Little House In The Prairie

I am writing this post as an apology for allowing the blog sitting idle for over a month, and especially to make the Syndicate's followers hanging in a thin line. This is part one of three posts, each of which will detail specific part of our big move. Thank you for hanging on, and we, I, apologize for the inconvenience

W
ell, on the hillside, to be precise; and I always pass that house whenever I go round the area to look for a house for the Syndicate. It's standing there alone, barren for so many time, pinned by two larger house that already bustling with lively household. Tall grass protruding from its crack front porch, and and its gray paint dusty like the crown of an old sage up in the mountain. There's a small, weathered sign on its front wall, silently enduring the scorching sun, the daily breeze, and torrential rains. Day and night, like a seller sitting in lonesome idleness behind his withered merchandise because no one bought from him.

 Despite, I have never have interest over the house. I just pass it quickly as I go uphill, and I don't look at it twice when I go back down to my rent.

But then come a dire news from my landlady. Her daughter in law is getting pregnant, and she wanted to use the house I rent for the upcoming baby. She had said before that I have all the time I need to find a new house because she is not in a hurry, but since the pregnancy is coming sooner than she thought, I have to move by the end of July, which is just a month away.

The news ruin my schedule, and as time passed it took with it my sense of security. My searches are more frequent, and my mood is changing rapidly from a deep focus to a fearless frantic. It took one month for any bank to process a mortgage, and even if I got it, what about moving? What about settling down? What about....

What the heck. When I pass that house again late in the evening after a visit to nearby house for sale, I thought, I got nothing to lose, so I dialed the red numbers hold by the lonesome, weary sign in front of the house, and not get an answer.

“See?” I thought. “No wonder no one buy the house”

The next day a foreign lady called in and say “Someone is calling my office number last night, and I am returning the call. I am representing a developer of a house in Green Hills Residence...”

“That's me” I said, forgetting being rude for cutting her line. “I wanted to make a schedule to see the small house”

“Um” she sounded doubtful, “You are looking for a small house? For a new family?”

I don't get what she mean. “Why ask?”

“Well, mam, the house is somewhat small, I can say, typical house for a newly wed, but the empty land behind it is pretty large”

“And?”

“Well, the house is 36 square meters, but the overall land is 155 square meters. Would you still be interested?”

“Ah” I start to get her message, and it grows interest in me.

She told me that the developer will have an exhibition the next Saturday, and if I would like to visit their booth, they can offer me a discount on down payment.

It was Thursday, so I agree. All I need is bracing myself an excruciating Friday and another day gone when my life is hanging on a loose line.

They give me the detail on Saturday. That house is the only one unsold in the entire complex (of 88 houses) because typical type 36 (that's how people call developers' houses here, by the measurement. Type 36 means the house is 36 square meters; type 21 means the house is 21 square meters and so on). Let me continue. A typical type 36 house usually have overall land about 90 square meters and the price is around 200 – 300 million Rupiah (approx USD). That “little house” I am looking has excess land on the back, and since the land is kind of sloping down (the back of the house is facing a valley) they can't build another house there, so they include the excess land into the house and naturally rise the price. They offer the house for 390 million Rupiah (approx USD)

That's insane. I am not going to have money all that much and even if I apply for a mortgage, I will have to pay more than a half of my monthly salary for the installment. But, I look anyway. I have nothing to lose. I knew it at that time that I will ended up on the street, so...

We get into the house, and were welcomed by a standard, type 36 house.

The magic starts when the marketing opens the back door. What awaits us is a jungle of bushes, outgrown grass, dying tree and dry, rocky land, and about a dozen of brown garden spider, as big as the thumb of your toes.

 

The black mark around tiny specks above is not dirt on my lens, it's that huge brown spider

 

I raise my eyebrow, the marketing officer shrink.

“I think I need to talk about that huge discount you are offering” I hissed slowly. I cannot go to out to that bushy jungle yet, brown spiders are everywhere and I will be scalded if they bite, though won't die.

Now the marketing officer gape. “Huh? You want this?”

“Well” I grin at her “I know you are new. So, depending on your ability to convince me, with that discount and none other, I can or cannot buy this house. And I am sure you are also aware that this is the one and only house that hasn't been sold in this cluster for years...”

You know what comes next. It jumped up and posted first as my previous post “Two and a half bad news or vice versa”.

After this will be a breaking dawn, no, bone, or.... whatever, it's The Syndicate and I, our ground breaking history, and of course, we are going to share every little thing with every one. After all, with your prayers, donations, good wishes, spreading around, nomination for a grant.... whatever you might have done to help us, you own the share, the stock, of The Whiskers' Syndicate.