Chapter 10 - Ten Silver Coins - Book 1

Jill enters the Media Room and thing are about to get w.i.l.d.

Catch up on previous chapters here.

Chapter 10: The Projector

Jill and Simon finished the dishes, not without a few laughs and splashes of water. Simon, slower on his feet than Jill after all the food he ate, was the wetter of the pair. When they finished, Simon started out of the kitchen.

“Where are you going?” asked Jill.

“C’mon,” Simon said, “I want to show you something.” Simon walked down the hallway toward the staircase.

“Isn’t this the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen?” Jill asked as they walked up the stairs. “It changes from wood to ivory. How do you think that happens?”

“Ah, you’ll get used to it,” Simon said flatly.

“How could I ever get used to something so, so magical?” Jill asked.

“Trust me. This is nothing. Wait until you see what I discovered.” They walked straight from the staircase down the hallway that led to The Atrium. 

“Which is your favourite room?” Jill asked, curious.

“That’s what I’m about to show you.” 

“There are so many to choose from,” she continued. “I don’t know if I ever could name a favourite. The Music Room, The Library with all those books. I didn’t know the world itself had so many books. I haven’t even spent any time there at all and already I know it’s one of my favourite rooms. Did you see the bookshelves? It would take weeks just to count all the books on them. How many more weeks would it take to read all of them?”

“I guess The Library would seem pretty amazing to someone who likes books. I think reading is boring.”

“Boring?” Jill asked in amazement. Simon might have said he never learnt to swim, or couldn’t ride a bicycle, or that he couldn’t spell his own name. “You don’ t like to read? But reading is so fantastic. There are so many things to imagine when you read a book. Like what the main character really looks like, or if the characters speak in funny accents. There’s always so many details authors leave out that the reader has to imagine.” Jill lowered her voice and spoke as if she was sharing a secret. “Sometimes I wonder how and when the characters go to the bathroom.” 

Simon stared back at her blankly.

“What? Authors never write about that stuff. But if they’re real people, well, then they’d have to go to the bathroom, you know?”

As Jill continued to talk about books, Simon just stood and watched her. She was no longer walking but looking up at the ceiling and gesturing madly with her arms as she stood and went on and on about how important reading was. Jill’s words slowly trailed off when she realized Simon was staring at her. “What, Simon?” she asked. “It looks like you’ve swallowed a lemon.” 

“You like reading too much. Don’t tell me you’re one of those people who grew up without a television.”

“Television?” Jill asked, scrunching her nose. “What’s that?”

“Are you serious?” Simon said, dropping his jaw. It was now his turn to show a little bit of surprise and disgust. 

“I’m kidding. Simon, I’m kidding! Don’t look at me like that. Of course I know what a television is, but only from reading about it in books. You’re right. My mom didn’t own a television, and my caretaker, well, let’s just say my caretaker didn’t have time for that sort of thing either.”

“You’ve never watched TV! What planet are you from? You’ve never had to fight anyone for the remote control? You’ve never watched sports live on television? You’ve never seen cartoons? You’re, well, you’re like an endangered species. You’re a,” Simon coughed and tried to conceal a laugh,“you’re a Dodo!”

“Very funny. I’m not a Dodo. I resent that. And what does it really matter if I’ve never seen a program on TV?”

“I guess I’m just surprised. I should probably ask for your autograph. Anyway, I think all that’s about to change.”

“What do you mean?”

“That’s what I was about to show you,” Simon said, with a gleam in his eye. 

Jill crossed her arms over her chest and shifted her weight to her right foot. “Just what exactly is in this room you’re taking me to? If it’s just a TV set, I think I’d rather go to The Library and read a good book.”

“Hold your horses, Jill.”

Simon took a few steps and stood in front of the door marked Private. He went onto his tiptoes, reached for the wooden sign, and removed it from the door. Underneath, in lettering like all the other signs on all the other doors read: The Media Room. Simon blushed a little and turned to look at Jill. “I made this sign a little while ago, in case someone else came to the house.”

“You made this sign? Simon, that’s ridiculous. This isn’t your home. This isn’t your room.” 

“Oh, c’mon, Jill. It’s no big deal. In a minute, maybe you’ll understand why.”

“What if the Keeper came and found you marking off your territory in his house? Sheesh! What did Mr. Kay say?”

“Well, by that time, we weren’t really on speaking terms. I’d rather not talk about him right now, thank you very much.”

“What did you do to get on his nerves?”

“Hey, it’s not a very difficult thing to do. He’s a short tempered old grump of a man.”

“Mr. Kay is a good friend of my family. He has been for a long time. Watch what you say about him. Anyway, he’s probably listening,” Jill warned, her voice suddenly dropping in tone.

