Page 75 - Lavender-B-5

Let’s read and find out why it is important to have a home.

Every evening, after dusk, the white neon lights would illuminate the street. I would sit
by the window of our rented house and gaze across the road.

The new apartment, Minto Towers, was being built brick by brick. Our new home. Our
own address. I was so excited. Mummy had promised I would get a room all to myself.
There would be a patio where I could display my dolls. I would fill up the walls with
posters of pop stars and tennis heroes. I would set up my computer on a table. I would
use the internet to chat with my friends, especially Rinky and Bunty. I would stack

away the letters from my foreign pen pal, Mark, in the drawer. He loved swimming,
horse-riding and skiing. I loved tennis, basketball
and making new friends across the nation and

the seas. There was so much to learn, even more
to share.

One of my close friends was Sumita. She was
tall, dark and frail and about my age. She had
dark, shiny eyes and was very intelligent.

Sometimes, on my way back from school, as

I got off the school bus, I would drop into
her home. She lived inside the skeleton
of Minto Tower. A tin shed across the

red brick wall was her makeshift home.
Sumita was the head labourer’s daughter.
Her mother carried the bricks that were being
used to build my house.

Sumita wore a tattered yellow skirt. She gaze: to look at something for a long time
walked barefeet upon the debris. Today she patio: an area outside a house with a solid floor but
had invited me for the umpteenth time. It no roof
stack: a pile of things arranged one on top of
was her doll, Priya’s birthday. Priya did not another
have one limb. She had even lost an eye. She pen pal: someone from another country with whom
you exchange letters as a hobby
was dressed in rags. Sumita loved her. skiing: the activity or sport of moving on skis
frail: weak or unhealthy
After a day’s labour, Sumita’s mother had skeleton: the basic structure
brought her a few sweets. Sumita offered the makeshift home: a temporary home of low quality
sweets to me on a tin plate. labourer: a person whose job involves a lot of hard
physical work
tattered: badly torn
‘Oh, what gift can I present your doll?’ debris: broken or torn pieces of something larger
I asked Sumita. umpteenth: numerous
rags: clothes that are old and torn

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