"The Skylight Room" is a modern day fairy tale, set in the
heart of the author's favorite city, New York. This heartwarming tale describes
the dream come true romance of Miss Leeson, a poor working girl in New York.
Miss Leeson is a young woman who works as a freelance typist with the big firms
in the city. Her income is, however, insufficient to get her decent lodgings,
so she is forced to rent what experienced house hunters call "the skylight
room". The skylight room is a "well of stygian blackness", a sort
of black hole where once light enters, it just dies in agony. The only source
of natural light here is a small rectangular skylight. The skylight room has no
windows; a small door leads to the landing. For a bright, vivacious and
whimsically imaginative girl like Miss Leeson, this is the worst it can get.
The bare room has a small cot, a wash stand and a dresser- all that Miss Leeson
can afford. On the floors below live the more affluent lodgers of the sharp
tongued and snobbish Mrs. Parker, Miss Leeson's landlady. Mr. Skidder is a
playwright, perpetually on the lookout for a muse. Miss Leeson fits the bill,
and the heroine of Mr. Skidder's next play becomes a short, happy-go-lucky
woman who has long auburn hair. Mr. Hoover, a fat, middle aged man, is not
above taking advantage of poor young girls, and the young Mr. Evans develops a
boyish infatuation toward this woman whose fancies are forever skimming the
skies and the stars. The schoolteacher, Miss Longnecker, a beautiful woman with
no time for fancies, and the sports obsessed Miss Dorn are the other lodgers of
Mrs. Parker's establishment. Miss Leeson soon becomes popular with all the
lodgers, despite the fact that she is a poor outcast who has to live in
"the skylight room". On a balmy evening, when the lodgers are sitting
on the steps leading to the apartments, Miss Leeson points out Billy Jackson,
the only star she can see through the skylight in her room. Though Miss Longnecker
disagrees with her astronomical nomenclature and insists it is
"Gamma", the other lodgers think Billy Jackson is a better name for a
star. For Miss Leeson, the star is the only friend in a wide world whose only
share comes to her in the form of a patch of black darkness called "the
skylight room". It is not just a ball of gas and heat for her, it is a
friend and confidante who knows her distress and sorrows. A few days later,
Miss Leeson's unflagging cheerfulness finally starts to taper off, as she realizes
that more difficulties lie in store for her. And as the story reaches its
culmination, we find out exactly what the significance of "Billy
Jackson" is in the existence of the poor typist.
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