<\/p>\n
Ilona and Keith fell in love with the house at first sight. Truth be told, it didn\u2019t have the amenities Keith was looking for, namely, an outside shed to put his bikes in and another one to store his machines for polishing and cutting stones, but these shortages paled into insignificance when they saw it. The most important of those was its fairy-tale quality, no doubt and the fact that it was very old. It was erected in 1739, as stated on its plaque, which also contained some initials, possibly of its first owner and a square of gold in the middle. It was the oldest house in the village after the partly ruined castle behind it. It had three bedrooms on two floors, one for the couple, one for guests and one which they could use as a study; a large lounge which until the 1970s served as a bookshop and has a magnificent view of the sea from one side and of the main street from the other. Moreover, the village of S., where this house adorned its high street, was picturesque and buzzing with life. Its later characteristic was in stark contrast to another place in Scotland where they used to rent a holiday apartment, it had the lingering smell of neglect, even when they stayed indoors.<\/p>\n
The house was a bit expensive, but they decided to buy it, even if it meant making some sacrifices over the next few years. However, Ilona and Keith did not want to show their enthusiasm, so they asked the owner some probing questions, such as \u2018Why do you want to sell it?\u2019 The woman, who was in her mid-thirties replied that it was because neither she nor her brother who inherited the house from their mother ever lived there. She had been working and living abroad, recently in Morocco; and her brother lived in a one-room apartment in Dundee and needed more money to buy something bigger. This explanation satisfied Ilona and Keith and they put an offer on it the next day. It was accepted immediately.<\/p>\n
The formalities took several months to complete and then they were finally able to move in. It was great fun going to charity shops and gumtree looking for old furniture and rugs – partly because they couldn\u2019t afford new stuff for all the rooms and partly because they felt a house like this required old things, not necessary proper antiques, as they would be too expensive and might look pretentious, but things which already belonged to somebody else. After a week they bought all the necessary furnishings and decided not to go furniture hunting any more because they had exhausted themselves and wanted to spend the rest of their two weeks-holiday relaxing and enjoying their house and village. The village was indeed bustling with life. When they went to a caf\u00e9 three houses from their place, they were the last to get a table, and whilst eating they noticed some Japanese and Italian tourists. Ilona, who liked chatting with strangers asked them why they\u2019d come to S. and they replied that it had always been their dream because it was a model \u2018Scottish village\u2019. Ilona agreed, mentioning S. successes in the \u2018Scotland in Bloom\u2019 competitions and it’s being named the most beautiful small railway station in the country. The tourists were very impressed and Ilona was very proud to be a resident of S. She couldn\u2019t resist boasting about buying the oldest house in the village.<\/p>\n
They went for a walk in the park along the coast to the nearby village. It was full of coloured leaves. It was beautiful. They returned home in an excellent mood. Keith opened a bottle of wine. Just as he was pouring it into their glasses, there was a knock at the door. They gave each other a questioning look. Keith went downstairs to get the door. He was followed by Ilona. There were three people at the doorstep: two men and one woman, all in their fifties or sixties, judging by their faces and general demeanour. Ilona assumed they were Jehovah\u2019s witnesses, as they typically do their rounds in twos and threes, but they didn\u2019t look humble like the followers of this religion. <\/p>\n
\u2018Good afternoon,\u2019 they said,<\/p>\n
\u2018Good afternoon,\u2019 replied Keith and Ilona. \u2018How can we help you?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018We know you are the new owners of this house. We represent the residents of S. and we try to meet every new resident so that they can have a sense of belonging because we feel they contribute to the village\u2019s wellbeing.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Nice to meet you,\u2019 said Keith.<\/p>\n
\u2018Nice to meet you too. Can we come in?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018By all means, please do,\u2019 said Ilona. \u2018Would you like a cup of tea or a glass of wine?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018A cup of tea will be nice.\u2019<\/p>\n
As Ilona went upstairs to put the kettle on, the visitors introduced themselves as Gordon, Alfred and Morag, and then Gordon asked Keith: \u2018Where are you from?\u2019\u2018Me?\u2019 I am from nearby, the village of B.\u2019 \u2018Are you really? But you don\u2019t sound Scottish,\u2019 replied Gordon, who came across as the leader of the group. Ilona thought that he might be an ex-police officer because he had a judgmental look and seemed to be used to telling others what to do.<\/p>\n
