In the autumn when I was six, my parents bought our first family home. It was a house in one of the new housing developments located in the suburb of my hometown, and we spent a few months visiting different houses in the area trying to pick the one we wanted to live in.
As a child, I had many ideas about my dream house, and each time we stepped inside a new house, I offered many comments regarding what I did and didn’t like about that particular house. However, I soon realized that my parents weren’t very interested in hearing my thoughts – they apparently had their own criteria, which were very different from mine – and so, I decided to utilize my time in a better way. At the time, I was reading Michael Ende’s famous book Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver, and I started bringing the book with me whenever I accompanied my parents for the house visits.
As soon as we entered a new house, I would leave my parents alone and look for a cozy spot where I could sit and read the book in peace. I particularly liked sitting by a window, especially the one that stretched outward with a spacious windowsill.
“That’s called a bay window,” my father explained to me one day as he saw me climb onto the windowsill to enjoy my reading time.
“A bay window?” I repeated carefully. It was my first time to encounter such a window style, and I had never known what it was called. “Well, bay windows are my favourite!”
As my parents left to explore the rest of the house, I stayed at the bay window, lying down on the windowsill and reading my book. The sunlight came in from the window, embracing my entire body with its warmth. What a luxury, I thought, I could stay here for the whole day.
But then, my parents soon finished their browsing, and I was called to move to the next house. At the next house, I would immediately look for a bay window and indulge in my luxury reading time all over again. Because of the luxury these bay windows offered to me, my parents’ house visits became something that I also looked forward to.