family and friends would sleep, we realized that we must have missed an entire room, because we were one bed short. and indeed there it was, at the top of the tiny narrow staircase to the attic-like third floor, behind a mirror that looked like a wall but was actually a door. beyond that door was a small double bed facing another mirror, fronted by a lamp fashioned from a wooden doll. when you turned her on, she seemed to be in flames. during the month we stayed there, no one ever felt like sleeping in that room.
at night i wandered through the house, stopping at each doll, each porcelain 