The Mystery Behind Grandpa's Chair — Linda Mather

It all started on the day that my mum came home from my school parents evening. Steam was swiftly coming out of her ears, like a pressure cooker ready to explode. I really thought that at any minute she would ‘take off'. I began reciting in my head ten, nine, eight, seven, six...... I never did reach blast off before she began ranting at me again. It turns out that my dull and boring History teacher, Mr Butler had slated me, saying that I always messed around in his class. Well I did to be honest I hated history. It was one of my worst subjects. I could not understand why we needed to learn about the past. The future was what was important, that was what we were always told. Grownups always seemed to contradict themselves and it did my head in. No wonder we kids were almost always confused! The worst thing was that Mr Butler told my mum about the assignment I was supposed to be working on. It was: 'A day in the life of a person living through world war two' We were all then to present our work to the class after Christmas. I hadn't started mine and it was November. In fact I was going to make some excuse like my writing arm was playing up or my computer had blown up and left us all in shock so I was unable to do any homework! Now I would have Mum on my back too! “You really need to take an interest in history” my mum had said, banging the dinner pots into the cupboard after they had been left for two hours, drying on the draining board. I don't know if her temper was down to the fact that I had not dried the dinner pots or the poor report from this mind-numbing teacher. Maybe it was a bit of both. We were currently doing all about world war two, which started in 1939 and ended in 1945. It was now 2013. Why would I want to know about a war that happened over fifty years ago? It was before I was even born, before my mum and dad were born and even before my Grandparents were born. How was that going to help me in my future? Anyway, when mum and I start arguing we really fire up. We are both quite stubborn and opinionated so world war two, three and four happen in our house quite regularly. We never seem to be able to meet a compromise. This time was no different. History was totally tiresome. It was so tedious that I nearly always fell asleep in every lesson. If I didn't mess about I would doze off. Which would Mr Butler prefer for goodness sake? “How will knowing about world war two benefit me in getting a job?” I had argued back, forgetting my nanny's frequent words of wisdom. “Don't argue with your mum, Megan. It takes more energy to argue than it does to say yes and mum's always know best and tell you for your own good.” She had said this to me many times. She was right of course but I loved winding mum up so for me it took no energy whatsoever! I didn't know how learning about some old war would be for my own good though. Well not until I sat in Grandpa's chair that is.