The Silver Room

You enter a small silver room, filled with clutter. It smells of burnt coffee and a strange odor you can’t quite put your finger on. A man sits hunched over a desk, mumbling to himself about his back.

You lean over the man’s shoulder and identify the odor. It is the gelatinous stink of wet watercolor paper. The man is working on some sort of painting.

You consider asking the man a question, but you sense he’s not in a talking mood, what with all the mumbling. You decide to entertain yourself. Glancing at an easel, you see a sketchbook, bound in blue cloth. You open it. It says “47” on the first page. There is a little note at the bottom, with a phone number attached, “Please return if found, for big $$$ reward!”

You begin paging through the sketchbook…

You look up from your browsing, filled with even more questions. But you realize he’s no longer at the desk, having pushed all the clutter off the small daybed and passed out facedown. You decide to let him sleep in peace. Tucking the sketchbook under your arm, you leave the room. In a few days, once he’s rested, you’ll reach out with your questions. And to claim that big $$$ reward!