\u2018Well, my father didn\u2019t have a Scottish accent and I went to a public school in Edinburgh, where I shed the little Scottish accent I gained in primary school.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018What about you?\u2019 They turned to Ilona, who was just descending.<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019m Polish, but I lived in Britain for over twenty years.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Where?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018All over: Banffshire, Devon, Yorkshire, Lancashire, wherever Keith was working.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018I see,\u2019 said Gordon and then he turned to Keith again, indicating that he regarded him as the head of the family: \u2018Are you now permanent residents of our village?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018No, not yet,\u2019 replied Keith. \u2018We bought this house to use as a holiday place.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018You see,\u2019 continued Gordon. \u2018We don\u2019t like residents who are not permanent. They aren\u2019t good for the cohesiveness of the community and for the local businesses. Bakers, butchers and fish-mongers will go out of business if people only use them in summer.\u2019<\/p>\n
Ilona was about to say that even if they were to live in S. permanently, the butcher, the fish-monger and the baker would have little business from them, because they were vegetarians and only ate dark, German-style bread, but Keith forestalled her by saying: \u2018We will come more often than in summer, probably five to six times a year, and when I retire, which is not far from now, I plan to move here semi-permanently.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Well, this is not good for us because by the time you move here permanently, your neighbour the baker might go out of business,\u2019 added Alfred, who to Ilona looked like a little rodent, with sticking out teeth and a light-coloured, almost transparent moustache., He also smiled apologetically when saying unpleasant things.<\/p>\n
\u2018He might go out of business anyway,\u2019 said Ilona, \u2018given that these days most people do their shopping in supermarkets\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u2018Not here. Everybody shops locally here.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018How do you know?\u2019 asked Ilona. \u2018Are you checking people\u2019s receipts?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018We don\u2019t do it personally, the local businesses do,\u2019 said Morag. \u2018They keep track of their customers and then we, the residents\u2019 committee, check how much each person spent per month locally. If this amount falls below a certain level, she or he has to make up for the deficit in cash. <\/p>\n
\u2018What about the people on benefits or rough sleepers?\u2019 asked Keith.<\/p>\n
\u2018We don\u2019t have any of them here,\u2019 said Morag. She reminded Ilona of some older Polish woman, the type described as \u2018mohair berets\u2019: the pillars of Catholic conservatism. She even wore a similar hat- small and dark-green- which she didn\u2019t take off during the visit.<\/p>\n
\u2018What is thus your resolve for people like us? How much are we supposed to pay?\u2019 asked Ilona with a whiff of sarcasm, which was ignored by everybody in the room except Keith. He preferred his wife remain polite, as the last thing they needed was to get into conflict with people they were meant to live with.<\/p>\n
\u2018120 GBP per month\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u2018Wow! That\u2019s a lot of money,\u2019 said Ilona. \u2018We stretched ourselves to buy this house and we had to pay so much extra because it is our second property: double the stamp duty and a second council tax. We really cannot afford to pay more simply because we want to have a holiday home. Can we opt out?\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u2018You can, but it is not worth doing. Those who opt-out, don\u2019t live in S. any more,\u2019 Alfred said with a ratty smile. \u2018It is best to arrange the payment through a standing order. In this envelope, you will find our account number with a report of how the community, spends this extra cash. You will see there is value for your money.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018We better go,\u2019 said Morag. \u2018Thanks for the tea. You have a lovely house. The most beautiful house on the street and probably in the entire village. You were very lucky to get it.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Goodbye,\u2019 said the other two guests.<\/p>\n
After they left, Ilona kicked the door.<\/p>\n
\n
