text: [Themes: Comedy, Lovecraft]
  
  > look around
  Carol's Room (Ben Collins-Sussman)
  The room has changed since you last saw it: there are fewer toys and it is less cluttered; in a word, more mature.
  
  The bed now sports a light blanket, pastel blue in color, pulled taut over the twin mattress, with two pillows stacked at the head of the bed. To one side of the window stands a small table with a number of items on it, including a small mirror and some makeup. The large bay window looks out on the same scene as before, but leaves on the trees far below are just now beginning to sport autumn colors. To its side, the small writing desk has been replaced with a larger one and some books are stacked beside the same desk lamp you saw last time. A few pieces of artwork are stuck to the wall next to the desk. Nearer to the entrance, an old-fashioned turntable rests on a wooden stand.
  
  Notably missing is the large framed portrait of President Eisenhower and its weighty golden frame. A single bent nail remains in the wall surrounded by a slightly discolored patch of wall where the picture once hung.
  
  Below that space, three stuffed toys sit in a tight circle on the same tiny chairs that you saw last time. The exit is to the south.
  
  You can see Carol and a window (closed) here.
  
  Carol carefully applies some makeup.
  
  > examine the desk
  A large dark wood desk and matching chair, very grown-up in appearance. Several books are stacked on the desk, along with a piece of newsprint and a desk lamp. A few drawers run down the side of the desk. Above the desk some drawings have been Scotch-taped to the wall.
  
  > Examine book
  (the old paperback book (smelling faintly of mildew))
  The old paperback book is pretty thick, and the pages are yellowed and lacerated here and there. You're not a bookworm, but the condition of the book and the outdated font and style of drawing on the cover tell you it was printed decades ago, maybe at the beginning of the century.
  
  Judging by the cover the book seems to be a bit pulpy. It shows a large, old and eerie house on a clearing in the woods. The title is "ANCHORHEAD. A What-do-I-do-now Book Based on the Works of MICHAEL GENTRY." A scraggy sticker with the insignia of the Backwater Public Library, on it indicates that by no means you want to pay the fine for exceeding the return deadline.
  
  Frost lines the edges of the library insignia.
  
  > Examine stacked
  Several hardcover books are stacked on one side of the desk and topped by a stapled bit of looseleaf paper. Reading along the spines from top to bottom, the books are: "Our Colonial Heritage",
  "Fundamentals of Algebra", and "Modern Etiquette: A
  Primer".
  
  Carol mutters to herself in some forgotten language.
  
  > open the drawer
  You snatch at it several times, until your brain registers that it is not there. Alarmingly, when your fingers touch the drawers they penetrate the surface. You know it is not the case, but visually, it appears that your has been severed neatly at the surface, the fingers lost somewhere in the interior. Reflexively, you whip your hand back.
  
  Carol holds her hands to her face and giggles. "Silly Naomi! You should see the look on your face!"
  
  "That's not something you can play with," instructs Carol. "Not worth the trouble."
  
  > Examine newsprint
  Your eye is first drawn to the date, November 22, 1963, and the curious fact that the paper is not yellowed at all. Below the newspaper masthead is a black and white photograph, stippled with tiny dots as they were in those days, of a number of people crowded around a convertible. Below that, a title, "Tragedy in Dallas".
  
  You don't have to read further. You know what this is.
  
  > talk to Carol
  You say hello to Carol.
  
  Carol appears oblivious to your prescence.
  
  > examine the desk
  A large dark wood desk and matching chair, very grown-up in appearance. Several books are stacked on the desk, along with a piece of newsprint and a desk lamp. A few drawers run down the side of the desk. Above the desk some drawings have been Scotch-taped to the wall.
  
  > examine the lamp
  (the waterproof flashlight (smelling faintly of mildew))
  A small flashlight, with a rubber ring where it screws together to keep the water out-though some oily substance coats the inside.
  
  Inside the flashlight is a clump of glowing vegetation.
  
  > examine the drawings
  Three drawings are taped to the wall above Carol's desk, the top one in crayon, the middle in ink, and the bottom one painted with watercolors.
  
  > examine crayon drawing
  Primitive technique, limited palette, crayon on manila paper.
  
  There are three stick figures on the left, generously, as man, woman, and child. The man drawn mostly in gray, the woman wearing a red dress with large skirt, and the child wearing a blue dress of the same style, her blonde hair done up in braids. The figure in the middle is more of a jumble: recognizably human with a hat and beard, stooped over with a cane. On the right, are a bunch of brown lines, behind them great masses colored in black vertical lines, and in from of all that the outline of a woman, not a stick figure, but just back and forth strokes of yellow crayon.
  
  In the corner, it is labelled "Carol, Age 5."
  
  > examine the ink drawing
  India ink on hot press bristol board.
  
  It has the quality of being drawn hastily to capture the event. In places, the ink is smeared suggesting that the artist lacked practice with fountain pens. The drawing does not have much in terms of perspective, but some cross-hatched shading does give it depth.
  
  Three creatures are outlined, their backs towards the viewer, each leaning towards the center of the drawing where another creature lays on the ground surrounded by a dark pool, suggestive of blood. The three creatures appear to be dismembering the poor creature on the ground, some sort of animal, which struggles desperately, flailing at them with its three remaining limbs. Its fourth has already been wrenched away by one of the attackers, who chomps into it with sharp simian teeth.
  
  In the corner, it is labelled "Carol, Age 10."
  
  > examine the watercolor
  Windsor & Newton series 1 watercolors on 140# cold press Arches paper using wet-on-wet technique. Limited palette: ultramarine blue deep, burnt umber, burnt sienna, mars black with touches of alizarin crimson.
  
  At first, the paint-saturated paper looks like nothing more than muddy splotches, but as you stare at it, forms begin to emerge. There is something in the lower right hand corner that you can't quite bring yourself to look at, but in the center, a long, black tubular thing fights a losing battle to escape, its back cracked and red-tinged bubbles escaping.
  
  > look at the drawer
  You can no more yank open these ephemeral drawers than touch any other ghostly item in this room. They are closed, and absent some divine intervention, they will stay closed.