Chapter 5
Rowe
It feels like the entire world has tipped over and I’m falling off it. “The farm is in foreclosure?”
Mom presses her lips together as her eyes well up with tears. “Honey, I would’ve told you sooner, but I just couldn’t.”
She looks so shattered. I get it. I completely understand why she didn’t say anything before.
But it’s more than a blow. My head’s swimming. My stomach’s done up in knots. I’m going to be sick.
“You’re green.” She comes over and takes me by the arms. “Let’s sit you down.”
I let her guide me to a chair, where I sit and slump over, placing my head between my knees and taking in deep gulps of air.
We’ve lost the farm. What will we do? Where will we go? What am I going to do with my piggycorns? Where will I take them?
A light bulb pings, and I lift my head. “Maybe I can buy the place, or at least pay some of what’s owed.”
She shakes her head sadly, making her big hoop earrings swing from side to side. “We owe over forty thousand dollars.”
Now not only has the earth tilted, but I’m floating lifeless in outer space. “Forty thousand?”
I can’t even wrap my head around that. I have some money saved, but not much. It’s certainly not forty thousand dollars.
The doorbell rings. In my delirium, all I can think to say is “Bill’s here so fast. When did you get off the phone with him?”
She glances down at her cell. “I have no idea who it is. But I’ll go see.”
I groan. “It better not be Sally Ray or the sheriff.”
In case it’s the sheriff and I have to beg him not to ticket me for this morning’s piggycorn fiasco, I follow Mom to the front door. Soon as she swings it open, I suck in air.
There stands all six foot three of Luke Preston. His hair is clipped short on the sides, and a rolling wave of a pompadour rests on top. He grins his snakelike, thousand-watt smile at Mom and pulls a wad of hundreds from his front pocket.
“I’m here for the furniture.”
What?
Mom glances nervously over her shoulder at me. “Um, Luke, you were supposed to come just before the sale.”
He slaps the money into the palm of his opposite hand. “Well, I’m here now with cash.”
I step between them, focusing on Mom, who looks super guilty. “What’s he talking about?”
She rubs her forehead. The easy breezy new age person inside her doesn’t want to talk.
“Mom,” I urge her. “What is this? Why is he here?”
“He’s going to buy some of Grandma’s old furniture.” My mother shoots laser beams of fire from her eyes at Luke. “But he wasn’t supposed to do it until just before the foreclosure went through.”
Luke waves the money around like it’s his first time in a strip club and he just can’t wait to slide dollar bills into panties. “Like I said, I’m here now with thecashola. Take it or leave it.”
I want to slap the smug smirk right off his face. “Mom, you can’t let him do this.”
“We need the money, hon,” she tells me, clearly resigned to this horrible situation.
“I’ll be quick, Sabra. Just want the pieces we talked about.”
