we had to leave the flat on Loomis quick. The water pipes broke and the Landlord wouldn't fix them because the house was too old. We had to leave fast. We were using the washroom next door and crying water over in empty milk gallons. That's why Mama and Papa looked for a house, and that's why we moved into the house on Mango street, far away, on the other side of town.
They always told us that one day we would move into a house, a real house that would be ours for always so we wouldn't have to move each year. and our house would have to running water and pipes that worked. and inside it would have real stairs, not hallway stairs, but stairs inside like the house on T.V. And we'd have a basement and at least three washroom so when we took a bath we wouldn't have to tell everybody. Our house would be white with trees around it, a great big yard and grass growing without a fence. This was the house Papa talked about when he held a lottery ticket and this was the house Mama dreamed up in the the stories she told us before we went to bed.
But the house on Mango street is not the way they told it at all. It's small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you'd think they were holding their breath. Bricks are crumbling in places, and the front door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in. There is no front yard, only four little elms the city planted by the curb.out back is small yard that looks smaller between the two buildings on either side. There are stairs in our house, but they're ordinary hallway stairs, and the house has only one Papa, Carlos and Kiki, me and Nenny.