Sticks
Writing Challenge 2024
Posted by Chris Sissons on Mar 13, 2024
Writing Challenge ยป Chris Sissons
I was walking down a road above one of the big dams over Marsden in West Yorkshire. It was April 2010 and I was with my sister and her family, chatting with my niece. It was pouring with rain, like it does over those moors. I slipped, aqua-planed and fell, suddenly looking up at my niece.
I realised I couldn’t walk unaided. Fortunately, we were on a road (which might have been part of the problem). She called her father and he walked with me leaning on him to the car. We’ve never been so close!
I somehow managed to get home. I could drive so long as I put no weight on my foot. It wasn’t a break but a torn ligament – arguably worse than a break.
I called upon the assistance of an old friend who has graciously consented to be photographed for this article. He moved in with me a few years previously, when I had a bout of bursitis (housemaid’s knee).
In terms of pain, the ligament outdid the bursitis. I spent many days depending on my reliable friend and if remember correctly pursued along the streets by little girls who can be very cruel when the fit takes them, as I’m sure some of you remember.
My doctor (we had our own in those days) confirmed it was a torn ligament. He suggested I walk on pavements because they’re flat. This caused me to wonder whether he’d ever walked along a pavement! Flatness and pavements may have dated but they never married.
But, you know, people are weird. I remember a railway worker at some London station who took me up in the goods lift as I was still having difficulties with stairs. In the lift, thrown together, he started talking to me in baby talk. Must have had young children I supposed but if I reminded him of them I dread to think what they were like. I stepped out of the lift, thanked him and slowly whizzed away.
As I got better, I invested in a beautiful made-to-measure hazelwood walking stick. The people in the shop chopped the end off and placed a huge rubber ferrule on the end. I was a bit worried (my sister said it made me look like an old person – honestly!) at first but I soon discovered it bounces! Hurray! My old friend was put away on the cellar head, where he has been until today’s photo call but spiders have kept him company.
I began a great relationship with my new stick. I soon discovered I could swing his curved head and bounce the ferrule on the pavement and so we bounced along together for several months. (If you’re not sure what a ferrule is then, look at the photo, it’s the bit resting on the floor although not as bouncy as my new stick’s).
Sadly our relationship was not to last. In June the following year, I got off the train somewhere on the Wales border, went for a coffee and left him hanging on the shelf in front of the counter, only realising I could walk without a stick once I got on my next train.
This is Day 3 of Writing Challenge 2024. People all over the world take part in the WC. We write something every weekday for 4 weeks based on a prompt This year, I'll be sharing 21 articles based loosely on prompts about parts of the body. Do we fully appreciate the role things and stuff play in our lives? Each part of the body has certain things and stuff associated with it. (Probably!) I've no idea where this will go but hope you enjoy the journey. The introductory post was Things and Stuff. The last post was Red and Blue and the next is Science and Mirrors.
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