The staircase with eight steps led to a room.
At least, Mara thought it was a room.
It had four walls, a ceiling, a floor, a window and a door.
Those were usually reliable signs.
Pip walked in first.
“It's empty.”
“It isn't.”
“There isn't anything here.”
“There is a chair.”
Pip looked behind him.
There was no chair.
Mara pointed.
“There.”
Now there was a chair.
It was a small wooden chair with a red cushion.
Pip walked over and touched it.
“Definitely a chair.”
Mara smiled.
“Good.”
Pip looked at her suspiciously.
“Why?”
“Because it wasn't there when you came in.”
Pip thought about this.
“I see.”
He walked back towards the door.
“Don't move.”
“I wasn't moving.”
“You were.”
“I was walking.”
“That's moving.”
Pip stopped.
Mara looked at the chair.
It had changed.
It was now a table.
Pip looked too.
“That was a chair.”
“Yes.”
“Now it's a table.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
Pip walked around it.
“Perhaps it's both.”
Mara touched the tabletop.
It was definitely a table.
She pulled out the drawer.
Inside was a small wooden chair.
Pip stared.
Mara stared.
The chair inside the table was exactly like the chair that had been there before.
Pip opened the chair.
Inside was a tiny table.
He closed it quickly.
“No.”
“What?”
“I think we're better off not opening things.”
Mara agreed.
They stood quietly for a moment.
Then the room changed.
Not dramatically.
There was no flash of light.
No thunder.
Nothing exploded.
The walls simply became different.
The window moved to the opposite wall.
The door moved beside it.
The table became a chair.
The floor became blue.
The ceiling became the floor.
Pip sat down.
Unfortunately, he sat on the ceiling.
Mara looked up at him.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“Could you come up here?”
“I think I'm on the floor.”
“I'm on the floor too.”
They both looked around.
Mara suddenly wasn't sure which way was up.
She took one careful step.
The room turned.
Not physically.
It simply became a different arrangement.
Now the door was behind them.
The window was above them.
The chair was on the wall.
And Pip was standing normally.
“I preferred the other one,” he said.
“Which other one?”
“The one we were just in.”
“But this is the same room.”
“No, it isn't.”
“It is.”
Pip shook his head.
“It has the same things.”
Mara looked around.
He was right.
The chair was there.
The table was there.
The window was there.
The door was there.
Even the little crack in the floor was there.
But they were in different places.
Mara walked towards the window.
It was now a door.
She opened it.
Behind it was another room.
In the room was another Mara.
She was standing beside another Pip.
They were looking at another window.
Mara shut the door.
Pip was quiet.
“Was that us?”
“I don't know.”
“Were they looking at us?”
“I think so.”
“Then perhaps we're looking at them.”
Mara opened the door again.
The room was empty.
No Mara.
No Pip.
Just the chair.
Except now it was a table.
Pip sighed.
“I think the room is changing its mind.”
Mara considered this.
“Perhaps it isn't changing its mind.”
“What is it doing?”
“Changing its arrangement.”
Pip looked at the furniture.
“But why?”
“Maybe it doesn't like having only one arrangement.”
Pip frowned.
“Do rooms have opinions?”
“I don't know.”
“Then how do you know it doesn't like it?”
“I don't.”
They walked further into the room.
Every few steps, something changed.
The chair became a table.
The table became a door.
The door became a window.
The window became a mirror.
The mirror became a wall.
The wall became a door.
Nothing disappeared.
Everything was still there.
It was simply somewhere else.
Mara began to notice something.
“Pip.”
“Yes?”
“Look.”
She pointed to the corners.
The room had four corners.
Then five.
Then four again.
Then six.
Then three.
But somehow, each time, the room still looked perfectly ordinary.
Pip counted carefully.
“Four.”
“Now?”
“Five.”
“Now?”
“Four.”
Mara laughed.
Pip didn't.
“This is serious.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you laughing?”
“Because I don't think the room knows how many corners it has.”
Pip considered this.
“Perhaps we should tell it.”
“How?”
“Four.”
The room changed.
“Four.”
Nothing happened.
“Four!”
The walls shifted.
The window moved.
The table became a chair.
Pip grinned.
“It listened.”
Mara shook her head.
“Try something else.”
Pip thought.
“Five.”
The room changed again.
“Three.”
Again.
“Six.”
Again.
Mara laughed.
“You're making it worse.”
“I'm experimenting.”
“You're arguing with a room.”
“It's answering.”
Mara looked around.
He was right.
The room was responding.
Not with words.
With arrangements.
They tried numbers.
They tried shapes.
They tried colours.
They tried names.
Whenever they said something, the room rearranged itself.
Finally Mara said:
“Pip.”
The room stopped.
Pip looked at her.
“What?”
She pointed.
Everything had become symmetrical.
The chair stood opposite the table.
The window opposite the door.
The four walls were identical.
Even the crack in the floor had become four cracks, one in each corner.
“It copied itself,” said Pip.
Mara walked to the middle of the room.
There was a small glass object on the floor.
She picked it up.
It was a tube.
Inside were tiny pieces of coloured glass.
She held it to her eye.
The room changed.
Not the real room.
The room inside the glass.
The chair became three chairs.
The table became six tables.
The window became twelve windows.
Every movement produced another arrangement.
Mara turned the tube.
The whole world changed.
She turned it again.
Another world.
Pip looked through the other end.
“What is it?”
“I don't know.”
“Can I have a turn?”
She handed it to him.
Pip looked.
He turned the tube once.
Then twice.
Then stopped.
“What?”
Mara asked.
Pip handed it back.
“There are two of you.”
Mara looked through.
There were.
Two Maras stood in the room.
One was holding the glass tube.
The other was standing beside the door.
Mara turned around.
There was no one there.
She looked through the tube again.
The second Mara was still there.
And now the second Mara was looking directly at her.
She raised one hand.
Mara raised hers.
The other Mara smiled.
Then she pointed behind Mara.
Mara turned.
There was a door.
It had not been there before.
Above it was a small brass sign.
Mara walked closer.
The sign said:
THE ROOM BEYOND THIS DOOR IS THE ROOM YOU ARE IN.
Pip read it.
“Oh.”
“What?”
“I think we've found the way out.”
Mara looked at the door.
“How?”
Pip opened it.
Behind it was the room they were standing in.
The same chair.
The same table.
The same window.
The same Pip.
The same Mara.
Except the other Mara was holding the glass tube.
Mara looked at her.
The other Mara looked at Mara.
Neither moved.
Then, very slowly, the other Mara lifted the tube.
She turned it once.
The room changed.
Mara blinked.
The door was gone.
The table was gone.
The chair was gone.
Pip was gone.
She was standing alone in a long corridor.
At the far end was a mirror.
Mara walked towards it.
In the mirror, she could see Pip.
He was standing in a room.
He was holding the glass tube.
And beside him was a girl who looked exactly like Mara.
Pip saw her.
He smiled.
Then he said something.
Mara couldn't hear him.
She stepped closer to the mirror.
Pip raised his hand.
He knocked.
Three times.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Mara raised her own hand.
And before she could knock back, the mirror became a door.