The chairs before the dance
Text: an original contemporary personal-account-style practice extract.
I arrived at the community hall early for our dance evening. The caretaker was moving chairs away from the rows already set out. I wondered why he was making us wait when there seemed to be plenty of seats.
He pressed the back of each chair and checked its legs against the floor. One rocked when he tested it, so he set it aside. Then he asked the organiser to show him which rows needed to leave space for people using walking frames. He measured the gap and moved two chairs. The checks took longer than I expected; from the doorway, they looked like small adjustments.
When the doors opened, nobody asked about the chair he had removed or the wider gap. People found seats, and the dancing began. I noticed the caretaker watching the rows for a moment before carrying the faulty chair away. The room looked ready because someone had taken the time to notice what might not be.
In this extract, the writer tries to create sympathy for work that is easy to overlook.
Evaluate how successfully this is achieved. In your answer, consider the narrator’s first impression, the caretaker’s actions and the ending. Support your views with detailed reference to the extract.