#43 he's a very important man, my neighbour

I've said it before - I love looking at my nighbours, at their windows, trying to figure out other peoples' lives, what do they do, how much they love their families, do they dance? are they happy?

This is mister important house. He has books and diplomas framed on his office wall. He is having a meal just now in the kitchen.

My bets are that he's a dentist and he doesn't like his job. He was never a top student and always excused himself for it with the idea that it's not the grades that matter. Later he went to a couple of meetings mainly to show off to his wife who always thought that being a dentist was a highly respectful position. She didn't even finish high school and she thinks she was very lucky to have met him once at a disco matiné. His latest diploma is dated from 1987 - that was the last time he attended a meeting. He doesn't go to meetings anymore because he thinks he already knows everything and his practice is doing fine.Not really well, but pays for all his bills. 

Since I moved here, 5 years ago, I never caught him grabbing a book from the shelf. The last book he bought was 8 years ago because he met an old university colleague in the street, a good looking woman, and she was heading for the bookstore so he joined her. He bought a very thick mistery book written by a well known journalist that had his face on the cover and big red letters saying bestseller. He tryed to read it but always got bored after 5 pages so he said to himself that not everyone needs to be a reader to be clever and the school of life can teach us so much more and he put the book in the shelf and he doesn't even look at it anymore.

He's not in love with his wife. He never was. But working long hours, he needed someone to take care of him at night, cooking and ironing his shirts and all that shit and he is really happy about his decision. She is a good one, she's nice, doesn't bother him much and she still looks good after 20 years of marriage. He never cheated on her. He once thought about it, with a client, but then her teeth got better and she moved on to her life.

His wife loves him very much and loves to keep the house very clean. They have big carpets that she chose from a very expensive store many years ago and she dusts them weekly. It's a hard work because the carpets are really heavy and she does everything all by herself and sometimes when she's dusting it off the balcony she thinks that one day she will fall. She is very proud of doing all the house work all by herself. Some of his colleagues have housemaids and wives that spend all day doing nothing or going to the gym or shopping but not her. She wakes up everyday very early to have breakfast with him, in the kitchen table and then she irons everything perfectly through the morning. He would never suspect, but somedays, after he leaves, she goes back to bed and sleeps until 11 and when he gets back for lunch complains about how the new sheets are so difficult to iron. 

They always eat in the kitchen. At first, when they got married, they would always eat in the living room, but with time they thought it would be more practical to eat by the stove and now there is a big heavy fruit basket and a flower jar on the dinning table. The flowers are plastic.

Before he goes to bed he always has a snack and he sits in the kitchen and thinks that he's very lucky because there are always yogurts and fresh fruit in the fridge.

Before she goes to bed she looks in the mirror and says to herself she still looks good for a 45 year old and then looks at their weeding picture on the drawer and smiles.

They are very happy.