Fade to Black by Adrienne Kress

Author:Adrienne Kress [Kress, Adrienne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2023-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

I retraced my steps through the giant room. No one seemed the least bit interested in chatting with me and Joey was nowhere to be found. Once more I glanced around for Evan, but of course nothing. I felt a combination of anxiety and boredom. So I wandered back into the extravagant entranceway and climbed the massive stairs. I gazed at the huge painting once I reached the top. It was extravagant in a way that made me wonder how much money it had cost and wonder if potentially it could have been put to some good use elsewhere. But the painting did look old, and maybe the purchase of it was a preservation in its own right. Not every museum could afford great works of art. As I stepped closer, I could see the energy behind the artist’s brush, the wild strokes and a thick application of paint. There was a passion there, and even if the painting didn’t entirely please me to look at, I appreciated that.

There was a peel of laughter from downstairs in the drawing room and I remembered why I was here in the first place. I turned left and walked down the wide hall with vaulted wooden ceilings. There were many doors but I was supposed to look for the open one, which I did and which I found. I peered around the doorway and indeed was met with the sight of a library. A beautifully vast room with floor-to-ceiling shelves all packed full with books. I enjoyed books, though no one would ever call me a great reader, but seeing so many in one place was quite intimidating. How could anyone possibly read this much in one lifetime? What a grand goal.

And how odd, too, to enter a room full of books in search of a television.

It was like walking through a maze as some shelves came right out into the center of the room, creating walls and nooks and crannies. There were a pair of leather chairs when I turned one corner, with a large globe on huge brass casters standing between them. And around another I found a chess board on a table with two wooden chairs on either side, paused mid-game. One of the chairs was pushed back away from the table as if someone had left in a rush. Or perhaps a huff. Like Ollie would when he was losing at Chutes and Ladders.

I saw a flickering blue light on the wall around the next corner and felt satisfied I’d finally found the television. I quickly made my way around the next bend and, sure enough, there it was. Quite small, smaller than the one Joey had given my family, sitting on an elegant table. On the screen was that quiz show, the one that aired just before The Joey Drew Show, but the volume was turned all the way down. There were about six chairs around the table, and I drew back the one nearest me and sat so that I was at the head and the TV was the foot.

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