Dad and the ancient shelf

In the month of July last year, I was made to have a one-day travel to my home village for a friend's wedding event and that was my first time travelling home since my family moved to our new house. I got there in the late morning when dad and mom had gone to the farm and it was just a few of my siblings who were around. After the greetings and jubilations by them for having their elder brother around, I was ushered to the parlour and I was surprised to see an entirely different parlour from what we used to have in our former house. I stood on the spot, rotating and imagining what could be the force behind the idea of my parents not continuing with the former and olden days pattern of parlour especially with the ancient and almighty shelf we grew up to meet in our parlour which has different chambers with transparent glass where things like brokable plates, bottles of dry gin both empty and filled, electronic appliances such as Tv with big box, Amplifier, stabilizer and so many others, are kept.

"What happened to the shelf? How did you convince Dad not to bring in the shelf to this new house?" It was unbelievable to me because Dad had never welcomed the idea of doing away with the shelf.

Juliet, one of my twin sisters, burst into laughter and fell onto the sofa and I was waiting for her to give me the gist because my ears were itching.

"You don't know the battle we faced on the day we were packing from that house. Dad insisted that the almighty shelf must be put into the van and transported to this house and we refused. After going back and forth, we allowed it in but insisted that the shelf would not be allowed into the parlour" She said this giving the womanly traits of clapping her hands.

"Brother come, come and see where we kept it" She took me in my hand, I followed her, we passed through the dining, kitchen and to the backyard where the almighty shelf was kept, outside the block under the sun and rain.

"Haaaa! Do you know how much it cost me to get this shelf?" I said mimicking my dad as he usually says anytime we chip in the idea of him discarding the shelf because it's old-fashioned.

The shelf was not allowed into the house especially by my sisters who felt that allowing the same pattern of parlour of the old house into the new house won't go well, afterall, the modern day plasma TV, where they're either placed standing or hung on console, won't fit into the little space that's in the centre created for the 14 inches TV with big box we had back then.

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Towards evening when we were done with the wedding event, I got home to freshen up before returning to my base, I met dad just returning from the farm, he was getting off the bike, with the load of firewood that he carried from the farm with the help of one of my siblings. I rushed in his direction to greet him and we had a hug because it's been a long time since I visited home.

He left the bike with my brother, who was helping him with the work and we walked into the parlour through the backyard. We were exchanging the how are yous and how is life questions and as soon as we got to the parlour, my brain paused,

"So the shelf finally became valueless and useless, I thought you were never going to allow it to go and ...."

"You're crazy" He didn't allow me to complete my humour-loaded words before he threw this at me jokingly.

We both burst into laughter and I laughed more knowing the humour I threw at him touched him down to his marrow. I could see his face and for the first time, he couldn't give me his favourite question of 'Do you know how much it cost me to have this shelf?'

"Even if the shelf is no longer seen in modern homes, that shelf is still in very good condition. It's just to replace the broken glasses and that's all or during the time you were at home, was there a time I called on a carpenter to work on any faulty part?"

I knew where he was heading with his question and I wasn't ready to stage that conversation because my time to travel back was ticking fast already and that conversation could resurrect the ideas of taking back the shelf into the house, maybe not the parlour but into his big master bedroom.

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This past Christmas, I travelled home for the Holidays and saw that the shelf had been dismantled and some parts were used to construct a long bench which we use to sit outside.

Thanks for reading.

The photos used are mine