My Room

Here at the Patreascu’s, I have a large room to myself. As you walk in the first thing that hits you is the smell. It is damp and musty and the air is dark and clammy. There are overlapping rugs on the floor with little red rags pinned on the walls for luck. The walls are otherwise covered with a painted pattern. A picture of the heart of Jesus looks down mournfully onto my bed. Next to it is a horrendous picture from a 1996 Japenese calendar of two stuffed kittens with bows and glaring eyes on a brightly coloured background.

My bed is 1 foot off the ground. It is a fold away bed with a thin piece of foam on top as a mattress - I mean thin - 1 inch thick. There is a pillow and a rug in a sheet. At the head of the bed is a sofa which serves me as a suitcase rack and bedside table. A chair is at the foot and a little lace covered table nearby. There are two doors into the rest of the house. One into Elena’s room, the other into the ‘hall’. A door at the end leads outside but is locked. All the windows are draped with lace and thick curtains making it very dark.

One window opens outside. Overhead is an apple tree and once every so often an apple thumps onto the roof and rolls down to the ground which always makes me jump. On the wall is a strange looking electricity meter and other electrical bits and bobs. A poor attempt to disguise this has been made with a bit of plastic leaves and flowers.