Short Story “The Plastic Chair”: A Lonely Witness to Courtyard Life
At first, they placed it near the sandbox. White, plastic, with a crack along the backrest. Grandma Gulchehra used to sit on it every evening, in her knitted hat — even in summer. She would watch the kids digging in the sand, throwing yogurt lids at each other. Sometimes she shouted:
— Javohir, uyga ketdik, bandlovarni tayyorladim!
Sometimes she just sat silently, gently stroking the knot in her lap.
Then she was taken to live with her younger son in Navoi. The chair stayed. Someone moved it closer to the bench. No one sat on it for a few days — as if it felt awkward. Then they started to. First, it was the neighbor Zamira, on the phone. She called her daughter in Korea:
— Men yahshiman, qo‘rqma. Qish yomon emas bu yil. Sen o‘zingga qara, iltimos.
Then came Abdulla-ota, the man from the sixth floor. He sat with his hands in his pockets, looking not at the courtyard but at the ground. Once, he lifted his head and quietly said:
— Bu yerda odam qolmayapti.
After the rain, the chair fell over. The puddle beneath it dried up, but the chair kept lying there. For several days. Then someone lifted it again. Children played around, tossed a stick, left. Someone moved the chair under the building’s canopy. And now it stands there.
Everyone sits on it — just for a bit. A young mother with a stroller, teenagers with headphones, a man holding a pharmacy bag. Sometimes no one sits. It simply waits, as if it’s on its own.
One day someone left a plastic teacup on the chair. Then a bag of sunflower seeds. Then a newspaper. All of it disappeared. Only the chair remained. Nameless, ownerless — but somehow needed.
Sometimes neighbors say:
— We should throw it out, buy a new one.
But no one throws it out. No one buys a new one.
Because every courtyard needs a chair like that. Just one. Plastic. The one that remembers.
Translation of Uzbek phrases from the story
Javohir, uyga ketdik, bandlovarni tayyorladim!
Javohir, let’s go home — I made plov!
Men yahshiman, qo‘rqma. Qish yomon emas bu yil. Sen o‘zingga qara, iltimos.
I’m fine, don’t worry. Winter isn’t too bad this year. Please take care of yourself.
Bu yerda odam qolmayapti.
There’s no one left here anymore.