A little piece of the sky

"...and this extravagant living room opens seamlessly into a spacious balcony. The plot right next to our site is going to remain vacant in the foreseeable future. So the view you see here is going to be guaranteed. Your own little piece of the sky!" The site rep had just launched into his well rehearsed pitch mere seconds after we entered the sample apartment on the 10th floor. The Mrs looked suitably impressed - (she was getting good at faking it. After all it was the fourth such site we had visited that day).

The remainder of the tour was unremarkable and we exited promising the rep that we would call back with a decision in a day or two. 

"So how did you like the floor plan?", the Mrs inquired post haste. "Did you realize, he was selling us our own little piece of the sky?" I remarked. I am not sure if the Mrs heard this because she was already on the phone informing the next site rep that we were on our way there. She had decided, when we set out of our rented house that day, that by sun down we would have zeroed in on our dream home.

To be honest I never looked upon a balcony with such meaning.The apartment I was born and grew up in, did have a balcony, however I don't seem to have many memories of it. In an effort to maximize space and increase utility of the said space, the balcony was 'closed'. A wall was erected to close the opening of the balcony and a neat row of windows were fitted in to provide ventilation and light as needed. The closed balcony transformed itself into a room which served the dual purposes of being a prayer room for my mother and a study room for me. Later when I moved into rented spaces where the balcony was like the balcony should be, I viewed  it more as an inconvenience - a gateway to mosquitoes and other insects in the night or direct sunlight in the morning - both going a long way in disturbing my sleep. Isn't it amazing how...

"Now will you tell me what you are thinking about?", the Mrs interrupted my train of thought. I turned to her and said, "How about we make a U turn and buy ourselves our own little piece of the sky?"