30

“Fucking Bear, look what it did to me! Owh, that really fucking stings.” The neighbour was standing at the bathroom mirror. Refusing to turn the light on meant it had taken longer than it should have to find the antiseptic wipes, a couple pills he hoped were paracetamol and those small, strong adhesive plasters you could use - unwisely - in place of stitches. Regardless, no chance he was going to A\&E for anything of that sort.

He finished up and returned to the antechamber. The green light welcomed him. He circled the pedestal, watching his feet move freely, with nothing to hinder his cadence. He kicked his legs up high, walked one way a while, turned back, then he ran a little. He stretched out his arms, fingers traipsing against the walls. He ran around the pedestal, running his hands all the way to the corners. He stretched his arms up as he ran faster, reaching up towards the tall ceiling. “See, Bear! I have room, I have plenty of room!” He lay down, stretched out his body, and began to crawl. He felt the smooth wood beneath his hands as he slowly slunk across the floor. He reached out again and, as he did, noticed that one half of the protective strip of his adhesive plaster had followed him in here from the bathroom. He shrieked and crawled over to it, grabbed it. “Look, look what you’ve done, what you’ve done to my room!” He opened the bathroom door halfway, careful not to topple over the shampoos and soaps stacked behind it. He reached back and grabbed the Tupperware to put it in with the other protective strips. One had been from cutting a bagel, another from a sore he’d developed, scratching just beneath his temple. He closed the bathroom door again and returned to his once-again clean room, and muttered more curses for Mr Armitage making a mess of it.

He returned to the head of his pedestal, opened the case that sat atop it, and ran his fingers over the tops of each of them. Felt every buckle and bevel. He touched each one, excepting the one empty slot. The one he knew the Bear had taken. On the last day, he’d let him in. “Time is a test of trouble, Bear, but not a remedy.”