The house had been built when families were large, and had been part of a farmstead in the early 1900's. The farm passed through two more generations of boys raised with the black soil of the fields under their fingernails and the smell of fresh cut hay, corn and soybeans as scents they lived for. Their women loved the life too, from feeding the hens and gathering their eggs to hoeing their gardens and then putting up enough vegetables for the winter and then some just in case.
The third generation was college educated to become a doctor and two school teachers. They had neither the time nor the inclination to follow Nature's cycle of the seasons to tell them when to plant, when to cultivate, and when to harvest. Their meals were purchased in cans or boxes or from the meat case at the big-box grocery instead of from the large garden behind the house or the livestock and chicken pens. When their father passed away, they met to discuss their inheritance.
Paying the inheritance tax would mean taking out loans using the land as collateral. None of them wanted that. Renting the farm to another farmer for a share of the crop would have helped pay the loan, but there was always the possibility of a bad year and little income. The mutual decision was to sell the farm, and use part of the proceeds to pay the required taxes. The rest would go into their retirement accounts.
The community bordering the farm was growing and the farm was quickly snatched up by a developer. He cut and paved blacktop roads through the fields that had once been dressed in the spring greens and fall browns of corn, oats, and soybeans, then began building houses.
The old house didn't sell with the farm. The developer didn't want it, so the family listed it with a local realtor. It was purchased by a couple with four children. The children slept in the four bedrooms on the second floor. The couple used one of the two bedrooms on the first floor. The other became a studio where the wife painted pictures she sold at the local art fair every year. The family ate their meals in the dining room, watched television in the living room, and the children practiced their piano lessons in the parlor.
As life always goes, the children too quickly became young adults, and then moved away from home. The big house that had echoed the excited shouts of small children and quiet sobs of teen girls who'd broken up with their boyfriends became too large for the couple. After consulting with a local contractor, the couple converted the house into a duplex of sorts.
The original kitchen, living room, dining room and parlor were left as they were, as was the stair to the second floor. After the contractor added a bathroom there, the wife moved her studio to one of the upstairs bedrooms above that half of the house. The couple used the other upstairs bedroom as their own.
The front bedroom in the other half of the house became a living/dining room with an entry door. The second bedroom, the one that had been a studio, became a kitchen with a bath. A new stair narrowed the living room somewhat, but allowed access to the upper floor and two bedrooms, one with its own bath.
They rented the remodeled half to another couple but that didn't work out very well. The couple fought continuously, or so it seemed, and the owning couple finally made them leave. They didn't rent to anyone after that. As they grew older and climbing stairs became more difficult, they cut a door between the two sides of the duplex and moved their bedroom and the studio back down to the first floor. So the old house remained until the husband passed away and his widow decided to move to an assisted living facility. She put the house up for sale. It was on the market for months, and with each passing month the price decreased. No one wanted such a large house, and no one wanted such an old house when there were new houses in the former fields behind it.
Marion signed the divorce decree on the twenty fifth of June. Her lawyer had done well for her. In lieu of alimony she'd gotten the house and her car, and her ex-husband paid all the legal expenses. She agreed to that settlement for a couple of reasons.
Alimony would have reminded her of Rich every month, and she didn't want to be reminded of what caused her to file for divorce. She'd come home from a business trip to visit several customers a day early, and found Rich in their bed with a girl barely out of college. It had been a blow that he'd cheated. It was a bigger blow that he'd cheated with a girl almost young enough to be their daughter Sharon.
Old is how she'd felt after she'd caught Rich. Her logic told her forty wasn't all that old, but her breasts had increased in size over the years and her tummy wasn't flat and her hips weren't tight and narrow like that girl's had been either.
Carrying her daughter for nine months had caused most of that. Eating with clients hadn't helped although she did try to order small and eat smaller. Gravity had also played its cruel trick on her breasts. As they increased in size and weight, they began to hang lower and her nipples pointed more down than forward. A good bra and careful selection of clothing hid that when she was dressed, but that was the woman Marion saw in her bathroom mirror every morning.
There were other things as well that she interpreted as aging past being desirable.
She had been coloring her hair for years to cover the silver strands that began showing so early in her life. The beautician said many women had that happen and not to worry, but Marion only saw age creeping up on her.
