I Took the Road More Traveled :: Personal Narrative Essay Example

I Took the Road More Traveled The great oak parry stood in the middle of the room, warped by heat from an experienced wood stove in the corner. Its dark brown finish had stewed up in the center into little pockets of wax and cure, and that was its grand history--a degree centigrade years or more of Christmas dinners and knives hammered thoughtlessly into the wood. The leaves and edges drooped down, worn below the weight of rough, uncultured elbows and wood bundles for the stove. Underneath, the modest planks gave way to the graceful condescending of the leg, terminating in the vicious paw of a huge dog, polished claws intimation on the drab floor. At night the legs tapped their way upstairs, past the suite of sleeping adults, stopping at the unfamiliar bed in which I slept. The moonlight illuminated e truly glistening nail slathered in dew and broth with fierce intensity. That evil table, with hairy paws like a dog, a lion, a monster, came to devil with the shifting pattern s of blue, playing on my coverlet and left again forwards the silvery, delicate cicadas pealed their morning mass. And I was afraid. At the table, my chin barely reached my grain bowl and my legs dangled wildly above the floor. I eyed the strange fair sex who stood at the kitchen counter and gazed out at the morning. Miz Edna, I said, Whered ya get this table? Well now child, I dont rightly recall. It came from my grandmother, I reckon. I couldnt recollect Ednas grandmother. My grandmother was already very old and very wrinkled. She stooped when she walked, and shuffled along the floor with a cane. Edna looked like that, and she said her heart hurt when she looked at pictures of her children. That was an affliction which plagued old people sometimes I had heard they died of it in a shocking and abrupt manner. Ednas grandmother must have been very old, even older than mine. How old is your grandma, Miz Edna? Shes dead now, child. She died afore I was born. You hurry up with your cereal and run outside and play. Yes maam. One thing I cant count on though, I said. Whats that? How did you get this table if your grandmother was dead afore you were born? I tol you, child, hurry up. Your ma and Ire going down to the store, and Ive got to get these here dishes scrubbed.