#572
Clora shook her head and vehemently said "NO, absolutely not. NO DRIVING."
Mark had to laugh, it felt good to have a special recall with Clora, she hadn't changed one bit; she was just the way he liked her. Now to convince her that he was recuperating well. Only her worried concern was showing and like it or not, he was feeling pretty darn tired.
"Will you handle the appraiser? I'm going to have to go back to bed. Big, will you assist me please." Mark struggled to rise from the chair, and Big had to hustle to grab his arm and steady the frustrated man.
Clora watched them walk down the hall and turned to grab her coffee cup. She was chuckling, Mark hadn't changed one bit. He was just the way she liked him.
It took the appraiser four hours to walk the perimeter and make all the notes he needed to translate into hard numbers. He looked a little worse for wear, burrs and stickers all over his socks and snazzy trousers. He looked disgustedly at his clothes and happened to see Clora standing on the patio.
"There are snakes down there and I'm sure I heard wild hogs," he protested, waving his arms in fright. "I can't believe you people live so close to a swamp, I'm sure I heard gators bellowing. Why don't the authorities drain that swamp, I'm sure that's where the snakes are coming from."
"Probably" Clora agreed with a smile, "They wiggle in here once in a while, we just shoot'em."
The man shivered, as he stared at the white haired, grandmotherly looking woman.
"You shoot? you look like a grandmother."
"I am, many times over. Do you have any questions about the property?" Clora was ready to get the man back on a business level.
"I have what I need, you may expect my paperwork in a week." The man looked like he'd rather take his pants down than get in his Escalade with fouled trousers, and it made Clora smile. To ensure privacy, she turned away, heading for the kitchen door.
Mark was asleep when she got to the bedroom, and she closed the door gently. He needed more starch than he thought.
Tess and the boys were at the table, she was leafing through a real estate pamphlet, and shoved the booklet toward Clora.
"Ma, this one seems like it might be interesting. Not too far from the school and certainly big enough. See what you think?"
Clora sat down and pulled the magazine to her. It did seem like a possible fit. An acre in town with beautifully manicured grounds and a 'Grande Belle' type home that was a three levels of living space.
"This is bigger than Lemmie's mansion by far. It looks like there is a possible ten bedrooms. And look at that kitchen and pantry, my goodness is it fancy" To Clora, it looked wonderful and then she looked down at the price. There was no set of numbers, just a notation that price was given by request.
"Oh my, I can just imagine what the price must be, higher than the clouds."
"I have faith in both you and Dad to bring the price down to reasonable." Tess laughed. "It might be worth going to look at, if nothing else, to have a benchmark for other places."
"It doesn't look like it has room for a wood stove," Clora said sadly, "that would be like loosing a good friend after all these years."
"No, but that looks like a heck of a big gas stove," Tess encouraged, shifting her eyes to watch Tilly, wondering what the cook and her husband intended to do.
Tilly looked at Big, gave a deep sigh, dried her hands and came to sit at the table. "We would like to stay here, Big, he likes the animals and the work here in the kitchen would be not as much. Me and the Mister are going to have a baby, and Mr. Woody says we would not be busy all the time."
"A baby, how wonderful. Any time you need to rest, please do so. Tess and I are here and can take care of our day to day. When is the baby due?"
"The first of the year, like the colts here that have a New Year's birthdays." Tilly beamed, "we may have a big surprise, twins run in my family."
Big looked alarmed and managed to swallow hard. "Twins?" he almost squeaked, "you mean two of them?"
, "you mean two of them?"