Stuart Martin owed me money, a lot of money--$100,000 to be exact. He was a salesman, on the road a lot, with a nasty gambling habit. He and I had been friends since high school, which was why I loaned him the money he needed to help him purchase a particular house he and his wife wanted two years ago. She thought he got the loan from the bank. He was suppose to pay me back fully within three years by making monthly installmentsโand I wasn't even charging interest. As I said, this is year number two and I haven't seen a penny of the money. My inquiries into the whereabouts of the money got me apology after apology and promises that he would begin paying very soon.
My patience was finally gone. My inquiries turned into threats and finally my threats had turned into my deciding to take some action.
I had only been to his house once, which was when he bought it. That was the first and only time that I had met his wife Margaret Jean. Though I had never met them, he had two beautiful daughters, Leigh and Emily, 19 and 18 respectively. I doubted Margaret Jean would recognize me and knew the girls would have no idea who I was.
I knocked on the front door of Stuart's house. It was answered by, as I found out later, Emily. She had shoulder length dirty blonde hair, beautiful blue eyes, stood at about 5'4 and probably didn't weigh 115 pounds.
"Hi," Emily said having no idea who I was, "May I help you?"
"Yes, hi, I am Joe Smith. I am here to see your dad. Is he home?" I asked knowing full well that he was.
"Yes, he is here. Come in and I will get him for you," she said turning, "DADDY!" she hollered.
"Yes dear!" I could hear him holler back. The typical suburbia family!
"A Mr. Smith is here to see you," she replied.
There was silence. And then he appeared, "Joe! I am so surprised! Good to see you," he said grabbing my hand to shake it, acting as if we were best friends from years ago, "Please excuse my daughter. She tends to be loud sometimes," he said laughing still shaking my hand. I could tell he was nervous and was stunned that I was at his house.
"Come on back to my office. Would you like something to drink?" he said out of courtesy versus actually caring if I needed something. I replied that I didn't.
We reached his office and he quickly closed the door, "What brings you to the neighborhood?" he asked laughing nervously. He offered me the seat in front of his desk, but I went around and sat in his seat behind the desk, sitting my rather large black bag down next to the wall, setting the tone for the meeting.
"Stuart, cut the shit! You know why I am here," I began quickly, "Where's my fucking money?"
"I I I I, Joe," he stuttered, "You know I don't have that money right now. I swear I will get it to you soon!" he continued stuttering, continuing to laugh nervously.
"I am sick of waiting, Stuart. I have waited for two years. You can give me $68,000 right now and I will leave without further trouble," I replied. That was the amount that I should have gotten by the two year mark.
"Sixty-eight thousand!!!...I don't have that kind of cash here!" he replied, the laugh gone and dread setting in.
"Fine then, per our agreement, I am going to take over ownership of the house. You and your family have thirty days to get out," I said getting up from the seat. When I gave him the money we drew up an agreement that if he defaulted repaying me, then the title to the house would revert to my name.
"Joe, you can't...there must be something I can do to buy some more time. Please!" he said, by this time begging.
I stopped and sat back down, "We may be able to work something out, but you MUST do exactly what I tell you, without hesitation or I will leave and you will have thirty days to get out as I said before."
"Fine. Great! Whatever you say," he said relieved.
"The first thing you will do is call your wife in here. You will tell her where you got the money and of our little agreement," I began.
"What!?! Joe! Please, you can't," he began. I immediately stood up and moved towards the door, "NO! Wait! Okay!" He begged, "I'll go get her. Please don't leave."
"One more fuck up Stuart, ONE MORE, and I am out of here. Do you understand what ONE MORE means? Whatever I tell you to do, you will do it immediately! Understand?" I said gritting my teeth, relaying that I was getting very pissed.
"Okay. I understand," he said moving out the door, "MARGARET!" he called from the doorway to his office in much the same way Emily had called him from the front door.
"WHAT?" she replied from somewhere in the house.
"Come to my office," he replied moving back to his seat, leaving the door ajar slightly. When she entered the office he told her to close the door.
"Margaret, do you remember Joe?" Stuart said re-introducing us. "Yes, I remember him. Hi Joe, nice to see you again," she said extending her hand for a shake.
Margaret Jean was fifty years old. She was about 5'9, 120lbs, with shoulder length, slightly curly, blonde hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a long-sleeved, button down sweater and khakis, with black shoes. Her breasts didn't show much through the sweater and looked to be B cup, though it was hard to tell.
She sat down in the chair next to Stuart and he began, "Margaret, there is something I have to tell you. Joe here loaned me $100,000 to help purchase this house..."
She cut him off, "I thought you got that loan from the bank!"
"I know that's what I told you..." he began again.
She was pissed and cut him off again, "Why would you lie to me about that?"
"I don't know hunny. I'm really sorry. I know I shouldn't have," he continued, "When Joe loaned me the money, he agreed to let me pay him off over the course of three years, with no interest. The only thing was if I defaulted on the loan repayments, he would then own the house..."
She cut him off again, this time standing up, "WHAT! Stuart! And I guess you haven't been paying him?!"
He looked down at the carpet and said barely audible, "No."
"So, Joe, you are here to take our home?" she asked then looking at me.
Stuart cut me off, "No, he agreed to give us some more time."
"Is that true," she asked, "You are going to give us more time?"
"That all depends on you two," I replied.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Well, as Stuart already knows, I am here to collect. Be it that you don't have the $68,000 that you owe me to this point, I must collect in other ways."
"Sixty-eight thousand...Oh my," she said looking back at Stuart, "I can't stand to let you take my house. What can we do?"
"Well, first of all, you MUST understand that whatever I decide, you MUST do it without any hesitation at all. Any hesitation and I get up and leave. You will then have thirty days to move out," I told her the same as I told her husband earlier. "We don't have anywhere to go! What would we do? We don't have the money to get a house even half this size," she said as she begin to cry.