It isn’t a room, not really. It’s just a narrow hallway that connects the living area to the rest of the house. End to end, there are no windows.

If you close the doors at both ends, it’s the darkest place in the house.

Usually I tackle the hall by running through it as fast as I can. Sometimes, we use it as the staging ground for games. My second eldest sister plays monster while the rest of us hide in the darkness. She calls herself Moon Monster. I’m a little bit afraid of her even when she’s in her human form.

When the computer arrives, my father installs it in the hall. As we live off the electricity grid, the computer is powered by the generator. Sometimes the generator goes out, and then there’s no phone line or hot water and we have to light the house with candles and kerosene lamps.

Green text on a black screen. Two floppy drives. We can connect to other people via a Bulletin Board System (but at this point, in the late 80s, there is almost no one else out there).

Now, when we play Moon Monster, the absolute dark is gone. The computer thrums faintly atop vast and coiled wires. Its screen emits a weird green glow.

Nadia Bailey is a writer in Sydney, Australia, and features editor at Oyster magazine.