Hey, that’s Nodo!
Do you know what a chairs’ mover is?
Once upon a time…
This is how a story usually starts, correct? Well, let’s imagine, for a second, that this is not the case. See, behind the light blue curtains, there is a creature, and we know this because his big feet are sticking out.
No one else seems to notice him, maybe because he learned how to be invisible. Otherwise, how else could he manage to successfully hide his big nose (similar in shape to a big big toe) for such a long time? Now he’s there, scared to the bone by the presence of a small human. You know, a so-called ‘child’? This scary little human is presently seated at his desk, drawing a vast blue sky.
A child!
One thing you have to know about children is that sometimes they colour with such passion and such force that… well, in this case, one of his cheeks has ended up as blue as the sky he’s colouring. Believe it or not, our funny little man is petrified by this blue-cheeked child.
Nodo is his name and he has never been so close to a baby human. You’d be petrified too if you were him. Just one small scream from the child and in a moment or two, a few grown-up humans will come running and the world of Nodo will cease to exist forever.
Let’s wait then until the child goes to the kitchen. Nodo knows that humans are attracted by those steaming plates. ‘Food’ they call it, if memory serves correct. Chairs’ movers, however, don’t have to eat any food at all. All they need to do is to sniff the smells around them. ‘Sniff, sniff, sniff’ and as if by magic, their bellies are full. That’s curious, don’t you think? Alright, first things first. Before we move on, let’s see: what exactly is a chairs’ mover?
Well, I reckon you already know what a chair is, but not everybody (me included) has always known what a chair is. You see, somewhere a long time ago and very far away from us, nobody actually used chairs. They preferred to sit on the ground. One fine day though, in a time where even I was still young, someone had the wonderful idea to create the first chair – and what a nice stone chair it was!
Yet, it was somewhat difficult to move such a massive thing, so chairs’ movers started to travel around the world trying new chairs and sniffing all the smells they could sniff. Oh, and Nodo travelled a lot, believe me, he hasn’t always been stuck behind those blue curtains, you know. He’s quite an adventurous chairs’ mover.
A simple life
Nodo has always been a curious being. After a little bit more than a hundred years, bored of moving chairs in a huge castle, he decided to go out and explore the world. See, a castle is a fantastic place full of sounds and echoes. So many, in fact, that a chairs’ mover can go entirely unnoticed. Oh, with all that noise, how can a chairs’ mover concentrate on his job? He couldn’t, so he left.
However, his exploration soon came to a halt just a few doors away in a poor farmer’s house. Here, there were not as many chairs as in the castle, nor were there such sumptuous dinners. Nonetheless, Nodo had much more fun in the farmhouse, moving only three chairs. This was because noble people don’t really pay attention to small sounds, but poorer people always hear them.
Imagine the slightest movement of a chair in the middle of the night, in silence.
“Rrrrrrrrrrr.”
Suddenly people begin to jump from their beds, scared to the bone, shouting all sorts of unknown and arcane words of fear. Not that it really matters, since chairs’ movers don’t know many words anyway. Furthermore, the very few words they do actually know, they often manage to get confused.
For instance, Nodo thought a lamp was a massive golden fruit, and an orange was a large animal, like an elephant. Of course, we all know this to be ridiculous, as elephants are tiny animals with tennis balls for eyes and a curly yellow tail on their behind!
Day after day and chair after chair, another hundred years passed, an ordinary stint in a chairs’ movers life. The first telephones appeared, wireless radios followed and with them all sorts of new chairs.
When he began to grow bored again, Nodo decided to pack all his belongings and search for new adventures. One fateful day he was sniffing around in a market as usual, when another chairs’ mover told him something exciting.
“My dear Nodo…”, started the old chairs’ mover, sniffing the ripe bouquet of a bunch of lovely pink tomatoes. “Have you ever heard about the Land of the Chairs’ Movers?”
Nodo, who was sniffing around a beautiful piece of French cheese, turned to see if his colleague was joking. The other chairs’ mover was completely serious.
“See, I’m too old and too much of a coward to go out and explore the world, but you are still young, Nodo, and you must try. The Land of the Chairs’ Movers is a land where the smell is so delicious all of the time because the people always bring new smells with them from wherever they have just been”.
Nodo didn’t completely believe that old mover at first. Furthermore, chairs’ movers are not known to be fast decision-makers. Yet the very idea of discovering that wonderful Land of the Chairs’ Movers grew day after day and chair after chair within him. After almost twenty years had passed, Nodo felt it was time to go out again and explore the world. He took his old backpack, put inside a chair-shaped piece of wood and a cork and jumped out of the window.
Did you like it? Continue to read about a new character: Glovy!
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The character in the picture is created by Gabriele Manca (DMQproductions), who reserves all rights.
All rights of the story “Nodo the chairs’ mover” and its translation in Italian are reserved by Daniele Frau.