“I hope he’s listening. I’m just telling the truth. I thought he was nice too, until I made one little mistake.”

“What mistake?”

“I ate the last piece of chocolate cake. His last piece of chocolate cake. It was when I first came to this place, before I knew his rules.”

Jill laughed.

“What, you think that’s funny?” Simon stuffed his hands in his pant pockets. “Oh, you can laugh, but just you wait. One of these days you’ll eat the wrong thing or say something at the wrong time and make him angry. And he was going to teach me how to properly stuff a pipe, too. I don’t expect that to happen anytime soon.”

“Boys and their food! Well, put yourself in his shoes. Imagine you spent your life wandering from painting to painting. You’d probably cherish every opportunity you had for chocolate cake too.”

Simon rolled his eyes. “Gee, I never thought of it that way, Jill. Thanks.” Simon pushed open the door and went inside. “What’s with the fruit on the floor?”

“Oh that,” said Jill. “I was going to make a salad.”

Jill followed Simon into the room. It was different then she expected it to be, empty save for some furniture along the far wall, a few couches and chairs with overstuffed pillows. The walls were painted black. In the middle of the room, just like in The Music Room, was a small table with a little box that had buttons on it. Simon stepped toward it.

“Careful with that,” she said. “Make sure you read the manual.”

Simon smiled. “Let me guess, you’ve already been to The Music Room. Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”

“What is it?” Jill asked.

“It’s like a Make Your Own Movie projector. It’s kind of like in The Music Room only, the things you imagine here somehow get projected onto the walls, so you get to watch the adventures you make in your head on the walls all around you.”

“What sort of things do you imagine?”

“Well, the day you came knocking, you interrupted an amazing car chase. A man wearing a face mask had just robbed a bank, and he was being chased by the police in rush hour traffic in the downtown of a very large city.”

“So you just watch the movie, you don’t actually act in it?”

“Of course not, how would I act in it? It’s just images on a screen, but it’s way better than TV, because you can make it do whatever you want. It’s just like The Music Room.”

“But, when I was in the Music Room – ” 

“– here, let me show you,” Simon interrupted.

Simon leaned over the machine and pressed a button. Jill noticed that, like in The Music Room, there were no cords attached to the machine. It sat in the middle of the room, free from any electrical outlet. When Simon touched the button the machine glowed with soft yellow light. Jill realized she had mistaken the light from the machine for candles when she peered through the eyehole in the door. The walls suddenly lit up with blue light. The room had an eerie underwater feel to it. 

“After you turn on the machine,” Simon explained, “the rest is voice activated, you pretty much just tell the thing what you want to do. Something like this must be expensive. Probably a coupla million of dollars at least.”

“Simon, are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“Trust me, okay? So Jill, what do you want to see?”

“Umm, I don’t know?” 

“C’mon. It’s not hard. What’s something you’ve always wanted to do? You were just going on about using your imagination outside in the hallway. Now you have a chance.” 

“I really don’t know,” Jill said.

“Well, what’s something you’ve always wanted to see? Ever want to know what the beginning of a rainbow looks like, or see a cheetah chase after some prey? How about climb Mt. Everest?”

“Well, I guess I’ve always wanted to see animals in Africa.”

“That’s a good start.” 

Simon leaned over the machine and said: “African safari.” The walls turned a darker blue then faded into black. The room was completely dark. Jill couldn’t tell if her eyes were open or not. “Simon?” Jill said out loud.

“Just wait, it only takes a second.”

A small white dot flashed a few times in the middle of Jill’s vision. Then, all of a sudden, Jill was staring straight ahead at a huge rhinoceros. The rhino nodded its head and stomped its front right foot against the ground. Then, it let out a loud grunt and started running toward Jill. It came closer and closer toward the screen. 

“Simon,” Jill said nervously, “it’s running toward us.”

“I see that.” 

“Make it stop!”

“I’m not the one imagining it,” Simon said, “you are.”

“I am? No I’m not!”

“Yes you are.”

The rhino was getting closer and closer, until finally it’s face filled the entire wall. Jill closed her eyes and let out a scream. 

“Jill, open your eyes and turn around. Look!” Simon said excitedly. Jill did, and when she turned she saw the back of the rhino on the opposite wall, running away from them. 

“It ran right through us,” Jill said in a voice that Simon could hardly hear.

“No it didn’t. The rhino was on the screen the whole time. He jumped from wall to wall, or TV screen to TV screen. In your imagination he ran right through us. Remember, Jill, you make it up in your mind. It’s not real, you can’t get hurt.” 

“Easy for you to say. I thought I was a goner.” 

