It was a large house.
Not a large house in a normal or conventional sense. Not even a large house in the absurd ostentatious sense that we often see on documentaries of excessive over-the-top lifestyles of irresponsible billionaires. No, this was a large house in more of the sense of Borge's "The Library of Babel" in terms of infinite (or at least unidentified) extension but with a lot more variety between rooms.
He was tired after a long day of work. His mind was fatigued and he was too busy thinking about all of the things that he still had to do in the upcoming weeks. He lived alone and after locking his door began working in the dining room. He knew that the house was much more massive, but generally only used 4 or 5 of the uncountable number of rooms in the house. Basically, even though the house had more rooms he basically only rotated between occupying the dining room, reading room, the kitchen, the bathroom and the bedroom. There were other rooms and they were all connected to these 5 rooms. There was always only one door by which he entered and he always locked that door and only that door. All the other thousands of rooms were connected to the very few that he occupied and one could freely wander among all the rooms without any doors between any of the rooms. In fact, sometimes just out of curiosity he would wander the endless corridors of the massive house which he barely occupied. Endless rooms with carpeting, bookshelves, dining rooms, couches, different styles of expensive and beautiful antique furniture and chandeliers. Empty rooms.
Sometimes he would spend hours wandering the halls and rooms. Sometimes he would even pick up a book and spend a few hours reading them in one of the far-flung corners of this massive habitation whose limits he had never reached. There were stairways going up and stairways going down. He had never really gone to the top level, nor to the bottom level. Sometimes he would look out the window and see beautiful green gardens. Always with perfect weather outside.
His excuse for not taking advantage of the entire building was that he didn't own it. He had contacted the owner in order to negotiate a purchase. He believed that it would eventually be possible to stop paying rent and to own the entire building. That was his most ardent desire. Full ownership. He believed it was possible. But the owner never gave him a price.
He felt elated and joyful exploring the domains to which he had full rights and privileges. In this space he found that sometimes he could even elevate above the floor and fly.
Sometimes. Depending on his mood. As he would wander the halls, he would find full restaurants with small occupied tables outside the restaurants. No doors between the inside of any restaurant or the outside of any restaurant. The customers at the restaurants were always attractive, happy and friendly. But he never talked to any of these strangers dining in his house. Some were sitting on his couches and reading his books, but they were always relatively close to the restaurant they were frequenting. Sometimes when exploring beyond the confines of the the 4-5 rooms which he occupied he would find jazz clubs, theaters, operas, shopping centers, ice skating rings, bars, dance clubs, gyms, swimming pools and parties. But they were always surrounded by the main theme of the massive house he occupied.
Empty corridors, lonely and quiet rooms full of books, antique wood tables with antique chairs, sofas and silent halls. He was happy to see other people occupying his house. Sometimes he wondered if they ever wondered who house their malls and ice-skating rings were in. Sometimes he wondered if they would ever acknowledge him as the host for all their activities. Maybe if he were to stop paying rent and buy the place outright. But for them to acknowledge him he would have to interact with them. And he never did. He always observed from a distance. It warmed his heart to see his vast empty house occupied by happy, smiling and friendly people. He felt love and happiness.
And then he woke up in a relatively small house with rooms that aren't fully utilized.
