A Song Everlasting by Ha Jin

Author:Ha Jin [Jin, Ha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2021-07-27T00:00:00+00:00

26

Paramount Home Improvement had run into trouble. The company had just finished renovating an antique house on Riverside Street, but before it could be put on the market, it had to be inspected by the Quincy municipality. The workers had gutted the old house and replaced everything inside except for the floors, which they sanded and then varnished so that they appeared like cherrywood, shiny and vintage. Funi kept saying, “This looks like a luxury home.” And, viewed from inside, with the new cabinets, new bathtubs, new toilets, and new ceilings, the house did indeed look gorgeous. Frank had skimped on nothing.

The official inspector came, a broad man with a brushy mustache and a sunburned-looking face and wearing a short-sleeve button-down. His belly was hanging over his belt and his arms were thick and hairy. He went through the rooms on both floors, checking the heating system, the windows, and the sinks. He also poked here and there as if to see whether everything was firmly set. Then he went down into the basement. He looked at the PVC pipes overhead and told Frank, “You guys know the requirements, but you didn’t follow code.”

None of them knew what to make of that, so no one responded. When they were back on the first floor, the inspector explained to Frank, “I looked through the whole house and checked all the pipes in both bathrooms and under the sinks. I didn’t see a single purple mark. How can I say you guys are up to code?”

Tian translated those words for Frank, whose face contorted as if he was struggling to smile but produced only a grimace. The inspector added, “You have to use purple marks on the pipes and the other PVC parts, following the code, or else how the hell can I tell if you used the right primer or any primer at all?”

“What should we do about this?” asked Tian.

“Redo all the pipes.”

Frank looked baffled—code seemed to be something new to him. He tugged at Tian’s sleeve and told him to ask the inspector to step outside with them so that they could talk more about this. Once they were on the front porch, just the three of them, Frank pulled out a signed check for two thousand dollars with his name and home address printed at the top. He said, “Just let us pass, officer. We already have buyers lining up for a view of this house.” His forced smile crinkled the corners of his eyes to form a pair of fishtails.

Tian translated his request. The man took the check and glanced at it, then told them, “Here’s my card. Contact me after you redo the pipes.” The card stated he was Thomas Glashen, construction inspector contracted with the city government.

Without further ado, he strode away to his Ford pickup. Frank looked crushed. He had put more than one hundred eighty thousand dollars into the renovation. He needed to get the capital back so that he could start another project.

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