The Seven Chairs By Emilia Mrugala (short story)

Background info:

There was once a mysterious man named Harris Burdick that walked into a publishers office with 14 illustrations and captions. The head publisher had a meeting with him, in which he admired the detailed and whimsical drawings that Mr. Burdik had brought with him. Mr. Burdik told the publisher that he had short stories that would go with each of the pictures that he would be more than happy to bring to him on the next day.

But Mr. Burdik didn't return the next day.

All that the publisher had was the 14 drawings, Mr. Burdick had left him and no contact or trace of Mr. Burdick himself. He had completely disappeared. Years later, a book was published with all 14 pictures and the captions that originally came with it. The book and its pictures inspired generations to write short stories off of these pictures, each with their own twist and artistic decisions.

For my creative writing class, we are doing a project where we get to choose one of the pictures and write a story about it. I decided to write about "The Seven Chairs" for my short story. I really liked the image, it made me laugh the first
time I saw it and the caption made me think about the other 6 chairs and where they ended up as well.

Please know that I was expected to complete this project in about 3 days while balancing AP classes, so I didn't get all the time in the world to completely develop, add detail, and make this an award-winning story. Take it with a pinch of salt, and be nice.

The Seven Chairs 

Image by Harris Burdick

Short Story by Emilia Mrugala 

Mr. Nilsson lived a good life. He had a wonderful family, and he supported them by being a carpenter. Throughout his career, he created many beautiful things ranging from small wooden ducks to elaborate arches for castles. Now Mr. Nilsson was an older man, he had a reserved amount of energy and was preparing to retire. Instead, he decided to finish with one last project, he would craft 7 chairs, seven being his favorite number, as a final goodbye to his career. 

So he began to model and carve the chairs. Each one was made with love and joy, just as he had always created his woodwork. He added carvings of flowers to the fourth chair, little geometric designs on the second, and swirls of wind on the fifth. While Mr. Nilsson worked, he would listen to classical music that reminded him of memories from decades prior, and he reflected on his career. It was the perfect project to end his woodworking days with. 

But just as he was starting the seventh chair, Mr. Nilsson became extremely sick. He was diagnosed with lung cancer, and he became weaker every day. But even though he was sick and extremely weak from treatment, he was motivated to finish his project, he would finish that tedious seventh chair. The only difference in the process with making this chair is that the seventh chair was not made with love as the other ones had. Mr. Nilsson felt like it was becoming more and more of an obligation, not a joy project. 

Two weeks before Mr. Nilsson died surrounded by his family and friends, he finished. He told one of his assistants to send them out to buyers, sellers, the wealthy, the poor, to France, to Australia, he didn’t care to where or to who. Mr. Nilsson always wanted to share his art with the world, not keep it to himself. Five days before Mr. Nilsson passed, his assistant had successfully shipped the chairs all around the world. 

Mr. Nilsson rested peacefully, happy with the events and opportunities he experienced. He was happy with the people he met, the things he created, and he was happy that he finished his last project and sent it out it into the world. As he died peacefully, his chairs traveled around the world, arriving on the doorsteps of unknowing individuals who were unaware of what chairs could do. 

The first chair arrived at a corporate office in New York City to be added to a conference room’s furniture. On the first day, a man sat in the chair and yelped in surprise. The chair turned him invisible! The whole office came over to see the commotion about the chair that could turn the sitter invisible, with about sixty people who tried it out that day alone!

The second chair arrived at a thrift store in Arizona, with a woman examining the intricate carvings on the legs. She decided to buy it and bring it home to her family, it would look perfect with her dining room table. Later that evening, when they all gathered together for dinner, a little girl sat in the new chair her mother bought and gasped. The little girl's fingers were covered with different bands of gold, silver and platinum, each with pea-sized diamonds, rubies, and amethysts. A string of pearls hung around her neck and everyone looked at her with wide eyes, not knowing what to say.

The third chair arrived at a small furniture store in Tokyo. The owner of the shop just received a shipment of new pieces to sell from around the world. When his eye caught the chair, he lifted it into the air, noticing the frame and oak used to make the chair. “Nice work.” he thought to himself. He placed the chair down, thinking about where the chair could’ve been made, but as he sat down, he felt a huge surge of energy. When he opened his eyes, he saw that he was in the middle of a forest. Just a second ago he was in his shop, but now he was thousands of miles away from Japan.

The fourth chair was gifted to a Duchess in England. She loved the details of flowers, leaves, and nature captured on the legs and head of the chair. The Duchess decided to add it to her garden, perfect for sitting while reading outside. Just as she was about to sit and read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin in the afternoon sun, she sat down in the chair, which immediately started to bloom. Vines, flower buds, and leaves sprouted from the chair, tickling the Duchess while she read. She jerked in surprise and noticed as the plants grew around her.

