The Red Room

*The following story is fairly well-known and exists in several different versions.



Late one night, a taxi driver picked up a girl. When he asked her where she was going she replied she was going home.

“Please
go straight down this road,” “turn right there,” she instructed him as
he drove on. During the journey the driver sometimes gave furtive
glances at her through the rear view mirror; the girl had beautiful
shiny hair and seemed pretty, although he couldn't see her face clearly
because she sat with downcast eyes. He also found her quiet and demure
manner attractive.



Before long they reached a lonely, deserted
hillside. The girl said, “You will see a house straight ahead.” And
sure enough, a small, old cottage emerged from the darkness. The girl
got off, and the driver stayed and watched her go into the house. It
was odd that a young girl like her should live in such a lonely, old
place, seemingly all on her own. He was intrigued and instead of
leaving straight away, got out of the car too and crept up to the
house, feeling an urge to know more about her and see her face
properly. He felt he was behaving improperly but could not help himself.



When he got close, he saw all the curtains were drawn and there was no way to see inside.

He
circled around the house a few times but there was no attempt from
inside to lift the curtains. He thought if he stayed any longer the
girl might notice him, so he nearly gave up and left when the front
door caught his eyes. The door had a large keyhole, which looked as
though it would work just as fine as a peephole.

He looked through
the keyhole; but found, much to his dismay, all he could see was the
colour red, and there was no sign of either the girl or any kind of
furniture in the room. Now matter how long he kept at it the scenery
remained the same.



He gave up looking, but still could not
forget about the girl, so he stopped by the small restaurant he'd seen
on the way to her house, thinking he could make a few inquiries about
her there while having a meal at the same time.

He told the
restaurant owner what had happened, even revealing (although he was
terribly embarrassed) that he had a peek through the keyhole.

“I looked through the keyhole, but all I could see was something red…I know it wasn't a proper thing to do.”



The owner, hearing that, looked at him strangely and said to him;

“You know that girl… she has some sort of disease and her eyes are both crimson red.”



*Did you understand what the restraunt owner's words meant? :)