Going for Words/Paper 1

Paper 1

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Her

We had been shopping for a house for some time when we found the right one. The time it took was mostly due to our pickiness. They said it was a great time to buy. “We’re in a buyers market,” my wife’s father would say. I never understood that. Where I was from, people always needed a place to stay and there were never enough places for them. Apparently the need for housing changes here even when the amount of people doesn’t. My wife’s father tried to explain it to me several times, but I never understood. The last time he tried to explain it to me I gave up and acted as if I had an “aha!” moment so as to not disappoint him further. I’m afraid he doesn’t like me too much, but that really doesn’t bother me or my wife. She likes me, I love her, and she wants a big house, so we found one.

I don’t pay attention to the money. I think her father pays more attention to it than I do. Apparently we can afford a large house now since her father’s business got a new government contract. I found out our offer was accepted for the house we wanted when I was reading an email from my sister back home. Nothing had changed there: she wanted to come live with me, my mother forgot I existed, and my father forgot he had a family at all. My wife ran into the room and let out a joyous scream. “We got it! We got the house!” I stood and hugged her with a smile on my face. Whatever she wanted she got, and that made me happy. She was smart, pretty, and caring. These three things are what made me fall in love with her after we were married.

“Come on, we’re going to celebrate,” she said as she took my hand and pulled me out the door.

“Great. Where do you want to go?”

“Daddy said to meet him at the steak house. His treat!”

“Can I drive?” I asked, “We are celebrating, afterall.”

“Of course,” she threw the keys at me and I unlocked the door just before she reached out to get in the car.

On the way to the restaurant she was talking about how great it’s going to be having this new house. “We’ll have so much more room!” she said. “With all of the extra rooms we can even offer a place to stay for people that are less fortunate, and when there are empty rooms we could rent the others out as a B&B.”

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