I went to a foreign country and a couple with children lent me their house, or the room where they had first stayed, for me to stay. In one sole room there were the double bed and two single beds, and a wardrobe. You could smell the austerity in which they had lived, and one could also imagine the couple with the small children, living there, as they had been. I also realised it was such a big luck that they could allow me to stay in this room.
A few years later, I was still in that foreign country and had moved houses various times, to more independent places. I was still friends with this couple and I kept visiting them. They had also moved on in those years and now they no longer lived in one room but in a whole house, with a garden. They were leaving this bigger house now too, and I wanted to take it on. When I entered, I saw that, although they had moved on from living a small house to a bigger one, they were still living in just one room. The furniture looked different, but it could very well be the same. Maybe it was. The single beds were bigger, because their children had grown up. And they were still in the same room as the double bed, although the room was bigger. But that was it. They had moved to a bigger house but the austerity was the same. And it seemed strange to me that they were still living in the same room as their children. I made some comment and she confirmed or explained how each thing had ended up there, in this room, alongside their history.