The Difference

A young couple are shown around a house with a red exterior wall. They think it is what they want. A bit different, they say to one another. This house is a bit different, it has a red exterior wall, they say to one another. The estate agent hears this through his earpiece and is pleased that the couple like the wall. Other couples have been put off by the wall. The viewing goes well. There is only one hitch, when a drop of water from the high-pressure shower blurs the camera attached to estate agent’s tie. But in retrospect this only adds to the sense of adventure and possibility which the house has come to represent for the couple. We’re the kind of people whose house has a red exterior wall, they think to themselves. Our lives are at least one-quarter different, yes. The next day the couple turn to one another. Was I dreaming or were the interior walls a bit flat? say the couple to one another. I’m so glad you say so, I was thinking the same thing. Why were the interior walls of our house so flat? The estate agent reassures the couple that this is one more exceptional feature of this exceptional house. The previous owners removed the chimney piece, at great cost, eliminating the hole that took up unnecessary space, like some permanent squatter, on ever floor of the charmingly different property. The couple looked up from the message into one another’s eyes. In those eyes they saw disappointment, even a sense that they had been betrayed. They forgot about the house with the red exterior wall.