\n\u2018Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.\u2019 she shouted. \u2018I never thought that we\u2019d find ourselves in such a situation. It was better not to buy this house. Maybe we should sell it.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018We cannot sell the house straight after we bought it. We\u2019d lose Twenty Thousand Pounds or more,\u2019 replied Keith. \u2018Plus we like it here. The situation is temporary. Once we retire, we can live here, open a caf\u00e9 or bookshop downstairs and take advantage of this fund because nobody goes bankrupt here no matter how bad their business is.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018I don\u2019t want to open anything. I\u2019d rather return to my country than live among such horrible and greedy people. If they lived in Poland, they would tax the storks, because they only stay there for half a year,\u2019 replied Ilona.<\/p>\n
\u2018Be reasonable. Contrary to what we said, we can afford the extra hundred pounds. And they are right that people like us, who buy second houses, are destroying local communities.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Okay, do as you wish, but remember that I was against it.\u2019<\/p>\n
Keith poured himself a beer as the wine suddenly tasted sour, then he went to bed. Ilona followed him because there was nothing to do, plus she always followed Keith to bed but she couldn\u2019t sleep, thinking of how insincere, patronizing and threatening the visitors had been. Poles are never like that \u2013 true, they are prepared to stab their enemies, but not with a smirk and according to Keith, Scots shouldn\u2019t be like that either. It was Albion which was meant to be perfidious, not Caledonia, but these three were worse than any English people she\u2019d ever encountered. After a couple of hours, Ilona got up, got dressed and went for a walk. It was shortly after midnight and in most houses, the lights were switched off but she realised that the lighted ones formed a pattern \u2013 there was light in every sixth house and she had a feeling she was being watched from behind the curtains. But when she looked at the windows the lights went out. She had an urge to throw a stone at one of the spying windows, but she did not. A cold chill ran down her spine as she returned home. She spent an hour or so sitting in the dining room and looking at the street from the window. It was the first time in her life that she\u2019d had such a view before now she always had a view of her own back garden or a private road. It occurred to her that such a view encouraged spying, so she closed the curtains and went to bed. <\/p>\n
The next day was Sunday. They returned to their home in a village north of Preston and the following day they were back at work. Ilona had been planning to tell her colleagues about their new house, but in the end, she didn\u2019t say anything because she didn\u2019t want to mention the visit and it was the only thing that came to mind when thinking about their house. <\/p>\n
Keith also didn\u2019t want to talk to Ilona about the house, but she knew he was thinking about it because when they sat down in the evening to watch their usual episode of a Netflix series, he wasn\u2019t drinking beer, only sparkling water. She knew he did so to punish himself for being a weakling, for not standing up to the visitors. However, the lack of alcohol made him irritable and he couldn\u2019t sleep at night. So after a week of not taking alcohol, Ilona bought him a crate of beer from his favourite micro-brewery, and he drank two bottles while they watched two episodes of \u2018Bloodline\u2019. Afterwards, they made love \u2013 the first time since they\u2019d returned home from S.<\/p>\n
In the morning Keith said: \u2018We will pay the 120 GBP per month, but let\u2019s carry on as before, we won\u2019t allow the \u201cpermanent residents\u201d to spoil our pleasure of not being permanent residents.\u2019 Ilona smiled. She had a different view instead. As shown in \u2018Bloodline\u2019, once you give in to blackmail, you never stop giving in, unless you are prepared to kill or be killed by your enemies. However, she didn\u2019t want to contradict Keith, not because she was submissive, but because it would make him miserable.<\/p>\n
The weeks passed quickly and Christmas was fast approaching. They decided months before that they wouldn\u2019t buy each other Christmas presents because the house in S. was the greatest present they could give each other. Three weeks before Christmas, Keith started talking about how nice it would be to go to S, and in the New Year see the fireworks in Edinburgh; which probably looked better from S. than from Edinburgh. He also wanted them to go to the pub or drink mulled wine at home and stay in bed long into the morning. But ten days before Christmas, as Ilona was walking to her office she tripped on an icy pavement and broke her leg. The fracture was complicated and it was expected that she would spend a lot of time in plaster. <\/p>\n
Keith took two weeks of holiday to be with his wife, even though she didn\u2019t need so much attention. In fact, she preferred if Keith went to work, as she was in a lot of pain and wanted to deal with it on her own, but she didn\u2019t want to reject his offer. So they stayed at home, burned wood in the open, binge-watched Netflix series, and drank mulled wine, beer and champagne, sometimes, all of them in one day, because the more alcohol, the easier it was for Ilonato fall asleep. There was no more talk about saving in order to afford the extra expenses connected with their holiday house. <\/p>\n
