table

The new table had history. The top was new wood (ply) and it was covered with red formica. Rectangular, with enough depth for two children to reach across and touch fingertips. The table top was supported by the most unusual legs. (the following description is from memory and may be changed at a later date).

Made of cast iron, they could be described more as supports than legs, with a strengthening arch between the verticals. There may or may not be words, (the name of a company?) set into the hard alloy of iron, carbon and silicone.  Black, ferrous, or painted? Strong, solid, industrial, functional. Unmoveable and unchangeable (it says so in the Oxford English Dictionary). Their H shaped footprints reveal themselves on the red and yellow chequered floor many years later.

Something you think is unbreakable can be brittle indeed.

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