Captain Bowson's marvellous chairs

one

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"We'll see you in a couple of days!"

"Be good for your grandparents!"

"Bye!" The standard thing parents say when leaving you with your grandparents for two weeks while they celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. Alfie grunted his goodbyes, and went in to set up his laptop and play station 4 in his too-small attick room. No sooner than he slammed the dorr behind him, it opened again and his grandfather stood in the doorway.

"Now, Alfie. I know you don' really like it here, but we'll try and make it as fun as possible for you." He smiled and left. Fun? How could a drizzly village in the centre of the english countryside be fun? He tried to check facebook, but there was no internet. Plugging his phone into the charger on the wall, he was about to text his friend, Mike, when the notification popped up in the middle of the screen

Message could not be sent, no signal.

"Why am I not surprised?" He said, and trudged heavily downstairs. His grandmother was baking in the kitchen, and a lovely aroma swept through the house. Lovely to all but him.

"I don't eat chocolate." He said as he entered the kitchen,

"Just as well, because these aren't for you. They're for Mrs St John next door. Be a love and take them over would you?" She asked sweetly, but Alfie was already out the door. He wasn't really in a selfless mood at the moment. Understandable. He had to live in this house, with no phone signal and no internet, in a crumbly attick full of spiders for two weeks, not to mention he had to be polite and not accidentally curse.

His mother had once said,

"You must treat old people with the upmost respect. No swearing, and always humor them." When he had asked why, she just smiled a knowing smile and said, "You try swearing in front of Granddad and see what he does. So he kept his mouth shut, in fear of something bad coming out.

Later that day, Alfie was playing Assasin's creed four, when their came three knocks on the door. Disgruntled, he paused the game and opened the door,

"How would you like some manual labour?" His grandad said,

"Not interested." Alfie started to shut the door but his Grandad jammed his foot in it and said through the crack,

"Five pounds."

"Still no."

"Five pounds and a trip to town." Alfie opened the door fully,

"How can I help you,sir?" Grandad smiled and beckoned with a finger. As they traipsed down the stairs, his Grandad added:

"And that's captain to you."

They finally stopped walking in front of a decrepit old shed. His grandad stopped,

"If you want, I know you don't like to call me grandad, so Captain Bowson is fine as well." Alfie smirked,

"Alright, Captain Bowson, so long as you tell me how you got that title of yours."

"Well, it's simple really. I was a sea captain, young Alfie-" 

"Not young, and you can call me A."

"I was a sea captain, Not-Young A. That's why we're here. Your Grandmother told me to clear out this ol' shed, and throw out anythin' useless." Just then, the grandmother in question crossed the back garden.

"Just poppin' out to see Mrs St John, and take her the cookies Alfie doesn't like!" 

"alright then, see you love." and then he bent down and kissed her, which was awkward for Alfie. But then it was over and she was gone, and Alfie was left a bit shaken up. "Right then! Let's get this show on the road not-young-A!" With that, he cut the chain connecting to the padlock, and heaved the doors open. Well, door. The left one wouldn't budge. As they walked in, a stagnant, musty smell hit their noses with all the force of a hurricane, and Alfie wrinkled his nose,

"smells like something died in here!" He exclaimed,

"Oh, aye. That's the point, now, see here." And he moved away a box filled with what looked to be maps to reveal an ornate telescope with etchings of the royal crest on it.

And so it began. Bowson would show Alfie an artifact from his sea days, a necklace, a decorated map, a message in a bottle, and they would decied together what to do with it, and Alfie would take it outside. By the time Mrs Bowson returned, they had three piles slowly growing in  beside the shed. One for keeps, one for trash, and one for selling. She pinched her nose as she crossed the threshold of the shed and applauded them one-handed,

"You've made a good start, boys!" She said, "tea'll be ready in half an hour so get your skates on. I don't wan' you in here after  dark, and I believe we're goin' on a trip to town tomorrow?" Bowson nodded and Alfie grunted, but then they were back at work. Ten minutes later, they reached the back of the shed, and Alfie was confused by what he saw. It was, of all things, a chair.