On Boxing Day, however, Keith decided to go to S., to check if their house was \u2018still in one place\u2019. Ilona didn\u2019t go, because with her leg in plaster she wasn\u2019t fit for travel. She prepared a box of food for Keith, as she expected that the shops in S. would be empty during the festive period and, anyway, they wouldn\u2019t have the things they liked to eat, such as dumplings with sourkraut, wild mushrooms and their own Christmas pudding.<\/p>\n
Keith left early in the morning to avoid traffic. Luckily the roads were deserted and it took him a little over four hours to reach their house. As he was about to open the front door, someone pulled on his sleeve. It was their neighbour, the baker.<\/p>\n
\u2018Hi. At last. We expected you and your wife to come for Christmas. Merry Christmas.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u2018Thanks. Merry Christmas to you too,\u2019 said Keith, eager to be on his own. \u2018My wife couldn\u2019t come as she broke her leg, so I came for just one night to check if the heating is still working and to bring some stuff.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Oh! I\u2019m sorry to hear that. It\u2019s a pity as tomorrow we will be having a village festival and an open meeting for all residents. You have to stay. We don\u2019t take \u201cno\u201d for an answer. I\u2019m sure your wife will survive. She cannot be that horny,\u2019 he said and finished with a laugh.<\/p>\n
This made Keith uneasy, but he joined in with a weak, fake laugh and said: \u2018Okay, I will stay an extra day.\u2019<\/p>\n
Just when Keith thought there was no more to be said the baker said, \u2018Wait\u2019 and gave Keith a box with cakes.<\/p>\n
\u2018Thanks,\u2019 said Keith. \u2018How much do I owe you?\u2019 he asked.<\/p>\n
\u2018Nothing,\u2019 he said. \u2018This is a special Christmas present. It is custom here that neighbours give one another presents for Christmas.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Oh, I didn\u2019t know that.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Now you know,\u2019 he said with a ratty smile, which according to Ilona, was a common characteristic amongst the inhabitants. <\/p>\n
The house was very cold, but everything was as they\u2019d left it. Keith put the heating on and made himself a cup of tea. Then he phoned Ilona and told her that he decided to stay an extra day, to attend the village meeting, which might be an opportunity to renegotiate with the \u2018village elders\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u2018By all means, stay,\u2019 Ilona said. \u2018I will manage on my own and even try to do some pending office work.\u2019<\/p>\n
Keith went to bed with a book, but he couldn\u2019t concentrate. He returned to the kitchen, opened a bottle of beer and reheated the dumplings he made with Ilona before Christmas while looking through the window. Despite the cold weather, there were a fair number of cyclists passing by. He had planned to bring their bikes, but he had no energy nor motivation to pack them, as he didn\u2019t like to cycle on his own.<\/p>\n
He had looked out at this spot on the street on their previous visit, but now he felt like they were all looking at him. Instinctively he checked if his face or his jumper was dirty, but they looked okay. The beer made him tired, so he went to sleep. When he woke up, it was seven p.m. He decided to go to the pub, just to kill time, even though he had a lot of work to do in the house, like unpacking boxes and measuring the walls to put up the bookshelves.<\/p>\n
The pub was quite full. Keith bought himself a drink, sat in the corner and watched football on TV even though he didn\u2019t like watching football or any sport, because he believed it kept people from doing sports. After a while, two guys joined him and they started to talk. It turned out one of them was from Edinburgh and the other was from a nearby village. When he told them he just bought a house in S., they started to giggle.<\/p>\n
\u2018Didn\u2019t you know this is the nastiest Scottish village this side of Edinburgh?\u2019 One of the guys asked. His name was Pete.<\/p>\n
\u2018I didn\u2019t know. I just realized.\u2019 Keith replied with an uneasy laugh.<\/p>\n
\u2018The prettier the place is on the outside, the uglier it is on the inside,\u2019 continued Pete. \u2018If you want to enjoy your holiday house, avoid places which have won prettiest village awards or go straight to Majorca or Costa del Sol.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018My wife and I don\u2019t like Spain, besides, I\u2019m from around here, so I wanted to return to my roots when I retire.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Forget the roots,\u2019 the other guy said. His name was Mark. \u2018People are not trees. They should be moving.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u2018Now I see what you mean. Pity I didn\u2019t meet you some months earlier,\u2019 Keith said.<\/p>\n
Back at home, Keith couldn\u2019t sleep, most likely because he slept during the day. He wanted to talk to Ilona, but he didn\u2019t want to disturb her, knowing how difficult it was for her to fall asleep after having her leg plastered. So he ended up watching films on his mobile.
