What lies behind this, I have wondered. And right now seemed the opportune moment to think about it.
I will start with the chair. This chair with the beautiful finish. I remember my grandfather sitting on it in our ancestral home, with a glass of tea and a newspaper in hand. Looking at us from the chair while we played. It is still so smooth so glossy. It must be a hundred years old because I remember him telling us that his father made it for him to be rocked in. An antique, that's what this was. And the chair was still shiny and smooth. I felt it with my cheeks. Yep..Smooth!
I saw the clock. With its carved hands showing us why time never waits for none. The dial was quartz and the finish was wooden. It matched the chair. The numeral shone brightly. And the bell that dangled from it chimed well enough for me to hear no creaks.
And what a lot of photos..Smiling constantly at all of us in the room. The backgrounds maybe different, but they were all happy faces, smiling faces. I did not know all of them, I have no idea how I was related to any of them, but they made me smile too.
The lights in the room were my only misgiving. Very bright. Too bright. Sometimes in night I was not able to sleep properly because of them. Maybe I should just remove them. I looked about- I saw a tall stand on which they were assorted instruments- probably collected by my father over a period of visits to exotic countries. I shoved them away.
And stood on the stand reaching for the lights.
And she came in. One look at me and she started screaming. Drew the wrong conclusion no doubt. I tried telling her that I was just removing one bulb. She wouldn't listen. She called a couple more of her friends. And they wrestled me down to the floor and then it was darkness.
I woke the next morning. My phone had about 80 missed calls. And 265 messages and was blinking real fast with messages coming in. I went down to get my coffee. There my friend was laughing so hard at something on the computer. My sister spotted me and was smirking. My mom shook her head and went to get coffee. My father was reading the paper appearing nonchalant but furtively watching all of it.
A youtube clip. I watched in horror.It was me being gassed at the dentist. Left alone for a couple of minutes, I was rubbing my face along the white chair. I was doing it back and forth, almost manically. I then moved hoppity hop to the clock on the wall- a digital one with just one display and tried catching the imaginary dangling bells.
Finally me shoving the dentist tool tray off and standing on it. The nurse drew the right conclusion and me trying to explain the bulb.All the while laughing like a fool.
Like a fool..
