whine. A young boy crept into the dusty room, looking about to make sure no one was around. He laughed at himself a moment later. No one had lived in or even visited this house for a good four years.
Feeling confident that he was alone, the lad walked over to the centre of the room. He lay down in the dust, twining his finger behind his head. Staring up at the ceiling, he let his mind wander. He imagined made up stories, telling about every crack, hole, scratch, or nick in the walls, floor and ceiling. Nothing escaped his spectacled gaze. He could see every imperfection, every detail.
He knew that one scuff in the floor came to be when holiday gift wrapping was being done. People were hurrying, and one young girl tripped on a box, dragging her new shoe on the floor. He saw clearly the culprit in the case of one large hole in the baseboard. A mouse had made his home behind one panel, and the home owner family enlarged the small entrance in a failed attempt to catch and kill the rodent, despite the disapproval of the smallest girl in the family. One particular dent in the wall told of great Christmas, one where a boy received a wooden toy sword. The battle that ensued was of epic proportions, but not without it's fair share of time spent with noses in the corner afterwards.
A stain in the ceiling reminded the child of a long, hard rain a few years back, when everyone's roofs leaked. Home owners had to place all their spare sheets between the roof and ceiling, just to be dry at night. Four scratches in the floor next to his head lead the boy's imagination to a richly finished antique desk, moved by children to help in making a fort.
The boy awoke two hours later, seeing a perfectly empty room. There were no scratches, holes, dents, divots, leaks, stains, or nicks in the walls, floor, or ceiling. Stretching, the lad left the room, the room that is to be his own. Once all the boxes had been moved in.
