The Seat Near the Draft

Chapter 1The Best Chair

Bubby always offered Rivka the cushioned chair near the sitting-room window.

It was the nicest chair in the room. It was also the coldest.

On Tuesday afternoon, Rivka could feel a thin stream of air against her ankles before she had finished her first biscuit.

Bubby, whose hair was fully covered by a sheitel, asked about school.

Rivka answered and tucked her feet beneath her skirt.

She loved these visits. She did not love shivering through them.

Asking to move seemed ungrateful. Bubby had given her the best chair.

Chapter 2The Unasked Favor

Rivka tried to stop noticing the cold.

The harder she tried, the more she noticed it. Her answers became short. She watched the clock on the shelf instead of the old photograph Bubby was describing.

"Are you tired?" Bubby asked.

"A little."

Rivka wasn't tired. She was afraid that the true answer would sound like a complaint about Bubby's home.

Bubby put the photograph away.

"We can sit quietly."

Rivka had avoided one imagined awkward moment and made a real one: Bubby thought she didn't want to talk.

Chapter 3What the Cold Meant

On the walk home, Rivka mentioned the chair to her older sister, Shira.

"Then ask if you can move," Shira said.

"She might think I don't appreciate her."

"Did she say that?"

"No."

"Do you appreciate her?"

"Of course."

"Then moving a chair doesn't have to say the opposite."

Rivka knew she couldn't promise Bubby would like every request. She could choose words that named the actual problem rather than judging the room.

Chapter 4The Sentence She Practiced

Rivka tried a sentence at home.

"Your window is freezing."

She shook her head. That sounded as though she had come to inspect Bubby's house.

She tried again.

"I'm cold near the window. May I sit farther from it?"

It was shorter and truer.

Mama, whose hair was fully covered by a tichel, was sorting clean towels nearby.

"That asks for something specific," she said.

"What if Bubby says the other chair isn't comfortable?"

"Then you can hear what she suggests. You don't have to settle both sides of a conversation before it happens."

Chapter 5Before the Biscuit

At the next visit, Bubby waved toward the cushioned chair.

Rivka took a breath.

"I'm cold near the window. May I sit farther from it?"

Bubby looked at the window and then at the other chairs.

"The wooden chair has a cushion in the cupboard.

We can use that one."

"Thank you."

Rivka almost added a long apology. She had planned one on the walk over.

Instead she helped fetch the cushion and moved her plate.

Bubby didn't need to comfort her through asking for a different seat.

Chapter 6Not a Window Repair

The wooden chair was warmer but less soft.

It was a fair trade. Rivka could feel her toes and pay attention to the conversation.

"Should we cover the crack in the window?" she asked.

"The repairman is coming next week," Bubby said.

"For now, I prefer to keep this room as it is."

Rivka nodded.

She had asked for a warmer place to sit, not permission to rearrange the whole room.

Bubby chose her own chair near the lamp. Rivka did not insist they both move because one chair had bothered her.

Then Bubby took out the photograph again.

Chapter 7The Story She Heard

The photograph showed Bubby and her sister beside a very small suitcase.

"We thought we had packed enough for a week,"

Bubby said. "Our mother opened it and found two hair ribbons and a book."

Rivka laughed.

Last time she had missed that part because she was watching the clock.

Now she asked what they had meant to wear.

"The same clothes, apparently. We had not got that far in our plan."

Rivka stayed until the time they had agreed. She was not proving she loved Bubby by staying cold or staying late.

She could hear a good story in a different chair.

Chapter 8The Chair by the Lamp

A few weeks later, the window was repaired.

Bubby offered the cushioned chair again.

Rivka tried it. This time no cold air reached her ankles.

"This is comfortable now," she said.

"Then stay there. Or take the other one if you prefer."

The request had not turned the whole house into a test of appreciation.

Rivka still thanked Bubby for the visit, the biscuit, and the story.

She didn't have to thank her for being allowed to feel cold honestly.

A chair could be the best chair and still be the wrong place to sit that afternoon.