diff --git a/urwid/vterm.py b/urwid/vterm.py
index 76f9611..d832be6 100644
--- a/urwid/vterm.py
+++ b/urwid/vterm.py
@@ -1390,11 +1390,16 @@ class Terminal(BoxWidget):
             else:
                 os.execvpe(self.command[0], self.command, env)

-        if self.main_loop is None:
-            fcntl.fcntl(self.master, fcntl.F_SETFL, os.O_NONBLOCK)
+        fcntl.fcntl(self.master, fcntl.F_SETFL, os.O_NONBLOCK)
+        self.master = os.fdopen(self.master, 'w+', 0)

         atexit.register(self.terminate)

+    def signal(self, signo):
+        if self.pid <= 0:
+            return
+        return os.kill(self.pid, signo)
+
     def terminate(self):
         if self.terminated:
             return
@@ -1408,7 +1413,7 @@ class Terminal(BoxWidget):
             for sig in (signal.SIGHUP, signal.SIGCONT, signal.SIGINT,
                         signal.SIGTERM, signal.SIGKILL):
                 try:
-                    os.kill(self.pid, sig)
+                    self.signal(sig)
                     pid, status = os.waitpid(self.pid, os.WNOHANG)
                 except OSError:
                     break
@@ -1420,8 +1425,7 @@ class Terminal(BoxWidget):
                 os.waitpid(self.pid, 0)
             except OSError:
                 pass
-
-            os.close(self.master)
+            self.master.close()

     def beep(self):
         self._emit('beep')
@@ -1437,7 +1441,7 @@ class Terminal(BoxWidget):

     def flush_responses(self):
         for string in self.response_buffer:
-            os.write(self.master, string.encode('ascii'))
+            self.master.write(string.encode('ascii'))
         self.response_buffer = []

     def set_termsize(self, width, height):
@@ -1520,8 +1524,8 @@ class Terminal(BoxWidget):
         data = ''

         try:
-            data = os.read(self.master, 4096)
-        except OSError, e:
+            data = self.master.read(4096)
+        except (IOError,OSError), e:
             if e.errno == 5: # End Of File
                 data = ''
             elif e.errno == errno.EWOULDBLOCK: # empty buffer
@@ -1612,4 +1616,4 @@ class Terminal(BoxWidget):
         if sys.version_info[0] >= 3:
             key = bytes(key, 'ascii')

-        os.write(self.master, key)
+        self.master.write(key)