The fifth chair ended up in France. It had been donated to a Catholic orphanage in Lyon, France. The morning it had arrived a nun had sat down in it to put on her shoes and instead, she went flying in the air. Two priests were walking through the corridor, talking about the morning mist that had rolled into the courtyard, when they came across the flying nun nearly the ceiling. She was reciting prayers to get rid of the so-called “demonic” spirits in the chair.

The sixth chair ended up in Vienna, Austria, as the new chair in the office of a museum coordinator. She was in charge of making sure that the Imperial Palace in Vienna was clean, pristine, and organized smoothly, which sometimes made it a difficult job. After a long day of work, she sat down in the new wooden chair that was placed in her office and closed her eyes. Suddenly, a familiar melody played in the background of her mind. She got off the chair to see if anyone was playing the melodic music down the hall, but it was silent. She sat on the chair again, and the music returned. 

The seventh chair traveled for a long time, no one wanted it. It bounced around from Cape Town, South Africa to Singapore, but it was always on the move. It finally arrived in the busy streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil, sitting in the middle of a marketplace with no one claiming it. It stood alone. An older gentleman, physically exhausted by the labors of his day, saw the chair unused and decided to sit down on it. Grateful for resting his body, he soon disintegrated into ash and was blown away by the wind. No one even saw the man die, all they saw was the leftover chair. 

The chairs have met their permanent residencies, and were causing quite a stir. News reports of a chair that could turn you invisible, and another that could make you fly into the air, gave the citizens of the world a sense of entertainment and giggle in their day. Some of the owners of these chairs kept them, keeping them as family tokens or items of significant value. Others attempted to sell the chairs, as a way to make millions. 

The family with the second chair used the jewelry that came from the chair to start their own jewelry store, allowing the family to make a decent living for themselves. It took a couple of days for the furniture store owner to return to Tokyo with the third chair, but he was now able to take his family on meaningful vacations around the world, making memories in new places, trying new foods, all while traveling on a chair. 

The Duchess was reading more than ever, and her garden was looking fabulous. Her mother would come over to visit every week or so and she would always compliment her floral arrangements inside. Little did she know, each of the unique flowers in her home was from the fourth chair in her garden. When her mother would ask about it, she would shrug and smile, saying that beautiful things have been in bloom very recently.

The museum coordinator in Vienna was now always working at her desk with a smile. She would sit on the chair and hear classical symphonies, intense duets between a violin and piano, or simple pieces that originated from Austria, itself. The music motivated to work and whenever she was not in her office, she always looked forward to going back and seeing what the sixth chair will play. 

While these events and adventures of the other six chairs were occurring, the seventh chair was resting tired souls, and also taking their lives. After the old man’s death, there were three more victims who were unaware of their life-ending into ashes when they just wanted to take a breather. After the fourth victim's death, there were witnesses that pointed out the “evil magic” that had just occurred. Signs were posted, warning of some type of magical presence with the chair, but that only drew in a crowd. There would be some daredevils that would dare to sit on the chair, but they met the same unfortunate end as the others had before. After several more victims, with the eyes of a crowd, it was placed on the local news to not sit in this chair if you were to see it.  The police attempted to move it to the trash, but a homeless man would take it, causing the cycle to repeat again and again. 

It got to the point that the main task in the daily life for a policeman in Sao Paulo was to be on the hunt for this chair, and made sure no one sits in it. Through this whole manhunt for a chair, the President of Brazil stepped in and executively ordered the chair to be placed through a woodchipper and burned. 

And that is exactly what they did.

The seventh chair met its end when it was placed in a woodchipper, then burned in a fire into ashes, just as it had turned its victims into ash. Brazil heaved a heavy sigh of relief, no more of the chair that would kill innocent people. For generations to come, there would be stories and legends passed down to children of the mysterious chair that turned people into ash. Some versions claimed that it was cursed by an old witch, others claimed that it was a technologically advanced chair created by evil scientists, running experiments with the public. 

But the moment that the seventh chair was placed into the fire, all around the world the chairs with magical abilities suddenly stopped working. The sitter on the invisible chair became visible, the flowers from the garden chair disappeared, and the sixth chair no longer made music. The owners of the chairs all stood up in confusion, sitting, then standing, trying to figure out why their chairs didn’t do the special magic “trick” anymore. 

Some of the owners were disappointed, but they eventually moved on. They kept the chair as a memory of the small speck of magic they experienced and lived on to tell the story. Other owners threw it away as if it was a cheap, made in China chair, and not one crafted by a talented carpenter. 

Mr. Nilsson’s last collection of art proved to demonstrate the imperfection and dirt of humanity. Instead of appreciating the extraordinary work, the people of the world demonstrated levels of greed, theft, and the unfortunate consumption of death. The chairs became neglected over time, left to collect dust in attics and chipped by ignorance.

The End

Thank you so much for reading! I had a lot of fun writing this short story, and remember, I am not a Pulitzer winner, so don't be too mean. I hope you have a great day filled with the ideas and thoughts of 7 chairs with strange powers ;)

thank you again for reading, I really appreciate it.

love,

yo girl emilia

follow me on instagram: @yogirlemilia