gina's bike Walter

The house on Macy street had started life as a very small two bedroom, one bath house. Somewhere along the way it had been gutted. All of the interior walls had been removed. That particular renovation, though probably wonderful for the owner at the time, had wrecked the saleability of the house. It proved to be a hard sell especially in an already weak housing market. That more than anything else accounted for the low sale price. That low sale price had attracted Walter to the house in the first place.

The first thing Walter realized was that none of his furniture would fit in the house. Nothing at all was going to work in the tiny space. That was actually a good thing. It was time for a new beginning, he decided. It would be hard enough without the constant reminders of a better time. Very few things would come to the new house except his clothes and a few things he really did want to remember.

Walter arranged what would amount to an estate sale. The first thing he did was to have the Salvation Army come in and take away all the things he refused to haggle over. Walter had been warned about estate sales. He also arranged for the same people to return after the sale to pick up what was left.

After that for the next week he met and haggled with people over his lifelong accumulation of stuff. Stuff he felt he would be better off without. He did not allow anyone into the garage where he had moved things he wanted to keep. In the garage he stored the everyday dishes, pots and pans, linens, towels, and his accumulation of tools, along side boxes of his clothes. At least the ones he hadn't given to the Salvation Army. The garage also housed his five year old car and Gina's bike.

Even during the sale, he found time to ride the bike. He just put a note on the door, "I'm on an errand, I'll be right back." The errand was a ride around the neighborhood with a short stop at the nearest fast food drive thru. He and his bike had become a fixture at that drive thru.

The sale was a nightmare on the final day. It was a Saturday of course and the people made him crazy. Walter lived a couple of blocks into the "right side" of main street. People from the "other" side of main street flocked to his house to strip it. Most likely some things went to their cars without being paid for. Yes Bobbie came to help and even brought Sarah. They did help a great deal, but it was still a nightmare.

Since his bedroom suite was sold to a young couple, Walter spent Saturday night in a motel. After breakfast he returned to the more or less empty house. His day was burned by getting the last items ready for the Salvation army pickup the next day, and moving things to the house three blocks into the "other" side of town. He was still on the fringe of the good area but not quite into the high dollar district. The big house was just on the fringe of the "right side" of main street but still just on the fringe.

Walter decided he did not want to return to the motel, so he bought himself a futon mattress at a local furniture store, which happened to be open on Sunday. Walter could have had a bed delivered to the house on Macy street any time during the week of the sale, but he had a one track mind. His simple mind had probably kept him from going insane over that last year. Walter dealt with one thing at a time but he dealt with it completely then filed it away.

The plan was that on Monday the new house would occupy his mind for a few days. Walter for some reason looked forward to that, a year ago he would have been mortified by the prospect of shopping.