Then there was her loss of interest in sex. She'd never had a strong drive for sex, but over the years she'd thought less and less about sex with Rich until she felt nothing. When her female co-workers made comments about how hot this or that guy was, Marion felt nothing. It was like someone had toggled a switch in her mind and erased all the instincts that made women want men to touch them and want to touch them back.
She and Rich hadn't been intimate for two years before the divorce. She couldn't stand to have him touch her. Marion knew that was at least one of the things that caused Rich to find another woman. She thought her lack of libido was normal for some women, or at least, that's what the magazine article she'd read at the salon said.
Yes, it was normal for, as the writer had put it, "women who are approaching the end of their fertile years". Though she wasn't there yet, to Marion, approaching that time meant she was getting old. Her daughter thought she was old as well. Sharon had told her as much one day when they went shopping together.
"Mom, I don't think those shorts are right for you. They're pretty short and...well, remember when you said if you ever looked bad in something I should tell you?"
"What's bad about them? I think they're cute and they'll be cool when I'm working around the house or shopping."
Sharon had frowned.
"Mom, your thighs are kinda heavy. That happens when a woman's as old as you are. You'd look better in jeans."
Marion knew Sharon was trying to help, but that statement, "as old as you are" still hurt. Maybe that was why she hadn't wanted Rich to touch her -- she was just too old. She didn't want to be reminded of that every month when she got Rich's alimony check.
The other reason was by keeping the house and car, she had a familiar place to live while thinking about the rest of her life and she needed the car for work. Neither was paid for, but she figured she'd cross that bridge when she got her mind around what had happened and where she was going.
Marion took a week off work to think. She reviewed her financial situation and realized her salary wouldn't allow her to eat and keep both the house and the car. She had to eat, and she needed her car to get to and from her job. She'd have to sell the house, but then where would she live? The realtor who listed her house had a solution.
"You'll come out of the sale with about twenty thousand over the mortgage amount. You'll have to buy another house or pay capital gains taxes on that money, and I have a house that might interest you.
"It's been on the market for a long time, but it's a nice house. The problem is it's a really big house and at sometime in the past, it was remodeled into a duplex. There is a door between the two sides, so you could use the whole house if you want, but if it was me, I'd lock that door and rent out the other side. You can probably rent it for almost as much as your house payment. It'll be like getting a house for free."
Marion looked at the house and was charmed by the inside. The original trim was real, varnished wood, not man-made like in her old house, and the high ceilings gave each room an open feeling she really liked. She wasn't thrilled with the rental side, but if she rented it, it would bring in some money. She asked about the price.
"It started out at a hundred, but it's down to fifty now. I think if you offered forty five, the owner would accept."
Marion's house sold a week after it was listed, and she closed two weeks later. As soon as her house sold, Marion offered forty for the old house and settled for forty two. Getting the mortgage took a week, and after signing all the paperwork, she moved in on the last day of July. After another week to get things put away, she asked the same realtor to advertise the rental half of the house.
The first applicant was a single guy twenty years younger than Marion. She didn't want the parties and young women he'd probably have on the other side of the separating wall. She politely told him no, just as she did the next three. Two were also young men and she turned them down for the same reasons.
The third was a younger couple who just looked weird to her. The man had tattoos all over his arms, and from what she could see under the shirt with no sleeves he wore, likely all over his chest. The woman was worse. She didn't have on a bra and the tight tank top showed her nipples as well as the bumps on each side from what had to be piercings. She also had one eyebrow pierced as well as a stud in her tongue that she clicked against her teeth.
The fifth applicant was a woman more Marion's age, and Marion instantly liked her. Sandy seemed to be intelligent, and her smile was contagious. Marion found herself smiling at the woman's every word.
Sandy liked the rooms, and she said the rent wasn't a problem. Marion knew the realtor would have already run the credit check, so she told Sandy she could move in as soon as she paid the first and last month's rent. Sandy dug through her purse and finally produced a checkbook. She wrote out the check, handed it to Marion and smiled that smile again.
"I can't move in for another week, but that'll give the check time to clear."
Sandy handed Marion a business card.
"If there's any problem, you can call me at this number."
Marion looked at the business card. Sandy was a buyer for a well-known chain of department stores with their main office in the city. She looked at Sandy and smiled.
I work in sales so I guess we're usually on opposite sides of the conference table. I think buying would be more fun. What do you buy for your company?"
