Finding the Chain by Mary Hood
"Finding the Chain" by Mary Hood is a poignant narrative centered around the complex dynamics of a blended family navigating a trip to a mountain cabin in Georgia. The story unfolds on Thanksgiving, revealing the challenges faced by Ben, a fisherman, and Cliffie, who longs for her childhood home in the mountains. Their children, including Drew—Cliffie's son from a previous marriage—and the youngest daughter, Jondi, experience a mix of tension and humor throughout their journey.
As the family grapples with the realities of their trip, including mishaps with their dog and the old cabin's lack of modern conveniences, they embark on a quest for an important heirloom: a swing chain that holds sentimental value for Cliffie. This search becomes a metaphor for their collective struggles and the search for connection amidst family discord. The narrative highlights the themes of memory, loss, and the bittersweet nature of family ties.
Through moments of comedy and chaos, the story culminates in a heartfelt discovery that brings the family closer, symbolized by their united joy in finding the chain. The snowfall adds a layer of magic to the ending, reinforcing the sense of togetherness as they embrace their shared history and future. This exploration of familial bonds and the inherent challenges of blending different backgrounds offers readers a vivid and relatable glimpse into the complexities of love and belonging.
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Finding the Chain by Mary Hood
First published: 1986
Type of plot: Wit and humor
Time of work: The 1980's
Locale: Georgia
Principal Characters:
Ben Stevenson , a man who takes his family to the mountainsCliffie Stevenson , his wife, whose family home they are visitingDrew , his stepsonMary J , his daughterJondi , his two-year-old son
The Story
Ben and Cliffie Stevenson and their children live on the Georgia coast, in Ben's native Glynn County, where he is a fisherman. Cliffie hails from the north Georgia mountains and yearns for the farm where she grew up. Drew is Cliffie's son by a previous marriage, and although Ben has legally adopted him, Drew has achieved only an uneasy truce with his stepfather. When the youngest child, Jondi, was born, Ben promised Cliffie he would take them all to the mountains to visit her now empty birthplace at Wildrose.
The story opens on Thanksgiving Day, the morning after the family's arrival at the mountain cabin. They are safe and sound but in considerable disarray. Their dog, Shin, had roused a skunk the moment that they arrived, well after dark, and she now sits, tied and reeking, with a pink flush from a tomato juice scrubdown. Shin has ruined Grandma Gable's Storm-at-Sea quilt by dashing into the house, skunk sodden, and rolling on it as the exhausted travelers were curled up to sleep. The cabin has no running water or electricity; when Ben started a fire on the first night, the house filled with smoke from a choked chimney flue. To clear the blockage, Ben ties snow chains, trace chains, and chains from a swing-set to a flat rock wrapped in a feed sack, which he pulls up and down in the chimney's crooked gullet. All of this goes on in the rain.
The narrative now shifts back two years, when Cliffie was sick and Ben promised to take her home; it then jumps ahead to the beginning of the trip. All of Cliffie's family, the Gables, are now dead, and Cliffie wants one last visit to the old mountain home before selling the place. The trip wears on everyone's nerves. The children fuss, the car slides off the rain-slick mountain road, and Cliffie mixes up the directions. The narrative follows Mary J's thoughts as she steers the car while the others push it back on the road and the bedraggled travelers unpack at the farm. The story then shifts back to the events of the first morning. Ben has now cleaned the chimney and Mary J has broken Grandma Gable's treasured candy jar. The stage is set for a full day's comedy.
The bored Drew casts around for something with which to occupy himself and lights on the chain Ben used to clear the chimney. While Drew is hurling the chain, like a track and field athlete throwing the hammer, Jondi dumps Grandma Gable's button collection down a knothole in the floor and Ben must crawl under the house to retrieve the precious bits of bone and metal. When he hears someone cry "Fire," Drew gives the chain one last heave and heads for the barn, only to learn it is a false alarm. After this crisis subsides, Ben has the sulky Drew, still the classic resentful stepson, help him load a trunkful of red clay into the car. It will be a surprise for Cliffie's Christmas.
While these events play out, Cliffie discovers that the swing chain is missing. It had been a "courting swing" that her father had put up after taking her to the feed store on her sixteenth birthday and buying a good grade of chain. Cliffie wants the chain back and confronts the sullen Drew about it. A snowfall threatens as the whole family searches for the holy relic of the swing chain.
The hunt takes them to a ravine that once served the family as a trash dump. Amid old bedsprings and pickle jars Cliffie unearths another decrepit heirloom—a porcelain doorknob with a special history. When Grandmother Gable's earlier home burned down, she saved the doorknob for the housewarming at the new house, the one the family is now visiting. The doorknob has lost its shaft, and Cliffie tosses it away in a symbolic acceptance that time is irredeemable.
The snow comes down in big flakes—the first that the children and Ben have ever seen—and Cliffie despairs of finding the chain. As they march solemnly across the field, "shoulder by shoulder, like a chorus line," in the fading daylight, Drew stumbles and falls. Floundering around in the mud, Drew discovers the chain in front of him. He shouts, holds it up, and they all gather around to clutch the chain. The soaring finale finds them striding to the lamplit cabin, all holding the chain, all one family, as the snow falls lightly all around and smoke from the cleared chimney drifts over the yard.