time, and went to the stairway leading up to the third
floor. All I had been told was there was a costume
room up there. I had vet to see it. I listened for a while at the foot of the short stairway, but heard nothing.
Then I slowly ascended.
The third floor was quite unlike the rest of the
house in which we lived and worked. There was only,
a single light fixture in the center of the ceiling,
halfway down the corridor. It was a weak light at that,
casting thin, soft shadows that caused the gray walls
to look like stone.
Apparently there was only one room up here. I
paused at the door, listened again, and then opened it.
The slight illumination from the hallway spilled in
b
efore me to reveal rows and rows of costumes. They
began just inside and ran the length of the room. I
found a light switch on the right side and flipped it on.
A series of bigger and brighter fixtures in brass lamp
shades lit up the room well enough for me to see
everything. On shelves above the costumes to my left
were all sorts of hats and helmets. Against the right
wall was another set of shelves, upon which were
props-- the swords Cinnamon and Howard were
playing with the day I arrived, the armor, canes and
magic wands, as well as crowns with imitation jewels.
Below that were pairs and pairs of shoes and boots,
slippers, and Indian moccasins.
The room felt dusty. Stepping into it, I sensed that once I moved something., a parade of particles would begin to float through the air, swimming from one set of costumes to another. The smell was musty, stale, as if the door to the room hadn't been opened in
years. Of course. I knew otherwise.
If this was the only room up here and there