"Mom says she is not leaving until you see her." Hilda said.
She was standing right on the threshold of my home office, her flannel pants hiding the subtle swell of hips and the delicate curve of her cheeks. Her hands were folded across her chest. I caught the glint of her wedding band when she lifted one hand in one swift movement to wipe the latest line of tears on her cheeks.
Source
She had been crying all evening. She looked no better than a trollop with hair disheveled, standing atop her head like the hairs of a frightened cat. Her lips were bitten sore and her eyes seemed to have sank back into their sockets. She looked like hell. But of course, I was not about to let that slip past my lips.
"Marshall."
She called. Her voice was hoarse and each sigh was an evidence of her obvious struggle to keep the tears back. I rose up and walked to her.
She did not step back when I stood towering in front of her, intimidatingly looming against her small, yet rigid frame.
"I hate how dramatic you women are. I already told mom I would get the house." She sniffed.
"She is still in the living room. Maybe she needs some assurance or something." Hilda said.
It took me half the courage I possessed to make up my mind to see mom in the living room. I hoped that she too had not been crying. Being a man was one hell of a difficult things and the women in my life would never go a day without reminding me that. She was sitting on a cushion.
Her silver hair caught the radiation of the sun streaming in from the windows and held it. She seemed oblivious to my presence and I simply let myself stand there and drink in the beauty of the one woman whose tenacity had remained undaunted over the years since dad passed.
It was for her sake that I was going to buy the house. For the strength she possessed and for her well of motherly love that never ran dry in all my years of drinking generously from it.
"Marshall." She called softly without turning to look at me. I nodded in response.
"They will be giving it out to the highest bidder, Marshall." She murmured.
" Mom, you have said that like a thousand times."
" Well, you are yet to do something about it."
"I said I was going to speak to the agent and have it sorted out."
I said firmly. She blinked rapidly, the surprise in her eyes ostentatious. She was holding back the smile, but it soon spread abroad her face, lighting it up with the warmest innocent glow.
When I walked away, it was with a new wave of calm settled within me.
Hilda would stop crying and mom would stop calling at odd hours to talk about the property that was never going to be ours again.
When I had first taken loans years back to invest in real estate, buying old buildings in the sub_urban Los Angeles, it was with high hopes.
It had been nothing more than a distress sale by one owner, selling off three buildings in a row and I had turned out the lucky buyer.
Hilda had been a bit worried. I didn't have so much and I was working a job that had no potential to help me pay off the debts In the next few years, but she did not lose faith.
It cost a lot to have the houses renovated, but I got more loans, not only from the bank but from magnanimous fellows too. It was a bumpy ride but in the next three years, the houses had been leased out and I was halfway done paying the loans, and then mom calls.
She wants her grandfather's house. It had been sold by her uncle who died shortly after and the new owner was going to sell it off. She didn't want that and she wanted me to buy it off before it was too late.
I had spent days in the office thinking up ways I could raise money to acquire the property since mom had no money to get it, Hilda nagged me and cried on mom's behalf when she thought I was indifferent.
It irked and amuses me at the same time, but I got around to contacting the agents in the end. The price was way too good for a building that held an antique appeal, having stood there for a hundred and sixty years in Minnesota.
I was going to buy the building not only because mom wanted me to, but because it held so much prospects to make a better profit from being leased out for the next few years.
More from iska
Skill, Mastery, & Luck will help you handle Market Volatility
The riskiest thing you can do is get greedy
Self-reliance - The key to building the wealth that you desire
Always set something aside for emergencies
Markets Fluctuate - Stay the Course
Ditch the excuses - Do your own research and start somewhere
Success is ultimately a consequence of well-handled defeats - More money is a mile away
It's never too late to start getting wealthy
Develop your Financial IQ and Learn to Invent Money
When Money Loses Its Value - Inflation and Survival Strategies