Goodnight Room

[yomikoma]

Goodnight Room (2825 words) by skogkatt

Every year there is a end-of-year fanfic exchange called Yuletide, where people request underserved fandoms and other people anonymously write fic for them. Often these are fandoms that are very small or barely exist at all. I don't participate directly but I enjoy seeing the clever things other people do.

I've only begun to see recommendations for this year's Yuletide but one story knocked my socks off - Goodnight Room, by Skogkatt for Kass. As the title implies, it is based on the classic picture-book Goodnight Moon, but I don't think there's much overlap in actual audience since the original isn't a beautiful, creepy, hopeful science fiction story. I'm not sure how to recommend it without spoiling it, so here's a small excerpt:

When it is time to sleep, the bunny tells all the things in the room goodnight. All except the telephone. The telephone must stay awake in case anyone wants to make contact. The telephone used to ring. It was alive; it was connected to the rest of the universe. It brought news of the parents and the siblings, of the farmer and his rake, of the primroses. It has been silent a long time now, though the bunny has never told it goodnight. It sleeps just the same, and the bunny knows deep inside that the telephone will never wake, no matter how many times the bunny doesn't say, "Goodnight telephone."

Go read it. But bundle up first.