On, In and Around Mondays: The Chair

I can see the wooden rocker again.

For days it has been piled with laundry that my family did while I was off being too sick to care. Little shirts; nighties; a green napkin, which my daughter gleefully handed me this morning, to accompany the scones she made and served. (I am smiling to think that a green napkin could be the source of such enthusiasm.)

I cannot remember where this wooden rocker sat in the home where I grew up. I try to picture each room in my memory, but the rocker isn't there.

My favorite part of the chair is its back, leaf and braided carved. Or maybe my favorite part is the arms, softened from the touch of so many hands. There is also the depth of the rock itself. Whoever made this chair knew just the arc to follow to lull a soul.

Now my curiosity gets the best of me and though I cannot walk too well right now, I get out of bed to satisfy my desire to know. I turn the chair over, my arms shaking, my legs aching. I lower myself to the floor. And I see it. An aged rust-colored seal I must lean in to decipher: Stickley and Brandt. Stickley I have heard of, but who is Brandt?

In the end, this is all I know about the chair...

It is old. My mother loved it. Stickley and Brandt made the chair strong. Right now I cannot rock in it. But the laundry has been put away.


Wooden Rocker photo, by L.L. Barkat.

---

On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place.

Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below. If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)