The door to Room One looks freshly painted white over its simple style, common to suburban homes. It sits open to the softly lit and clean room clearly possessed by a little girl. The furniture inside is mauve with brass trim, in the mock Art Decco style of the late 80s/early 90s, stickers of rainbows and butterflies stuck low and inconspicuous to their sides. The bed is neatly made with a pink and purple, Laura Ashley standard floral print comforter, retaining the fluff of its Sears catalog origins. The ruffled bed skirt is stiff and happy. A pink plastic boombox sits atop the dresser in front of the poster of a very young Madonna. This is Joshua's Room.

A brass chest, defaced with nail polish spatters, sits at the foot of the cloud-like pastel bed and beckons to be opened. Its two latches come easily undone and inside are dozens of My Little Ponies, naked Barbies, a Playskool telephone with broken eyes, markers lost for their caps and drying out of their fruit scents, a plastic shopping cart, a tattered mess of Little Golden Books, Polly Pocket, and a Skip-It all sleeping in a settled knot. Joshua being a toy himself makes him most at Home in this fray.

secrets from an endless sleepver

audio recordings