If you’re wondering why there’s a fireplace in the room where I’m writing, it’s because this room is the main room of the house, rather than, say, an office or a study (though I suppose there could be a fireplace in rooms like those, too, in other houses). I like it in this room because there’s a bench seat under the window, toward which I can pull the table on which I’ve positioned my laptop. I can sit on the bench seat, which is cushioned, and, whenever I look up from my computer screen (during a pause or a break in writing), glance through the French doors and into the front room of the house, where the two cats I live with often can be found, sleeping on the floor or the couch, or watching the street from one of the windowsills.