Built In Nook Bench Novels & Stories

​I turned back toward the empty wooden bench in the center of the yard, trying to make sense of the scene. ​And then I saw it. ​It was Noah's phone, sitting right in the middle of the wooden seat. ​I walked over slowly and picked it up. The screen was completely dark and unlit. There were no cracks on the glass, no scratches on the casing, and no obvious signs of a physical struggle around the bench. It was just left behind, sitting alone on the wood. ​Noah would never leave his phone behind like this. Not voluntarily. Not with everything going on around us and the constant threats lingering over his head.

Noah said. He hadn't planned to say it. It came out in the particular way things came out when you weren't paying attention to the door you were keeping them behind. Eli was still. His pen stopped moving on the plans. "I didn't know," he said. "His workbench is still in the back. I use it. It needed — " Noah picked up the screwdriver again. "I needed something that was mine. In that space. Something I made." A pause.

From wall to tables, couches and lights, everything is white. It looks peaceful. There is a big window at one side from where I can look down at the city. On the other wall, there is a shelf with files and books. “Do you like your cabin Nat?” Noah asked after a moment of silence. “Its beautiful. I like it” I said with a smile. “I am glad because you are going to spend a lot of time here” he said. I settled down on the chair behind my desk and Noah sat on the chair across from me.

Noah chose the one next to Micha’s, while Nate had chosen the smallest one. I tapped Noah’s doorframe and stepped inside. “If you shift the desk, I can get proper beds, nightstands, dressers… whatever you need.” He turned from the closet and met my eyes. “The frames here are too small for us. We’ll all probably need new ones.” “If you can just clear the heavy pieces to the basement, I’ll handle the rest.” His smile was slow and paternal. “We’ll do that, but first… we need to talk.”

Riley said. "Yes," I said. "And Jenna," she said. I looked at her. "Add Hammer's bench to the network's story," she said. "Not formally. But when organizations come to the compound. When we host visits from the second cohort or the third. The bench should be part of what we show them." She paused. "Not as a memorial. As the place where the foundation was laid. Where someone who ran toward instead of away helped build something that is still building." She held my gaze. "That is what the bench is."

I ran my hand along the woodwork beautifully crafted to match the rest of the apartment. "How?" The shelves were partially filled with the books that arrived from Palo Alto, as well as all the ones I'd already picked up from Columbia, with plenty of room for more. In the corner was a beautiful plush chaise lounge. The large modern light hanging above made it the perfect spot for reading. "I-I don't know what to say." Nox wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close. "Say you won't leave your school shit on the dining room table."

It was a bargain. I’m setting up an area in the lounge space by one of the arched windows as my reading nook. Dad has bought me a large fluffy, pale pink bean bag for the corner and Atlas has given me vouchers for Button’s shops on the hight street where I have my eye on a beautiful mahogany, square table. There’s a matching bookcase I want to get for all my books. Only, I do have a lot of books so I may need to put a bookcase or some shelving up in the bedroom too.

he shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe,” I announced at the thought. He might be right. I had never thought about that but it did make sense. If I got it out on paper and out of my head then maybe I could focus on other things. And even if he was wrong, I was willing to give it a try. I looked over at the desk in the nook of the kitchen and walked over to it. It had a computer on it that Josh updated every year and it looked out into the backyard through a large semicircle window. I had always loved the nook for that and at one point I had even thought about constructing a seating bench at the window so that you could look out and enjoy the roses that grew around the edges and under the window.

"Can we go to the bookshop?" They went. The shop occupied a converted house three streets over, with a resident dog named Duchess who greeted Noah by name and a whole shelf dedicated to field guides that Noah navigated with the confidence of a regular. He selected three books with careful deliberation — one on Pacific Northwest raptors, one a slim volume on migratory patterns he'd apparently been eyeing for weeks, and a third that surprised Adrian: a novel about a woman who builds something from nothing, its cover showing a small house under construction against a wide sky. "That one's for Mom," Noah said, setting it on the counter with the others. "She'll like it. Because she's Mom."

EMMA We carried our drinks onto the deck, one of my favorite parts of my cabin. Jenny and Nico had given me a patio set as a house-warming gift; it was second-hand, because they knew my passion for re-purposing, and Jenny had made all new cushions for the two chairs that flanked a re-finished table and for the cozy wicker loveseat. Noah sank onto one side of that small sofa and patted the space next to him. "C'mere. This is the best seat in the house."