Chapter#03

Beth stood at the front door, going over her checklist. Mike stared out the front window, watching the swinging chair rock in place. She had said his name twice before he snapped back to reality.

"Sorry, lost in thought," he apologized. "What did you say?"

"I said I can swing by tomorrow to take you shopping. Your Great Aunt had a car, but I wouldn't recommend going anywhere in it. You're going to need to get some essentials if you're going to make this place a home." Beth let the clipboard relax. "Which I hope you do. It was her utmost wish that the home stay in the family. I know you have already voiced some concerns over maintaining the property, but I really think you should give this place a shot."

"Yeah, maybe." Mike gave her a small smile. "This is a unique opportunity after all."

"Good. You have my business card, so don't hesitate to contact me for anything." Beth picked up her purse from the coffee table.

"Actually, there is something." Beth waited patiently as Mike walked over to the fireplace, removing the porcelain doll. "I don't care how, just get rid of it."

Beth stared at the doll and laughed. "I'm on it. Have a good night, Mike." She walked out the door and down the steps. Mike watched her as she went, the clicking of her heels on pavement echoing across the deck. He waved as she got in her car on the street and drove away.

The swinging chair creaked softly. Mike stepped onto the deck, staring at the offending piece of furniture. He unhinged the chains, lowering the seat to the deck. He let the front door shut softly behind him.

-

Night crept up on Mike as he whittled away his evening on his laptop. Using his neighbor's unprotected Wi-Fi, he checked on several sites he had been maintaining, answered some of his emails, and opened up his bank statements. None of the money his Great Aunt left him had been transferred in yet, but he pictured the new amount in place of his current one and wondered.

What would he even do with all that cash? If he were to sell the home, he would be walking around with several million and nothing to spend it on. He had been poor as a child, poor enough that by the time he worked his way through college, he was simply used to the survivor's lifestyle. All the clothes he owned would easily fit in two suitcases, and the bulk of his belongings were made up of a couple of desktop PC's and a tablet at his apartment.

He finally noticed the time near the bottom of his screen and shut down shop for the night. It was nearing eleven, and he still hadn't even eaten dinner. A quick search on his phone revealed a nearby pizza place, and he ordered himself a medium sausage with a 2 liter of Sprite. He wandered the lonely rooms, eventually tossing his bag in his Great Aunt's bedroom. He drifted through the house, picking up random belongings, trying to envision the woman his Great Aunt was.

He had looked her up on line. She had inherited the house from her own aunt (a notorious spinster) at a young age, living off of several very own railroad bonds that had paid off big in the 1940's. A job as a librarian supplemented her income through her fifties, and then she had simply shut herself away.

Not completely, though. Mike noted that some of the purchases in the home must have been made in the last couple of years. A few of the books in the library had tipped him off. She must have left on rare occasions, or at least hired somebody to shop for her. To be honest, the thought was pretty appealing to him.

The doorbell startled him out of his reverie, and he nearly dropped a clown figurine he had pulled from the shelf in front of him. He put it back and walked to the front door.

"Hi!" The pizza delivery man was, in fact, a gorgeous blonde girl, likely a college student. Her hair had been swooped back into a ponytail, and she was wearing a stylish pair of black rim glasses. The name-tag on her jacket said Dana. "Your house is gorgeous!" She handed him his soda.

"Uh, yeah." He leaned forward to help her take the food from its special cooler, and accidentally brushed against her breast through her jacket with his hand.

"I don't think I've ever delivered here before," she added, staring past him into the home. "Are you new in town?"

"First day." He handed her a pair of tens. As she dug into her pouch for change, he caught just a whiff of her perfume. His world started closing in. "No worries, keep it?"

"Seriously?" Her eyes were huge as he nodded.

"Yeah, no problem." He let the door close as she thanked him. Placing the pizza on the coffee table, he took a few deep breaths. The sensation of her breast against the back of his hand, the sheer firmness of it, accompanied by the scent of her perfume had given him a surprisingly hard erection.

He ran through the house, flipping on all of the lights. His mother's voice attempted to rise up in the back of his mind, but he shut it out. Years of sharing a bed with her had inevitably led to an incident, shortly before his eleventh birthday, when he had awaken suddenly to a slap in the face. In his sleep, he had managed to roll into his own mother while sprouting wood.

The physical abuse was immediate, but the verbal abuse continued. Whenever he got aroused in his sleep, his mother would slap him awake, or call others in to make fun of him. Often, this led to a sudden change in address, as most normal people recognized her behavior as appalling. Her constant teasing in front of anyone who would listen had led him to a largely celibate lifestyle. The few women he had been with had been unsympathetic to his sexual panic attacks, or his mommy issues, as one had called them. Now, in an unfamiliar setting, he found those old emotions resurfacing, attempting to claw away at the protective shell he had put around himself.