At the beginning of Paragraph 4 , the waiter says ' It was like the whole thing was sick of itself and have to get bulldozed away .'
Almond uses two powerful similes to describe the derelict state of the garage: "[The garage] was more like a demolition site or a rubbish dump or like one of those ancient warehouses they keep pulling down at the quay. [...] Even the bricks were crumbling like they couldn't bear the weight anymore. It was like the whole thing was sick of itself and would collapse in a heap and have to get bulldozed away." While the former enables the reader to visualize the rotten building, the latter depicts it as a living organism that is about to die. Both similes also indicate that Michael is surprised that the garage has not been torn down yet. However, even though Michael hates the place, his parents focus on the positive aspects of moving to this new house, trying to make the new house look like a mysterious place that wants to be discovered, as "they went on like it was going to be some big adventure."
