Seeing More Houses with Claudine and Albert
“What do you think?” I asked Claudine, as by now her and Albert were so keen on us buying a house, they came along to the viewings with us. I presumed they were bored and, like me, enjoyed people spending money and looking at houses.
“Oh my God, Corian! CO-RI-AN!” Claudine shouted up to the thirty-five-foot high ceiling.
It was the kitchen counter top, which looked pretty ordinary to me and nothing like a good marble or enduring granite. They explained why I should be so excited, and I was not.
“This is the greatest shower. There is enough room for a shower party!”
Albert giggled and went off to see another wing of the house.
“So you like this?” Tim asked with his hands on his hips. Was he offering it to me, or just asking my opinion?
“Do you?” I replied, but I really meant, “Are you ever going to buy a house?
Everyone, including me, would love to know.”
“That’s not what I asked. Come on, let’s talk seriously, what do you think?”
“I think it’s the most beautiful house I have ever seen,” I said quietly, like I was confessing to a sin.
“Do you really? I ‘m not sure I like being on the golf course like this. All those balls could be dangerous you know?” he said looking at a carpet of thick, undulating green grass with not a golfer in sight.
Claudine walked back across the cream marble silently in her white canvas sneakers. He asked the same question in her direction.
“What! Are you insane? Come here! Do you think you will ever see a golf ball? No! Show me the golf balls! Do you see any golf balls? Broken windows or what?” She waved her hands toward the perfect scene that looked like a hand-woven carpet, without rabbit foot prints, least of all golf balls.
“I can’t even see any golfers,” said Albert in a dry tone, and smiled at me.
“Well, you couldn’t if they hit you in the face!” she snapped back at him and he shuffled off, happy with his remark.
My attention returned to the person presently running my life, by absurdly looking for the one killer golf ball.
He looked at me for support and I didn’t give him any. This was a very expensive house, and who knew the parameters of his budget.
They all thought that I knew but I didn’t, but still they kept peppering me with questions.
In my mind, this house was so beautiful that only money could be a reasonable obstacle...not golf balls.