Q | The window in the wall between your beds is cool. How do you use it?
EMILY, 12 | My brother tries to crawl through it, but I don't, since it messes up my bedding. When we're scared, we hold hands through it.
CHRISTOPHER, 8 | We use it for talking and tossing toys. One time, my sister got mad and threw my Game Boy through it, and the game almost broke.
Q | Does the window close?
E | It has a sliding glass panel, which is cool when I want privacy. Sometimes my friends and I do things that are inside jokes but must seem weird to someone else—like perhaps a brother.
C | It's good that the window closes, so when we're mad at each other, there's no room to throw a Game Boy.
Q | What's the biggest mess you've made in your room?
E | I like to write with my quill and ink. I got the pen from Colonial Williamsburg and the ink bottle from a former Quaker village, and one time I spilled the ink.
C | In my sleep, I used to kick over the water glass sitting on the windowsill between our two rooms. Emily would wake up all wet!
Q | Who cleaned it up?
C | Emily.
Q | Do you like having a built-in desk?
E | No. I can't move it and change the room.
C | Yes, because when you are writing on it, it can't possibly slide. And just in case our house cracks in half—say, during an earthquake—the desk won't move. It doesn't go bump in the night.
Q | What sorts of things do you do at your desk?
C | I do homework, drawing, arts and crafts—everything in the world!
E | I like to make art in my room, but when I make presents, I make them up in the loft so no one sees. There's more room up there, and I have space to spread out my supplies.
Q | Describe the shared loft over your beds.
C | I used to have all sorts of junk there, like in a pigsty. But now it's a place where I put soft things that I don't know where else to put.
E | It was a huge project to clean it up, and until then, it was not a place you wanted to go. Now there are stuffed animals up there, and a library, which I love, and a really awesome chair that's my favorite one in the house.
Q | How do you get up to the loft?
C | The ladder is the only real way up, but there are other worse, not-safe ways, like climbing from the bed or climbing the pegs on the wall. I've never done either, but Emily has.
E | I used to imagine that if we had a rope ladder, and if bad guys came up the real ladder, we could escape from the rope one. I also once thought I would make a parachute and jump, but when I got up there, I redecided.
Q | Do you ever sleep up there?
C | I did once when my dad was away. I had watched a scary movie and I felt safer in there.
Q | What is your bed like?
C | I sleep with two pillows and one or two stuffed animals.
E | I have four pillows, and in winter I have 5 to 10 blankets. When I go to a sleepover, I take them all with me in a big roll. A lot of jokes are made about it, but you know, it's important.
Next Page: Who sleeps where during sleepovers?