\n
\n
\nThe next morning he took a train to Edinburgh because being in the village made him depressed. He also wanted to kill time before the evening meeting, so he went to the Scottish Portrait Gallery, which he used to visit often when he was a teenager. Seeing people from earlier epochs in their wigs and silly attire always had a soothing effect on him- even though he didn\u2019t know why. He later realized it was because they represented time and power. He needed to know if time will help him deal with his problems because he was afraid he won\u2019t be able to deal with them by himself. Age didn\u2019t make him stronger and wiser; it made him weaker and less self-assured. He felt tears filling his eyes, he had nothing to wipe them with so he went to the toilet. He felt better after that and went to the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition, which wasn\u2019t exactly exciting but took him, again, to a different reality.<\/p>\n
He had a meal in Edinburgh, phoned Ilona, and when he returned to S., it was almost time for the residents\u2019 meeting. It was in a village hall, next to the church. When he arrived, there were quite a lot of people there, maybe two hundred. Gordon, Alfred and Morag were there as well, talking to one man and woman. Although there were so many people, they immediately noticed Keith and gave him a sign to approach them. He did and when he reached them, Gordon introduced Keith to the other two, they were also on the residents\u2019 committee, and they asked Keith to wait at the end of the meeting.<\/p>\n
The meeting was about what the village had achieved in the last year and its plans for the next. There was also talk about the \u2018most beautiful village\u2019 and \u2018small railway station\u2019 awards. The railway master listed what he did to get the previous awards. He talked about his collaboration with the castle gardeners and setting up a small greenhouse behind the station from where some of the most beautiful flowers came to adorn the station. He also mentioned zero tolerance for drug and alcohol offences and vandalism. There were no vandals, drug addicts or drunkards seen anywhere near the station in the last decade because photos of people who were last caught partaking in such unsociable behaviour were still hanging at the display window in the village square. \u2018Naming and shaming is the best policy to keep our station beautiful,\u2019 he said to a round of hearty applause. Then there was a discussion about how to make improvements for the next \u2018most beautiful village\u2019 award, in which S. slipped from the very top to number 3. One reason mentioned by several people was the lack of flower pots in some houses as well as the poor state of some buildings. The addresses of those houses were taken down by Alfred. Luckily these buildings weren\u2019t in the centre of the village, but still, the committee awarding the prizes must haven note of them. Gordon asked if anybody was living in any of the aforementioned houses, but no one replied.<\/p>\n
\u2018We, the permanent residents, will deal with this problem,\u2019 he said with a twinkle in his eye.<\/p>\n
There was also talk about church attendances and various village ceremonies, such as the \u2018boat festival\u2019, the \u2018summer parade\u2019 and the \u2018S. carnival\u2019. The following year the village was going to have its first \u2018eco repair caf\u00e9\u2019 – the first in a place of this repute- its objective is to cut down waste and pollution. On the whole, residents\u2019 participation in these events was satisfactory, but there was the issue of older people not being able to attend due to poor health, as well the perennial problem of residents who were not permanent.<\/p>\n
Morag went on to present the committee\u2019s plan for preventing such people from buying properties in S. She summarized her meetings with the local estate agents, whom she tried to persuade not to advertise the properties nationally, only locally. Unfortunately, this suggestion was met with great resistance. Another proposal was to hold meetings with potential buyers before they made offers on properties. This already happened a couple of times, but the estate agents prevented further meetings with clients due to the fact that buyers were no longer forthcoming.<\/p>\n
\u2018In fact, the estate agents wrote to the council to object our practices on the grounds that it jeopardizes their income and they threatened us with a court action,\u2019 finished Morag with indignation in her voice. <\/p>\n
The thought that there was somebody in the region who had the strength to stand up to these people made Keith smile slightly. But it didn\u2019t improve his mood substantially. With every passing minute, he felt worse and worse still. He was sweating everywhere and his lips were dry. He wanted to drink something cold, like a can of beer straight from the fridge, but there was nothing like that on the ground. Tea with milk, home-made scones and ham rolls were served at such meetings.<\/p>\n
At some point, he became like the heroine from Hitchcock\u2019s \u2018Blackmail\u2019, who from a stream of dialogue was only able to discern one-word \u2018knife\u2019. For him, it was just a different word – \u2018residents\u2019.<\/p>\n
Eventually, the meeting was over and although Keith wanted to go home, he waited for the crowd to disperse to face his oppressors. He mustered the courage to be able to say that he wouldn\u2019t pay them the money, but they didn\u2019t mention it.<\/p>\n
\u2018I hope you enjoyed our humble parish meeting. As you must have observed, we have great ambition for our little S.,\u2019 said Alfred with his ratty smile. \u2018We want it to be the most thriving and the most beautiful village in Scotland and by the same token, in the entire world, as it is now official that Scotland is the most beautiful country in the world.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018I think it is a matter of personal taste,\u2019 said Keith.<\/p>\n
