Short Story: Operation Marpole by Yuan Changming

In this short story, Yuan Changming tells an endearing tale about the meaning of home and the endless search for a perfect home that we go through in our lives.

The house you bought in Marpole, the most affordable neighborhood in one of the richest urban areas in the country, stood for at least ninety, if not exactly one hundred, percent of your Canadian Dream, as it had cost not only all your fortune but your whole life’s effort up to then as a first generation immigrant from post-Mao China. 

Your wife and two sons loved its high-end location, its fashionable style, its pragmatic layout, and its good Feng Shui so much they dreamed about moving in right on the possession day. But after many arguments and promises, they eventually agreed to let you explore it as a mortgage helper for a few years first. 

To maximize your rental income, you rented it out to seven individuals, a nice mixture of different ages, sexes, and occupations, each seeming to be a good fit for the roomy house. For the next three years, everything went well until in mid-2013, you met a tall, handsome, and respectable middle-aged gentleman with strong references and good records.