We Climb in Bed
There is a cold room in this two
story house─bottom floor, northeast corner. It is pink with painted green concrete.
The wall without a door grips the exterior house with a single bolt. The wall
sways when the wind blows. It is too cold to go outside.
Inside the room is a radiator heater. It is
the only small source of heat this early in the morning. I sit beside it in
front of my computer. The baby monitor flashes red. My daughter is awake
upstairs and laughing. It’s warm up there in her room─top floor, southwest
corner. I wear sweat pants, long socks, an oversized hoodie, a beanie and
gloves. I bring her downstairs along with the heater from her room. The TV is
turned on and she is placed on the sofa wrapped in a large blanket. The room
isn’t warm yet, but there are now two heaters in here. The Netflix home screen
waits for a selection and she wants Blue’s Clues.
I move the smaller heater behind
the radiator and turn up the fan. It will warm up now. The rest of the house is
cold. Upstairs, I make breakfast with gloves on. Cracking eggs is difficult. I
am downstairs now, letting her eat on the coffee table. The blanket is off and
back on the couch. The room is warming up. I remove my gloves.
“Can I have a drink?” My daughter
asks.
“Okay. Just a second.” I answer. I
put my internet messaging on hold. With my gloves back on, I go back to the
cold kitchen and make strawberry milk in her red cup. I see my breath as I stir
the powder in. The sun is shining through the blinds and it is still cold.
A door separates the green room
from the house. I open it fast. I take off my beanie, gloves and hoodie. It’s
warmer now. This house has central heating ducts in every room and two heating
units on the roof. They don’t work.
“Here.” I give her the drink.
“Thanks, mom.” She turns back to
Blue’s Clues.
It’s warm in the room when my
husband gets home. He’s wearing a large snow coat with the initials T.S.A
embroidered on the back. He is given a uniform allotment every year. Last
year’s share was spent on his coat. It is for inside the house and outside.
“Can you bring down some food after
you change?” I ask. It is mid-afternoon and I haven’t eaten. It is too cold to
go upstairs again.
“I’m cold. I’ll bring down some
chips and the apples.” He says.
This room is warm. We eat and watch
TV. I take a heater back upstairs to warm up my daughter’s room before bed. It
will take an hour. Her room gets the winter sun in the afternoons. It doesn’t
warm it up.
It is only January. Winter lasts
for three months here. There is one more month of moving the heaters when we
move.
I turn off the TV and push the
radiator into my room. It is cold enough to see frost on the windows. We climb
in bed with our winter clothes on. It’s warming up in here.
