The coal stove
Ava is 7 years old and her mother has a brother who lives in the countryside. Today they will be visiting her uncle and his wife. Ava hasn’t liked it too much to visit them because of how little there is to do, but she goes without moaning. She knows too well that if she dares to complain, it wouldn’t bring her any luck.
“Ava! Are you ready to leave for uncle Lucas?” her mother calls.
“Yes, mom,” thinking by herself that she isn’t in the mood at all.
Ava swings her brown and black striped jacket over her shoulders and rushes out her bedroom door. “No running,” she hears her mother’s word eco in her mind of previous times. She slows down to a fast walking pace.
“Let’s go!” she says to her parents who are waiting at the backdoor that leads to the garage where the car is parked. Her father closes the door behind her, turns around, and walks toward the garage. It a long way to the garage. Their house is built on half an acre of land which means that their garage is about 1600 feet (500m) from their house at the back of the yard.
Ava opens the back door of the car and gets in. Her father is driving as per usual when the whole family is out and about. “It’s not too far of a drive but far enough to loathe it,” Ava thinks.
As they drive out of town to the countryside, they pass a whole lot of farms that are ready to be harvested. Ava likes the big green fields that seem to pass them as they drive. She loves looking at the farms and now and then, they pass a small farm stall of the farmer that sells some of his produce to the local community. Buying at the small farm stalls is much cheaper than buying at the store and sometimes you will find bigger and better quality as well.
The car starts to rattle and Ava realizes that they are now on the dirt road. It’s about 1600 feet (500m) of dirt road, from the tar-paved road that they need to drive on to get to her uncle’s home. She dislikes the rattling that goes along when driving on a dirt road. She’s always wondering what the shaking does to the inner working of a car. What is shaken loose with driving on a dirt road?
The car stops and looking out of the front window of the car, Ava sees the rusted farm gate. Sometimes they as children are asked to open the gate when they get home or arrive at guests but not today. Her uncle is already approaching the gate. Ava is relieved. She’s always nervous about what might lurk nearby. Ava notices that the car is moving again, this time through the gate and towards the house. Her dad parks the car beside the house.
Immediately the big brown dogs make their appearance at the car. They are barking profusely as if they are saying: “What are you doing here?”
“Get back Rufus!” Ava hears her uncle command the dogs. They don’t listen at all and her father’s instructions are for them to carefully open the doors of the car and get out. It’s not as if the dogs are aggressive or anything, that Ava knows but they can jump up onto you and that’s what her father is trying to avoid with his instructions. Ava opens the door slowly.
“Get away!” she shouts. “Shoo!”
“Rufus. Lady! Home!” uncle Lucas commands the dogs while using hand gestures. The dogs still don’t listen.
“Just ignore the dogs. They will eventually calm down. Hello Diane, Barry, kids,” her uncle greets. Everyone is hugging and greeting each other as if they haven’t seen each other in years. Ava dislikes the greeting but allows it because of their culture. “Let’s go inside. Lydia is waiting in the kitchen.”
Lydia is uncle Lucas’s wife. Ava is used to the fact that they always meet and socialize in the kitchen. The reason is obvious when you enter the kitchen. A big, black metal-looking stove that is situated at the back of the kitchen. This stove is a coal stove that is always burning from early morning to late night. Ava likes how this stove warms up the whole of the kitchen and it’s lovely to sit in this kitchen when the Winter is trying to nip at your body. What Ava dislikes about the kitchen is that it’s situated at the back of the house where the sun doesn’t have a chance to look inside the house with its long golden rays. It’s dark inside of the kitchen.
“Hi, dear,” Ava’s aunt greeting her mom. Her aunt is much older than her mother. Ava notices the wrinkles under her eyes and on her forehead. Her aunt is dressed up in a long black dress, long black hair with no makeup, and a smile as big as that of a clown. Scary? No, that’s how Ava got to know her aunt.
Everyone except the men is in the kitchen. Ava and her siblings are playing on the cold cement floor of the kitchen with dolls and small little wooden cars while the women are sitting on brown wooden chairs. The women chats as if they have seen each other years ago.
“The kitchen is nice and warm,” Ava thinks by herself. Although she dislikes the dark kitchen, she can feel the love between everyone here. They are all related and they seem to be genuinely interested in what’s going on in each other’s lives. A priceless moment that will last forever in her and their memories.
