Let's Buy A House

"Okay. Here is Gracie's BnB." He announced a small eternity later. I exhaled gratefully and jumped away from the truck. I'd never met aan who spoke for long periods of time as Bill. He didn't even care that we weren't contributing to the conversation.




We knew literally everything about Bill. From the size of his ranch, to the names of his children, to that of his parents and his favourite spots in Llanwrtyd but the man didn't even know our first names.




'Must love the sound of his voice' the voice piped up once again.




The building he brought us to was antique and also charming. The wooden steps led to a brown balcony and a woman in a rocking chair and a black cat in her lap. She closed the book she was reading and clabbered to her feet.




"Guests! Oh, what a beautiful sight." She exclaimed happily, even clapping her hands together.




'Sheesh, desperate much?' The voice sniped again.




"Shut it." I whispered.




"What?" Mum asked.




"Nothing." I widened my eyes at her before hurrying to the bouncing grandma. I was talking to myself now?




"So, I'm listening." We were in the room Mrs Clark had put us after she nearly talked our ear off as well.




Gulping down my drink, I hacked several times because it went down the wrong way. Mum only stared at me impassively.




Tough crowd. "Okay. Um, full disclosure, I was upset at the time so technically, it wasn't my fault but dad's." At mother's look of protest, I launched into the story before she could object further.




The further I went into my story, the more whiter she became. When I got to the part about dad's mistress, she became so pale, I was afraid she would faint.




"You...you burnt your father's car?" She stuttered, her face devoid of any colour.




"Yes, I did. I needed him to be preoccupied while we made a run for it."




"But why did we have to run?"




"Because I heard dad tell his mistress that the only reason he hasn't killed you yet is because your father left his entire wealth to me. He asked her to wait until I was twenty one when he could get the money and he would be rid of the both of us."




The bed in the room was a king sized bed and mother hadn't been sitting at the edge but somehow, she managed to collapse on the floor at my news.




"How? That's not possible. You. You are lying to me! Frank would never do this to me!" She wailed, swiping angry tears away from her eyes as she trashed around on the floor. She managed to get to her feet sometime later before turning on me again. "I'm going to call my husband and ask him about this. There has to be a mixup somewhere."




I took out the genie box and produced the first two documents and passed them to her silently.




"I believe you recognize your father's handwriting." I announced calmly and waited for her to unfold the papers. "You bought told me the only thing he left me was the $30,000 for my college fund, so how did I know about any of these? Also, the money we've been spending, I found it along these documents in a secret room Frank sealed them in. I have several more documents here. They are about you mother. He didn't run into you in college and fall in love. He had been trailing you for years before he planned that meeting that day. He has been with you for so long because he hasn't been able to get your dad's money. He doesn't have any reason to keep you alive anymore. If you go to him now, he'll kill you. And them he'll kill me too."




Mother swooned and I yelped.

It took several minutes before she was awake again. She spent the night screaming and crying ereyes out and nothing I said could console her. "Why?" Shee mumbled over and over. I could do nothing but be there for her.




**      **       **        **




The first ray of sun filtered into the room and washed over mother and I curled over each other. I was unsure how we'd ended up in this position but sometime in the night, holding mother was the only way I could reduce her tears into sniffles.




"Hey mum." I called softly, my voice lower than a whisper.




"Hey." She wouldn't look at me.




"Frank never loved me." She mumbled out of nowhere. "What didn't I do right?" That was nearly the same question I'd asked myself days ago.




"You did everything right mum. But he is wrong. There's nothing that can be done to correct someone who's wired wrong." She nodded mutely. She stared at the walls in a lost daze once again.




"What now?" She mumbled again.




"We make a new start mum. We have a second chance to do everything right."




"I don't understand." Her face crumpled again, tears threatening to fall once more.




"I mean, we have almost half a million dollars mum. We are in a different country. He'll never find us. The slate has been wiped clean. Now we can do whatever we want. What do you want to do.?"




"I don't know?"




"Would you like to buy a house?" I blurted.