With and without papers

“Please, do not disturb, thank you in advance”. This was her first drawing. A few hours after entering her new bedroom for the first time. I had figured out that this kind of poster would arrive after screams and tears, after slammed doors. But it did not. She was smiling, writing this nice and polite note. So was her brother who did his own. For the next days, we could hear them gently knocking each other’s door, the note still in place, asking if they could come in. In most cases, the door would open.
A few days later, we noticed some changes. New notes had been written. These ones were not made for the room but for the visitors. They were very secretive about it, we were not allowed to see these papers. For what we could hear, they were passes, exclusively made for their owner, with his or her name and a password.
Gosh, these were real scriptopolian children, we thought. Experiencing their new separate bedrooms not only with their walls and doors, but with writings, papers that identified places and people. Building whole new circulation processes. We were proud, in a way, but also a bit scared, even if we found all this a lot more enjoyable than shoutings and blocked doors. What was the point exactly? We couldn’t find until someday, when we heard the nicest words ever. Knock knock. Yes, who is it? It’s me, N. OK, you can come in, even without papers.