The Desk is a special story to the Mirror by Michael C. Jordan
To the right of the large picture window sits a child’s roll-top desk. Raising the slatted wooden roll-top reveals the flat writing surface. It is decorated by the scratches and dents, names and initials of the children who have occupied its chair. These errant hieroglyphics are testimony to its sixty years of faithful service and bring character and beauty to the light oak wood.
On the front right side below the flat writing surface, two drawers sit one atop the other, and currently contain the treasures of an eight-year-old boy named Matthew. Above the top drawer in a slot rests a board that can be extended and used as an extra work surface or removed completely. The board, once removed, can be used as a portable writing surface, food tray, or for any other important function a child may desire. My favorite use of the board was as a base for the traditional multi-colored wooden building blocks I loved to play with as a child.
To the left of the drawers and beneath the writing surface is an open space which allows a small person to sit comfortably in the matching chair. The chair is of the old swivel type, all hard wood except for the swivel which is actually a large screw. When the chair is twisted, the seat and back portion of the chair can be raised or lowered by as much as eight inches. Sitting and spinning during this process is fun and has delighted every child who has tried it.
The seat of the chair is a plain flat piece of wood that bears many of the same decorations found on the larger writing surface above. The back of the chair is constructed of three vertical wooden dowels, framed by square pieces of wood, and is perfectly suited for various uses: a banker’s window while playing a game of Monopoly, a postal window during the occasional game of post office, or the window of a jail cell by a villain in the imagined Old West. [Read more…]