My friend Ben lives in a small house a couple blocks from me. We hang out at his house because it is a relaxed environment. Ben is laid back and outgoing and these qualities are reflected in his parents and his sister.
Jerry, his dad: jovial, potbellied man in his late 40s who does some sort of banking for a living. Runs his own business and therefore makes his own hours. Oftentimes you'll find him camped out on the sofa in front of his big flat screen TV watching stock market updates. From his position there he can only see out of the room to his left, where the wall opens into the kitchen. He has a straight and narrow line of vision to the kitchen table, the fridge, and the snack cabinet, but that is all he can see. So when you come downstairs from Ben's room to get some food that is pretty much the only time you'll ever be in Jerry's senses. Once he sees you though he'll talk your ear off.
Hey Nate, hows it goin buddy?
Hey Mr. V, I'm doin alright, yourself?
Good good. Hey listen you had a great year this year...you know for soccer.
Ah thanks. Ben was pretty good himself.
Well you see the thing about Ben is...
There begins a completely misguided and misinformed analysis of Ben's athletic ability to which I sip my soda and nod conversationally. Then, as if he's been released from a trance and realizes he's talking to me, he politely provides a completely misguided and misinformed analysis of my athletic ability to which I sip my soda and nod conversationally. Then he starts talking about college and all the colleges to which Ben has applied. I know that when talking to Mr. V you have to be the one to initiate the separation so I refill my soda and wait 'til there's a break in the monologue to part and go back upstairs. For all I know he continues to talk to himself as the stock updates roll by on the bottom of the screen.
Sometimes Ben's mom Lanie, is in the kitchen while this is going on: As Jerry is a social sloth, Lanie's a social bee. She buzzes around her house talking to anyone who will listen. Maybe that's why she's so open to us coming in all the time. In her moments of solitude she still doesn't really have solitude – she keeps a small transistor radio on in the kitchen while she works. During the summer the radio's voice is Joe Castiglione narrating Red Sox games, other times its oldies pop. She's small and thin and is in great shape for a woman in her forties – she's an avid runner in her spare time. I don't hear her around the house but her car is in the driveway, so that must be what she's out doing now.
I chill in Ben's room for a while listening to music and watching TV. We never really do much over here but it's just a nice place to relax. There is one fun thing about his house though, one thing that gives me a little bit of a thrill. I'll show you.
First I think you have to know a little more about how the house is set up. When you walk in the front door the stairs up are right in front of you. To your left there's a little hallway that leads into the TV room where Jerry sits watching stocks. To your right there's a living room that nobody ever really lives in: it's the room that gets the most sun though because the outer wall is a window. So the cats sit there during the day. This room opens into the kitchen, which is then connected to the TV room in the back. And that's the main floor.
But you can go upstairs, up the steep stairs. Upstairs is a tiny hallway that has doors to four rooms: the bathroom, straight ahead; Jerry and Lanie's room, to the left; Ben's room, immediately to the right, and Ben's younger sister Kelly's room, to the left, in between Ben's room and the bathroom.
