The Legend of "The Chair" by Nandita Kamalakannan

 The Legend of "The Chair" by Nandita Kamalakannan

If you walk into almost any bedroom, you will find a piece of furniture that has completely lost

its original purpose. It might be an armchair, a desk chair, or a small bench. But it is no longer

used for sitting. It has become "The Chair."

The Chair is the official purgatory for your wardrobe. It is the designated landing zone for

clothes that exist in a very specific, awkward state of existence: they are not dirty enough to

justify throwing them into the laundry basket, but they aren’t completely clean enough to be

neatly folded and put back into the closet.

It always starts small. You come home, take off a hoodie, and toss it onto the seat. You tell

yourself it is just temporary. You are going to wear it again tomorrow anyway. The next day, you

add a pair of jeans. By the end of the week, The Chair has evolved into a massive, structurally

unsound mountain of denim and cotton.

At night, when the lights are off, the pile transforms. The sleeves and pant legs drape over the

sides in a way that makes it look exactly like a shadowy figure sitting in the corner of your room.

You wake up at 2:00 AM, stare at it in terror for five seconds, and then realize it is just your

winter coat layered over three different t-shirts.

Eventually, the pile gets so high that gravity takes over, and a single sock slides off onto the

floor. This is the breaking point. You finally spend ten minutes sorting the pile, throwing half of

it in the wash and hanging up the rest. The Chair is finally empty and ready to be used as actual

furniture again.

But then you try on a sweater, decide it doesn't match your outfit, and toss it onto the seat. And

the cycle begins all over again.