The Blue Room

It was late in the afternoon when Robbie Elmshaw came home from work. He was in a hurry because, even though he was able to get out of work early, he really wanted to have a beer before Anne, his wife, got home from picking up his son Luke from school. He was on his way to the kitchen -without even taking his dirty jacket off, Anne would point out - when he noticed the TV was on.

“Darn it, they forgot to turn it off” Robbie said to himself, with the anger fathers feel towards such things.

The TV displayed a tall, rather languid looking man standing in a windowless room that was painted blue. The strange fellow was wearing a blue suit with a blue top hat, and was silently staring at the camera in a way that looked like his eyes followed you across the room.

“Must’ve been watching some European art show or something”

Without wasting another thought, Robbie continued to the kitchen and opened his beer. Almost immediately he heard the front door, Luke crying about some lost toy, and his wife muttering something about how teachers don’t pay any attention to the kids during recess and now she will have to complain tomorrow about the missing Fidget Spinner.

“Hey, guys! How was your day?” Robert said pretending really hard he was very happy to see them.

“How do you think?” Anne grumbled.

Robbie tried to give her a kiss which she dodged with the same demeanor a Boxer shows when moving away from an incoming fist.

“No, your beard’s too pointy. Shave first”

Some days, when he was feeling romantic, he would chase Anne playfully to try to rub his beard on her face. That day was not one of those days. Without saying another word, she went to the bathroom to take a shower.

“Where is Luke?” thought the attentive father after taking a few sips of his beer.

His son was, unsurprisingly, watching TV. Well, less watching and more listening. The kid had his ear against the speaker and the blue guy was leaning in towards the camera and whispering. Robbie didn’t know what kind of show that was, but he found the whole thing to be a little disturbing and so he took the remote from the coffee table and changed channels until he saw a sport he recognized. Luke glared at his father, reached to the iPad on the coffee table and ran upstairs to his room. Robbie was left alone with his Lager and the Fox Sports commentators. He sat down, watched a game and forgot all about that afternoon.

It was the middle of the night when a noise woke Robbie up. He opened his eyes to the darkness and sat on the bed, blinking and squinting in an effort to get his eyes used to the dark. He would’ve reached for the lamp but his wife had had a migraine last night which caused her to fall asleep later than usual, so it probably wouldn’t be too kind to wake her up right now. After a few seconds went by, he heard the faint breathing of Luke coming from the foot of the bed. It’s perfectly normal for little kids to have nightmares from time to time, so Robbie got himself out of bed as silently as he could and whispered:

“Let’s go to your room, pal”

Once on the kid’s room, Robbie noticed the IPad laying on the side of the bed.

“Did you stay up late watching videos again? Come on, bud.”

“Are you a good man, dad?”

Robbie did not ever expect to have to answer such a question past midnight. Specially to a ten year old.

“I am a great man, but I an even greater man when it’s not 3 in the morning”.

The kid seemed satisfied with that answer - or, at least, he didn’t ask any follow up questions - and went to bed. Robbie asked him if he wanted the light on, to what the child responded:

“No, thanks, dad”.

Robbie felt a bit alarmed by this reply. When your preadolescent son thanks you about anything without you prompting him to do so, you know something’s up. Robbie took the iPad away just in case, walked back to his room, stealthily slid back in bed, and forgot all about that night.

The next day went by without a hitch, or, at least, all the hitches were work related, which is how Robbie likes his days to go, generally speaking. He recently had a promotion and was having problems showing he deserved it. Luckily, he makes a living, and gets to have dinner with his family, which is way more than a lot of people get, right? Regrettably, today he got home a little bit later than usual, barely in time to cook dinner (He does Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, Anne does the rest). He prepared his world famous pizza with a delicious side of broccoli, both plates courtesy of Trader Joe’s frozen section. After finishing dinner, and sending Luke to bed, his wife told him she had to show him something in a tone of voice that took all the excitement away from the phrase “I have to show you something”. She took Luke’s school bag and showed him the drawings he had done. They were quite unusual. Most of them where just one crayon color all over the page with a funny little guy. Monochromes, seemed to be the theme, and the color chosen for everything in the drawing was blue.

“What do you think this means? Isn’t it weird?” Anne whispered to her husband.

“Oh it’s some kids’ stuff he watched the other day on TV. He is probably watching the same thing on the iPad too” He said, in a rather pitiful attempt to set her heart at ease so he could go to the kitchen for a beer.

“What kind of show? It’s creepy.”

“Every kid show is creepy. Remember 90’s cartoons? This is nothing.”

” I guess you have a point… Should we ask him about it?”

“Sure”.

They walked to his room and saw a blue light coming from under the door. When they opened it, Luke quickly turned the iPad’s screen off. Robbie and his wife looked at each other, expressing the same thought.

“We were right. It’s some kind of show.”

Robbie sat down on Luke’s bed after a very not-so-gentle nudge from his wife.

“Hey, what were you watching there?”

“Nothing” Luke lied.

“Come on, you can share it with us! Was it the show of the blue man in the blue room?” He said, playing with his hair thinking he was great with kids.

“No, I was watching Derl43.”

His father stared at his son as blankly as it was possible for a healthy human being.

“He plays video games on Youtube.”

“Why would you watch someone playing video games? How can you enjoy that? I don’t get it”

“Why do you watch Baseball?”

“Ok, go to bed. And no more IPad.” Robbie commanded over his wife’s stifled laugh, asserting his authority as a parent.

The couple went to bed, and Robbie fell asleep thinking he handled everything pretty well, and forgot all about that night.

The next day was a Saturday and Robbie and his wife wanted to go to Helridge National Park for a picnic. It’s a 3-hour drive from their house, so they had to wake up early to get ready. Mister Youtube Gamer wasn’t feeling great though and was making a scene about not going, crying and everything. This struck Robbie as rather odd since the boy was never one for tantrums. Against every bit of good judgment Robbie so kindly offered, Anne decided to stay home with the kid. Robbie was kind of angry at her decision so he contacted a few buddies of his and still went to HNP but to fish instead of to picnic. Picnic is more of his wife’s thing. After a day of infructuous fishing, but very fruitful lager drinking with his buddies, Robbie returned home. As soon as he turned to his street, he noticed the blinds were closed and a very strange blue hue was coming out from behind them. When he went inside, he noticed all the lights were off, except for the TV. The only thing is the screen was an empty blue room. Robbie tried to turn the light on, but the switch didn’t work. He began nervously calling his wife while looking for the remote when he suddenly felt a sharp pain on the back of his head. Lying on the white carpet - now blue thanks to the TV’s cold radiance-, he saw Luke holding the blue hand of the blue languid faced man with the blue top hat, leaving through the blue front door.