Room by Emma Donoghue Read Free Book Online Page A

they don’t have
any cans. The she and the he smile at each other and do a meat with a pie on top and green things around other green things in bunches. Then I switch over to the fitness planet where persons in
underwear with all machines have to keep doing things over and over, I think they’re locked in. That’s over soon and it’s the knockerdowners, they make houses into different
shapes and also millions of colors with paint, not just on a picture but all over everything. Houses are like lots of Rooms stuck together, TV persons stay in them mostly but sometimes they go in
their outsides and weather happens to them.
    “What if we put the bed over there?” says Ma.
    I stare at her, then I look where she’s pointing. “That’s TV Wall.”
    “That’s just what we call it,” she says, “but the bed could probably fit there, between the toilet and . . . we’d have to shift the wardrobe over a bit. Then the
dresser would be right here instead of the bed, with the TV on top of it.”
    I’m shaking my head a lot. “Then we couldn’t see.”
    “We could, we’d be sitting right here in the rocker.”
    “Bad idea.”
    “OK, forget it.” Ma folds her arms tight.
    The TV woman is crying because her house is yellow now. “Did she like it brown better?” I ask.
    “No,” says Ma, “she’s so happy it’s making her cry.”
    That’s weird. “Is she happysad, like you get when there’s lovely music on TV?”
    “No, she’s just an idiot. Let’s switch the TV off now.”
    “Five more minutes? Please?”
    She shakes her head.
    “I’ll do Parrot, I’m getting even better.” I listen hard to the TV woman. I say, “Dream come to life, I have to tell you Darren it’s just beyond my very
wildest imaginings, the cornices—”
    Ma hits the off. I want to ask her what a cornices is but I think she’s still cranky about moving the furniture, that was a crazy plan.
    In Wardrobe I should be going to sleep but I’m counting fights. That’s three we had in three days, one about the candles and one about Mouse and one about Lucky. I’d rather be
four again if five means fighting all the days.
    “Good night, Room,” I say very quiet. “Good night, Lamp and Balloon.”
    “Good night, stove,” says Ma, “and good night, table.”
    I’m grinning. “Good night, Wordy Ball. Good night, Fort. Good night, Rug.”
    “Good night, air,” says Ma.
    “Good night, noises everywhere.”
    “Good night, Jack.”
    “Good night, Ma. And Bugs, don’t forget the Bugs.”
    “Night-night,” she says, “sleep tight, don’t let the bugs bite.”
    •   •   •
    When I wake up, Skylight’s all blue in her glass, there’s no snow left even in the corners. Ma’s sitting in her chair holding her face, that means hurting.
She’s looking at something on Table, two things.
    I jump up and grab. “It’s a jeep. A remote-control jeep!” I’m zooming it in the air, it’s red, as big as my hand. The remote is silver and a rectangle, when I
wiggle one of the switches with my thumb the jeep’s wheels spin zhhhhung.
    “It’s a late birthday present.”
    I know who brung it, it’s Old Nick but she won’t say.
    I don’t want to eat my cereal but Ma says I can play with the jeep again right after. I eat twenty-nine of them, then I’m not hungry anymore. Ma says that’s waste, so she eats
the rest.
    I figure out to move Jeep just with Remote. The thin silver antenna, I can make it really long or really short. One switch makes Jeep go forward and backward, the other does side to side. If I
flip both the same time, Jeep gets paralyzed like by a poison dart, he says argbbbbbb.
    Ma says she’d better start cleaning because it’s Tuesday. “Gently,” she says, “remember it’s breakable.”
    I know that already, everything’s breakable.
    “And if you keep it turned on for a long time the batteries will get used up, and we don’t have any spares.”
    I can make Jeep go all around Room, it’s easy