The Room Where the Light Sleeps

Arman liked it when the light was on all over the flat. It felt so much more cheerful! The lamp was on in the hall, the ceiling light was on in the kitchen, the little bulb glowed above the bathroom mirror, and even in the empty room where nobody was, the floor lamp was shining.

But one day he went with Dad to pay the electricity bill. Dad showed him the paper, and Arman saw how long the bill was. There were so many numbers that he couldn't even read them all at once.

"Wow," said Arman. "Did we use up all that light?"

"We did," Dad nodded. "The lights, the TV, the kettle, the chargers. They all run on electricity. And electricity is made at big power stations, often by burning coal. The smoke from that makes the air dirtier."

Arman remembered how in winter a grey haze sometimes hung over the city, so thick you could hardly see the mountains behind it. He felt a little sad.

"How can we make them burn less coal?" he asked.

"Use less," said Dad. "Not sit in the dark, just switch the lights off where nobody needs them."

At home they invented a game. Rule one: the last person to leave a room turns off its light. Rule two: you unplug the phone charger once the phone is full. Rule three: in the daytime you open the curtains and let the sun do the work. The sun shines for free and never makes smoke. And in the evening, one cosy lamp can do the job of five.

"And who's going to keep an eye on all this?" asked Mum.

"Me!" said Arman. "I'll be the Keeper of the Light."

Mum cut him a badge shaped like a light bulb out of yellow card, and Arman pinned it to his pyjamas straight away.

From that day, Arman did a round of the flat every evening. He peeked into the empty bathroom and clicked off the switch. He spotted a forgotten lamp in the hall and turned it off. He found a charger sticking out of a socket for no reason and carefully unplugged it. And once he even caught Dad leaving the kitchen with the light still on.

"Dad! The light wants to sleep!" Arman laughed.

"Sorry, Keeper," Dad smiled, and went back to switch it off.

Arman liked to think that the light in an empty room got tired too. It had nothing to do there, and nobody to shine for. So it might as well sleep until morning, like everyone else. And that is how their home got its first room where the light sleeps. Then a second one, and a third.

A month later Dad brought home a new bill. It was noticeably smaller. Dad showed it to Arman, and they gave each other a high five. But the best part wasn't even the bill. The habit stayed. Now Arman turned off the light behind him without thinking, as easily as he closed a door behind him.

That evening, when it was time for bed, Arman switched off the lamp by his bed himself and dived under the blanket. The room went dark and cosy. Only the moon peeked in at the window and drew a little silver square on the floor. Outside, the city lights twinkled, but in their flat every lamp was already asleep. The light in the lamp fell asleep, and Arman fell asleep with it.

Goodnight.