I can see the shingles are shabby from the street, but this confirms it. The more extensive the needed renovations, the less sense it makes financially to save this place, sad to say.
When I turn my eyes to the dusty old boxes, stacked so tight you can’t see the back wall, my stomach sinks.
Why the fuck can’t anything ever be easy?
Cursing under my breath, I walk back upstairs and exit to the backyard, skipping the shop. The sun is shining, and flowers bloom along the fence, which sits open, two women standing in the center of it and staring at me. One is the woman I saw when I arrived, again in a work shirt, and the other a curvy woman about her age with a wide smile and a pretty red dress.
Sue and Nance.
The woman in the work shirt scowls at me, and the other walks my way as she begins talking, a slight Southern twang to her voice.
“You must be Randy’s grandson, Clay. And here we were thinking you’re just a figment of the town’s imagination! To imagine, someone could be living in Randy’s apartment, right here in our own yard, and we wouldn’t even have met him yet?” She takes my hand as she reaches me. “But you are here indeed. You must have just been hiding from us!” she concludes with a warm laugh.
“Uh, hello,” I say. She’s smiling, and it makes me suspicious as hell. “Yes, I’m Clay.”
She drops my hand. “I’m Sue. And this is my wife, Nance. We, of course, live in the rear house.”
“Right.” I nod. “Of course.”
“You review the deed yet?” Nance asks abruptly, her arms still crossed.
“Yes,” I answer. “It’s jumbled, but I read it.”
Nance barks out a laugh. “Jumbled!”
Sue smiles. “The deed probably does seems odd, doesn’t it?” she asks. “But we heard through the grapevine that you were planning to sell the building. So we thought we might as well act neighborly and come over ourselves. Explain the situation.”
Goddamn it. I really should have found them earlier. She’s friendly, but it’s clear I’ve gotten off on the wrong foot.
“Sure,” I manage with a nod, trying to play my cards tight to my chest. “Thanks.”
“Randy bought the house first,” Nance says, matter-of-fact. “He was going to sell us the back half of the lot to build our own house, but the city wouldn’t let him. So we all struck a deal, and we own the house, and you own the land.”
“Right,” I say with a nod, glad to feel like I have a little context for once. “Nicholas explained that.”
“I’m sure he did,” Sue says, “but what takes a bit longer to explain is that Randy and my wife are both particular people, and they both required a large number of clauses to make this agreement work. For instance, the front building itself can never be torn down without our explicit consent.”
“Which we wouldnevergive,” Nance adds sharply. “No matter how much one of these developers offers us.”
Cash dwindles in my imagination.
“And we, for example, aren’t allowed to grow apple trees in the yard because Randy thought they were boring and uninspired.”
I swallow. “Okay. This is the appendix to the contract. All those pages.”
“No, the appendix came later,” Nance says.
“It’s like when you open a door,” Sue adds cheerfully, “and then it just becomes easier and easier to walk through that door again. Randy and my wife were prone to disagreements, and they learned to settle those disagreements with additional clauses to the deed.”
“Like you aren’t allowed any Halloween decorations taller than two feet,” Nance says emphatically. “And nothing motion-activated that tries to scare you!”
“We’re responsible for paying the neighbor girl to shovel the sidewalk in the winter,” Sue says, “so you’ll not need to worry about that.”
“Andweget to have Sunday brunch in the yard,” Nance adds and gestures around us, to my yard. “Whole yard. Your part, too. Every Sunday, weather permitting.”
I sigh. “Okay. Thanks for letting me know, I guess. But I’m not sticking around long enough for any of that to matter to me. I plan to sell.”
Sue’s smile doesn’t waver. “In that case, we’ll cut to the chase. You’re going to have developers salivating at your front door trying to buy this place, but the building isn’t going to be so easy to sell.”
