Cold Pipe

In the tall house Tocko lived Pim — and up Pim got, at the first THUMP over the ceiling.

Then THUMP again, and a long scrape, and nothing at all.

Pim stopped, with the bread at her mouth, and waited.
Up there, somebody had hold of a heavy iron— well.

No one could see it, not me and not Pim.

She put the bread down.
Pim was in the corner, with the cold pipe, before the next THUMP.

The cold pipe stood in Number Three, floor to ceiling.
She put a hand on it, and held on tight.

Pim said, "Listen, you go up, and you go through a floor."

She took out the wooden spoon.
Pim was going to knock, and knock, until the thumping knocked back.

That was the whole plan, and nobody up there knew it.
The pipe was cold all the way up, and it said nothing.

Hall.

So, what does Pim knock with, her hand, or the spoon?

Ah. Her hand, first. One finger of it.

Pim hit the pipe with one finger, hard as she could.

Here it comes.

Pim listened. Tocko said — CLICK. That was the rule.

CLICK is a sound that fell over, right where it began.
It never got up to the ceiling.

She waited, and far down in the Under, the boiler breathed.
Nothing came back.

So Pim used her whole hand, flat and hard.
THUD, and THUD, and THUD.
Not one of them left her hand.

Over the ceiling, the thumping went on, THUMP and scrape and THUMP.
Pim hit it again.
Her hand went hot, and the pipe did not care.

Up on Seven, a kettle began to whistle, and somebody took it off.
That was not it, either.

Pim shook her hand out.
Pim said, "Listen, a finger is soft, and a hand is soft."
She looked at the wooden spoon.

One cold pipe and one wooden spoon.

A spoon is not soft.
Pim hit the cold pipe with the wooden spoon.

Here it comes.

Pim listened. Tocko said — TANG. That was the rule.

TANG went up the pipe, and TANG kept going, and going.
Under Pim's hand the pipe hummed, low and long.

Hollow.
The pipe was hollow, all the way up, hollow past the ceiling.

Pim did not wait.
Pim hit the pipe again, quick, right in the middle of the hum.

Nothing.
The hum took that tap, and kept it.

TANG, and TANG, and TANG, and the hum kept them all.
Over the ceiling, the thumping stopped.

Pim said, "It stopped. Now it will knock back."

Pim held the spoon up. Nothing came down.

Pim, and Hod, and Pim's mum, and Tocko.

Hall. Green door.

One cold pipe and one wooden spoon.

Pim put her ear flat, on the cold pipe.
Pim tapped it once, and listened to the hum go small.

Far down in the Under, the boiler breathed, and the hum was out.
One breath of the boiler. That was how long a hum got.

So, does Pim tap fast, or does she wait?

Ah. She waits. The hum goes out.

So Pim said, "Listen, tap twice, and then wait for it."

Pim tapped twice.

Here it comes.

Pim listened. Tocko said — TANG, and then the hum. That was the rule.

Pim did not move. The boiler breathed. The hum went out.

One cold pipe and one wooden spoon.

Pim tapped twice more, clean, into the quiet, and nothing came back.
A pipe is only a pipe, and a spoon is only a spoon.

Over Pim's ceiling, a bed came away from a wall.
A long, dry scrape.

TOCK.

TOCK.

Two of them, down through Number Five, and into Pim's hand.
A voice came down the pipe, low and slow.

The voice said, "Right, so, was that you down there?"

Pim put her mouth close to the cold pipe.
Pim said, "Yes, that was me. Who is that?"

The voice said, "Hod."
Hod from upstairs said, "I got my bed off the warm place."

Then Pim said, "Hod, do it again, and I will wait."

Hod from upstairs said, "Right, so, I have to wait for the hum."

Pim said, "You do, and then tap twice, and I will hear it."

Pim, and Hod, and Pim's mum, and Tocko.

Hod from upstairs, five and a half, and Pim knew his name.

One hollow pipe and one wooden spoon.

> Cold pipe, cold pipe, hollow all the way.
> Tap twice, and wait, and hear what it can say.

Hall. Green door. Roof.

Now, the other way round.

TOCK, TOCK, twice and a wait, right into Pim's hand.
Hod from upstairs, in Number Five, on the other end.

TANG, and a long hum, and every quick tap gone.
Pim sent them inside the hum, and the hum kept them.

CLICK. One finger, on a cold pipe.
A sound that fell over, and never got to the ceiling.
The kettle on Seven, going off. Not it.

Pim did all of that.
Pim, and a wooden spoon.

Roof, green door, hall — and home.

Pim's mum stood in the door, and had heard all of it.
Through a floor, and through a door, Pim's mum could hear.

No word came from Pim's mum, not one.
Pim's mum put a brass disc in Pim's hand.

Down in the Hall, there was a board, with more hooks than there were games.
Most of them had nothing, nothing at all.

So, what goes on the disc, the pipe, or the spoon?

Ah. The pipe, all the way up.

Pim scraped a picture of the pipe on it, and went down the stairs.

Pim said, "That one is for Hod, and he got his bed off."
And Pim said, "He got it off the warm place, to reach the pipe."

Then up on the hook.

And back up to Number Three.

Pim, and Hod, and Pim's mum, and Tocko.

Hall. Green door. Roof. Home.

> Cold pipe, cold pipe, hollow all the way.
> Tap twice, and wait, and hear what it can say.

Then the ceiling went TOCK, TOCK.

Two taps, and Tocko tapped back. Tock, tock.