We knew Sylvia and Jack had problems with their flats, but we hadn't been told the details. Not until they came for a weekend in October, that is. At dinner on the Friday evening Kitty said, "You wrote that the flat wasn't quite what you expected. Of course it could be too small. You're sharing with another couple, aren't you?" "Were sharing. Mother." Sylvia replied. "It really wasn't necessary." Jack explained proudly, "I've had a big rise, and we can easily manage. It's much better to be independent." "Oh, much," I agreed "What was the trouble?" Kitty asked, impatient and unwilling to let her go. "Nothing much." Sylvia said, "The flat is fine. It was the other couple. Sally and Tom Ford. You've never seen such an untidy pair. We shared the sitting room and the kitchen and the bathroom and got fed up with the mess of it all." "And what made it worse," Jack put in. "was that they accused us of the same sort of thing. Tom and I nearly came to blows when he locked up some of their wedding presents we were all using, as they used ours, naturally." "You take a chance when you make a sharing arrangement." Kitty said. "I am in my own flat." Sylvia said, "Sally and Tom left a month ago." "We could have left instead," Jack said, "But why we should leave? After all, the flat was in out names, not theirs. We were glad to see the back of them." Two weeks later Kitty and I retuned their visit for lunch on Sunday. It was the first time we had been to their flat. To say that we were shocked is not true, because we know our daughter extremely well. The flat had fairly recently been in quite good condition; it was now a chaos. I did not know how anyone could possibly live there. But Sylvia noticed nothing. What did Kitty mean by saying "You take a chance... sharing arrangement."?
Sylvia and Jack would take steps to deal with the problems. Sylvia and Jack were lucky to learn to share with others. Sylvia and Jack might have problems when living with others. Sylvia and Jack loved to manage their own affairs.