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Safe and Easy.
By: Stephanie Faulkner
“Come on, Grammie,” my two young grandsons called to me. “Let’s make a fort!” Andrew and Taylor were bored with the toys and movies at my house and this was one thing they really enjoyed doing.
Oh, no, I thought, here we go with the blankets and mess in the family room. In spite of wanting to give a negative answer, I relented when I saw the excited looks on there faces. “Ok, boys,” I responded. “I’ll go get the blankets and you drag the chairs together.”
Loud talking and scattering footsteps were heard throughout the room as they dragged and pulled the chairs around. “Help us with the blankets,” they begged.
After we draped the blankets over the chairs and pulled a little here and a little there, the fort was ready to be occupied. Or at least, so I thought. They forgot the all important flashlights and ran to get them from the drawer. After placing them strategically around underneath, they called to me again.
“Are we finished, now?” I asked.
“We’re ready,” answered Andrew. He carefully lifted up one side of the blanket and motioned for me to get under. “Come in, Grammie,” he said with a smile on his face.
I had no idea they’d want me in there with them. “Now you know that’s too small for me to crawl into.” I stood there for a few seconds as I tried to decide if it was worth the risk of getting cramped all up. “Ok,” I said finally. “I’ll try.” I carefully knelt down on my knees and squeezed into the small space trying hard not to send the whole thing tumbling down.
The boys played around under the fort while I twisted and turned and tried to get comfortable. I was glad they were involved and not fighting but wondered how long I could take being in a hunched up position. Would the claustrophobia get to me before I was let lose? I just couldn’t want to disappoint them.
After getting somewhat comfortable, I sat while my mind wondered. Memories of many years ago took shape and I began to visualize my two great aunts’ old house with the long wooden banister. I saw propped across that banister, the wooden rocking chairs with the beat up blankets draped over them.
Once again the coziness of the small space in our fort felt like a cocoon wrapped around me as we listened to the spring rain hit against the house…. and from a small hole in one of the blankets, I could see the big oak tree in the front yard. What fun my sister, Cheryl, and I had as we giggled and played in our fort.
I laughed quietly to myself. Computer games, big screen TVs, DVD players and more movies than anyone could ever see. These boys have so much stuff, I thought, and yet, there we all were under chairs with blankets over them…and from my grandsons’ fort, I could still see the oak tree.
When the sun goes down in Durham, Stephanie and I turn to other interests. She writes most of the stories and I take most of the photographs.
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