The Empty Chair

One of the details that Mommy used to miss a lot was supper. We hated it when Mommy tried to put us to bed and had forgotten to feed us supper. We always reminded her, and she always made it for us. We wanted her to remember, though, without us telling her.

One time she did remember to make supper. She made a very nice supper for us. We were so happy.

We were all seated around the table, but there was an empty chair. It belonged to Daddy. He was not home from work yet.

Mommy looked at her watch. She thought it was very strange that he was not home yet since it was already 9:00 at night. He usually got off work at 5:00 and was home shortly after that.

“Well, let’s go ahead and eat,” Mommy said. “Your father will show up some time. He must be working late or maybe he ran into some bad traffic. He is working in a new place, and it is at least half an hour from here.”

Mommy could not call Daddy, and Daddy could not call Mommy. We had just moved into a new house, and we would not have a phone for a couple more days while we were waiting for the phone company to install it. So, all Mommy could do was wait for Daddy to show up. She sat down to eat with us.

We were all in the middle of eating our dinner quietly when Mommy jumped up. She seemed very agitated.

“Oh, my goodness; oh, my goodness,” she repeated several times. “I know why he isn’t here! I was supposed to pick him up!”

Mommy ran out the door. We all wondered how mad Daddy would be when Mommy arrived. He wasn’t mad, though. He was very sad. He thought he was going to have to spend the night on the bench outside his office. Boy, was he happy to see Mommy! (Well, and maybe a little bit mad, too.)

Conclusion: Don't ignore empty chairs at your table.

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This story is excerpted from a collection of vignettes that I helped Doah, my severely mentally challenged youngest son, to write and publish several years ago (copyright 2003). It was my attempt to help him understand literacy and the purpose of writing and reading.