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“Me too,” he said. “And hey, thanks for calling.”
☼ ☼ ☼
Yes, the downstairs level of the house was taking shape but it was becoming painfully ob-
vious that we needed more furniture.
Lots more.
And although we could barely stand the thought of launching another assault on the
San Juan shopping mall, we had no choice.
So we duly boarded an early flight to San Juan the next morning and set out with a sigh
for a second round of marathon shopping at
Plaza Las Americas
, the vast, sprawling mall
on the outskirts of the city.
Our list was long.
In the furniture category, we needed a sofa, two comfortable chairs, a coffee table, and
a bookcase for the downstairs living area, side chairs for both bedrooms, and (since we'd
moved the rattan dining set we'd originally bought for the upper floor to the downstairs
space), a new dining table and chairs for upstairs. The new table, we decided, would need
to seat six to accommodate the occupants of our about-to-be-launched three-bedroom rent-
al.
Our list of miscellaneous items was even longer: a second television; a dorm-size fridge
and a microwave for the kitchen; second sets of bedspreads, mattress pads and sheets for
all the downstairs beds; a rug for the bathroom; and a thousand other incidentals.
Our first stop again was
Sears
, which, though hardly our furniture emporium of choice
back in the real world, had yielded a bumper crop of good deals the last time around. Also,
this particular
Sears
included a mini-
Pier 1
tucked conveniently within its walls (alas, now
closed)
and
it shipped to Vieques at a very cheap rate. What wasn't to love?
But luck wasn't on our side this time. The sofas in
Sears
were too big and those in
Pier
1
too small. The dining tables were pseudo-Mediterranean monstrosities almost as big as
our house, the chairs mini-thrones more suited to a mock medieval banquet than a vacation
home.
After a couple of hours of retail despair we finally managed to buy the bedding we
needed at
Sears
and two rattan armchairs and a bookcase in
Pier 1
.
That done, we dashed over to the electronics section where we found the TV we
wanted, along with a small refrigerator and an inexpensive microwave. For shipping pur-
poses, all of our selections were painstakingly assigned a single order number, a process
that involved several long and spirited discussions among the sales associates and a num-
ber of phone calls back and forth between departments.
Once this exhausting transaction was completed, we dashed up to the food court on the
top floor and wolfed down plates of tacos and rice in the midst of rowdy teenagers who
never seemed to be in school.
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