The Green Chair

The green chair sat in the corner of the garage. It was high-backed, sturdy, and proud looking - even though it might beginning to show some signs of wear. It had lost count of the books that had been read in it, how many morning cups of coffee drank and how many re-reuns of Seinfeld it had seen. A great deal of life had been lived in and around the green chair.

Things had changed. It had moved out of the front room, then to the study and now it had settled in the garage with all the other odds and ends of the household. No longer did it's feet rest in cushioned carpet, it was being moved out to make room for the new. The green chair, that had once been so integral, a hub for focus in the home; had been downgraded to the outside and replaced by some new sleek swedish type of chair with an elegant name. The green chair had never been elegant, but it had been faithful and sturdy and strong. Isn't that all a good chair needs to be, it wondered as it took in it's new garage surroundings.

The door to the garage opened early the next day. Throughout the night, more and more items had been placed in the garage to join the green chair. It was good to have some old friends in the new place. The trays, the console TV and the coffee table were all present, making the garage seem much more like home - the living room. As the friends looked around they noticed each one was wearing a circular yellow badge. In fact, every item in the garage had received a yellow dot.

The chair sitters weren't' doing much chair-sitting today. They were greeting neighbors, collecting money and letting would-be strangers take away the items in the garage. One-by-one, each yellow stickered item was bought and carted away by another two-legged chair sitter.

For the most part, the green chair felt ignored as shoppers would glance at it in the corner but move on quickly to something more interesting in the garage. The TV was an early one to go, then the trays, the old silver stereo and even the ring-marked coffee table. Green chair tried to sit up straight and make a good impression, but with each passing glance it began to slump a bit. Late in the day, a garage shopper came into the garage and glanced at what remained. When their eyes came to the green chair, it noticed that their view shopped short there. This shopper was actually looking at it's rich green fabric, it's strong wooden frame - still good for it's years of wear. The shopper looked at the sticker, paused and went back out to the sun shine of the afternoon. The sale ended. The chair sat in the almost empty garage and wondered why it had not been a good enough chair for the shoppers, especially the one that admired it.

The door to the garage opened early again the next day to a truck parked in the drive way. One-by-one, the remaining things were packed into the truck, including the high-backed green chair. The truck bumped and rumbled along the road to God knows where. The chair knew that trucks like this usually let to the Good Will or a Thrift Shop where household items sat until some chair sitter had pity on them and took them home to be a seat for their house cat. How depressing to be in this place, when there was so much more the green chair had expected from life.

Image found at The Dusty Bookshelf.
The truck came to a stop and the rolling door let in a flood of sunlight to the dark cargo hold. The driver grabbed the green chair and began carrying it out of the truck. He walked into the building, and placed the chair in the corner of a room filled with odd sitting chairs. This was it, thought the green chair. My life is over. What a disappointment to be placed here in a room of all the cast off chairs in the world. How could this be, green strained. There is some thinning of my material on my ams, but I don't have gaping holes and my insides hanging out like that recliner over there. This just isn't fair.

The store opened. Many more chair sitters came by. The little ones were especially frustrating. They jumped on the seats, poked their little fingers into the starts of holes in fabric and made the holes bigger, and they touched every part of the chairs with sucker sticky hands. People came and went, days passed and the green chair sat in the corner.

The yellow sticker from the garage sale was starting to peel, and the green fabric was looking sadder each day. The chair sitter's came and went, while the green chair waited and hoped for a modest living room and a kind chair sitter to take it in. At this point, the green chair would be happy to be a home for a house cat. It would be a home.

The store opened and people came in to see what was to be seen. A shopper looked at the chairs and stopped to look at the rich green fabric, the strong wooden frame - still good for it's years of wear and all that was the green chair. The green chair was not prepared to this attention. Didn't the sitter see that is was not new, now needing a good cleaning and thinning fabric on it's arms. As the shopper turned and went away, the chair knew that they had noticed its faults. It's chances were over and it would sit in the corner of the store until the day of the dumpster would come.

The next day, the store manager came over to the chair section, picked up the green chair and headed to the back room. This is it, thought the green chair. I'm headed towards the dumpster. The back doors opened up to sunlight and a small truck parked in back of the thrift store. The chair was placed in the back, and another bumpy ride was taken.

The driver of this truck parked the vehicle, and reached up to pick up the green chair. He carried it into the house, asked where it should go and placed it as directed. The green chair sat in a modest living room, with neutral carpet and an orange house cat. The chair sitter thanked the truck driver for delivering the chair saying, " You know, I've been looking for this chair forever! I saw it at a yard sale last week but it was gone before I could pick it up. I've been looking in all the thrift stores in town and I'm so glad I found it in your store. This green chair is exactly the chair I've been searching for."

Image found at The Dusty Bookshelf.
The green chair sat tall and proud in the corner, even with it's thinning fabric arms and the orange cat that sometimes climbed up to sit on it's cushion. In the eyes of the chair seeker, it was beautiful and worthy of looking-for, finding, re-finding and bringing home.

The green chair and the chair sitter finally, honestly found what they were looking for - a place to be and a place to be home.

By: T.L. Eastman 2010