\u2018Well, here we believe this is an objective fact. But we didn\u2019t want to talk to you about our place in the hierarchies of beauty, but about something else,\u2019 said Gordon.<\/p>\n
\u2018What is it?\u2019 asked Keith.<\/p>\n
\u2018As you know, spring will soon come and we want all residents, especially those on this street, to have flowers on their windows and we understand that you and your wife might not be available to do it yourselves. Hence, we suggest that you give your spare key to us and we\u2019ll do it ourselves.\u2019<\/p>\n
For a moment Keith was thinking about telling them that he had no spare key on him, but he knew that it would only prolong the discussion, as they would harass him by telephone and e-mail. So they walked back to his house together and he gave them the key, then he went to a Spar shop<\/em>, to buy beer. He asked the shopping assistant, a lad who couldn\u2019t be older than eighteen if he knew who he was and whether he checks the identity of every customer, but the lad only shrugged his arms and looked at Keith as if he was mad, so Keith promptly paid and left.<\/p>\n At home, he poured his beer into a glass and phoned Ilona to give her a report from the meeting, but didn\u2019t mention that he passed the key to the residents\u2019 committee. Instead, he said that the meeting went well and there were no further attempts at extortion or assaults on their freedom.<\/p>\n The next day he got up early to avoid traffic. All the way home he was thinking whether he should tell Ilona that he gave the key to the residents\u2019 committee. He used to tell her everything, not because he had a special respect for her, but because this way he felt more secure: every problem shared was halved when Ilona knew about it. He wondered why it wasn\u2019t the case anymore. Maybe he was worried that she would disagree with him or see him as cowardly and defenceless. Even though she already knew, because he told her when they met, but it was a different thing to know in abstract and a different thing to experience it first-hand.<\/p>\n In the end, he decided not to tell her. They practically didn\u2019t talk about the house throughout the remainder of their holiday and the following months. The only reference they made to it was when they talked about a robin which had started to visit their garden when Keith was in S. They called it the little bird, \u2018our non-permanent resident\u2019.<\/p>\n When the plaster was taken off from Ilona\u2019s leg, Keith and Ilona started to do more walking, discovering places in Lancashire which they never visited before and in March they started cycling again. During the weekends they cycled fifty to sixty miles a day. It was after one such trip that Keith told Ilona: \u2018I want to sell the house. I realised that this place is not for us. I\u2019m so sorry I dragged you into it.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018Are you sure?\u2019 asked Ilona.<\/p>\n \u2018Yes, I am. It\u2019s not that I hate these \u201cpermanent residents\u201d; it\u2019s just Scotland does not matter to me as it used to. I don\u2019t feel like I have my roots there anymore; my roots are now in Lancashire.\u2019 <\/p>\n \u2018Fine then. We have to approach the estate agent.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018I will, tomorrow.\u2019<\/p>\n The estate agent was optimistic. He told them that houses like theirs sell quickly because for folk from London they are still very cheap and if they weren\u2019t in a tremendous hurry, it would fetch them a good price.<\/p>\n They replied that they weren\u2019t in a hurry and that they would wait for somebody willing to pay them more than they paid themselves so they\u2019ll make a profit. Over the next two months, the agent showed it to six potential buyers. Eventually, a couple from London arrived whom Ilona and Keith met in person. They said that they wanted to buy it for their daughter who was about to start her studies in Edinburgh. For some reason, she didn\u2019t want to live in Edinburgh, though, the mother said.<\/p>\n \u2018It is a lovely house, with so much character. When we saw it, we immediately thought that it would be a perfect place for her. And the village is so picturesque, with so many flowers. It is like heaven,\u2019 the mother said. <\/p>\n \u2018Yes, it is lovely,\u2019 Ilona said.<\/p>\n \u2018May I ask you why you want to sell it?\u2019 the father asked. <\/p>\n \u2018We realized that it would be too expensive for us to keep two properties and we are not planning to retire as early as we thought.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018We understand,\u2019 the couple said.<\/p>\n Two days later the Londoners put in an offer, which Ilona and Keith accepted. In the end, they didn\u2019t lose any money. They even gained five thousand pounds, which they decided to spend on a trip to India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Odokonyero<\/strong> Our chief commander was captured by the government soldiers last night. We shall not go on with our activities anymore. Inform everyone at your camps that we have decided to surrender. I expect everyone to cooperate. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2131"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3956,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131\/revisions\/3956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMy waist buzzed. It was the radio tied to the belt holding up my pair of khaki trousers. The husky voice over the radio-call spoke.<\/p>\n