Jill took a deep breath and looked at what she saw on the wall in front of her: a large plain, filled with long grass. In the distance she could make out the shape of two giraffes, slowly walking toward a watering hole where hundreds of flamingos stood, knee deep in water. Between her and the giraffes was a herd of wildebeests. Jill felt like she was standing right in the middle of a beautiful savannah. 

“You’re right, Simon, this is pretty amazing! I’m imagining this?”

“Yep.”

“But, I’m not trying to. It’s just there, like I’m just watching it.”

“That’s how it starts,” Simon said. “It took me awhile to be able to actually notice I was the one putting those images up on the screen, but you’ll get used to it.”

“I don’t know.”

“Trust me. After awhile, it almost gets, I dunno, boring. It’s almost anticlimactic to just watch it. I’m almost jealous of you. It’s a challenge to imagine something totally new, to get that feeling of amazement you have right now. I’ve already imagined a safari before. Let’s try something different.” 

“Okay. How about a coral reef.”

“That sounds pretty cool.”

Simon bent over and said Coral Reef into the machine. The room went instantly black, and in a matter of seconds, the white dot flashed, again, three times. Then, suddenly Simon and Jill were transported to a beautiful underwater world. Huge coral burst from the ocean floor like large plants reaching toward the surface of the water for air and light. Fish of every colour darted in and out of the coral. Clown fish, orange and white, appeared momentarily from the purple and white anemones they hid inside, then the fish slipped once again into the anemones’ moving tentacles. Fish coloured blue, yellow and purple like parrots, with mouths that pointed out like sharp beaks, crunched on coral. Starfish sprawled about in the sand. 

“Whoa! Look at that!”

Jill spun and looked where Simon was pointing. A huge hammerhead shark, moving its tail from side to side, carved a path in and out of sight between mounds of coral. Jill felt a sharp pain in her chest. Simon looked at her and said, “Breathe Jill.” Jill exhaled loudly and realized she had been holding her breath. Simon chuckled. “I know, it’s hard at first. It feels so real, but you’re not really in water, you’re not really wet.”

“It’s beautiful,” she exclaimed, “just like I imagined. Oh look, dolphins!” The two turned and watched the dolphins appear like apparitions from the dark blue of the ocean deep, with fixed grins they jetted through the reef bobbing their heads.

“I’ve gotta say, Jill, you have a vivid imagination. I don’t think I could imagine some of these colours if I tried. How are you doing it?” 

Jill could only shrug her shoulders. The two enjoyed the underwater world, and after that, Jill imagined more. The moon and planets, Saturn, Venus, the beginning of a rainbow and the Himalayas. Jill asked Simon to say “endoplasmic reticulum” into the machine just to see if he could say it. But, she was also curious to see if the science books were true and how good her imagination worked with the machine, just how strong the magic was. Jill let out a gasp, amazed at what she saw. All of a sudden she stood with Simon in the middle of a microscopic world. Proteins and other substances she could not identify were the size of cars. What she guessed was the cell’s nucleus was as big as an office building. The other cell-parts, molecules and enzymes, parked in front of and interacted with it. 

“The schools in Vendor could use something like this,” Jill said.

“It would definitely make Science class a lot more interesting,” Simon agreed.

Jill and Simon travelled across galaxies and between valence layers of the smallest atoms, watching everything with a look of wonder, until Jill yawned. “Simon. What time is it?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Why?”

“I’m exhausted. I think we’ve been at this for hours. I guess all this imagination has taken its toll on me. I need to sleep.”

“Why don’t you lie down on one of the couches over there against the wall. I moved them in here for that very reason.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to stay here a little longer. I’m not tired. You’ve been the one imagining. End program.” The red, fleshy chamber of the human heart Jill and Simon had been examining disappeared from the walls, and was replaced by the strange blue glow. 

“I see why you like this room so much, Simon,” Jill said. “The only thing that would make the room better would be if you could enter the world you imagine in your head. Now that would be unbelievable.”

“That would be amazing. But it’s also impossible.”

“Oh well,” Jill yawned. “Good night, Simon. Happy imagining.” With that, Jill went to the couch, curled her knees up into her chest and fell fast asleep. 

© 2024 Andrew Kooman. All rights reserved.

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About Andrew Kooman

Andrew Kooman is a Canadian writer of fiction, poetry, plays, and films. His work has been enjoyed by audiences around the world and translated into lots of different languages. 

He’s the author of the children’s books Popcorn Helmet and Simple Christmas Spectacular, the first two books in the Ramsey P. Heaton, Future Billionaire series. Andrew likes to make people laugh in church. His popular plays and skits are performed across North America and can be purchased at SkitGuys.com.

Andrew founded UnveilTV with his brothers Matthew and Daniel, where you can watch content that inspires you. You can follow all of Andrew’s latest work on his weekly newsletter Things I Wrote Down and find him on X and Instagram.