The Upward Ripple

“You found someone to show interest in that apartment?” Geraldine asked in surprise.

“Well, I didn’t sell it, but I did lease it which is the next best thing,” Cynthia said.

“How long?” Geraldine pressed, her interest even more aroused than ever.

“Three years. The duration of the client’s contract,” Cynthia said proudly.

Geraldine was more confused than ever.

“What person would take that property? I mean… it is hardly livable.”

Cynthia nodded.

“Yes, to anyone else it would be unlivable but to a blind teacher, the flashing lights are not such a problem.”

Geraldine smiled at her.

“A visually impaired client. Why didn’t I ever think about that?”

“The building was already equipped for people with special needs. All I had to do was get some markers for the hallway and stairway and voila!”

As fate would have it, that sale was all Cynthia wanted to make her mark in her new workplace. After that, she only got better at what she did. It had taken her all of two years to build herself up to what she had always wanted, a move that normally took other people their entire adult life. It was after selling yet another property that she saw it: a small three-bedroom house that reminded her a lot of her grandmother’s place. That the house was even available was nothing short of a miracle having been located in a beautiful suburb surrounded by townhouses and Mediterranean style bungalows. Cynthia did not know if it was the nostalgia she felt when she saw the house or the guilt that overcame her when she thought of what results had come from selling her grandmother’s house. The proceeds of that sale had all gone into the medical and hospice care her grandmother so badly needed. Whatever little was left of the money had seen her grandmother get a decent burial plot. She must have spent a lot of time looking at the property because Geraldine noticed it.

“Are you ever going to have an open house for that house?” Geraldine asked and Cynthia shrugged.

“Honestly, I don’t know… I mean, yeah, I do want to get the house sold but I also want to be the one to buy it.”

“Why don’t you sit down with your banker and find out if a sale is possible? Maybe a mortgage?” Geraldine pressed and Cynthia forced a strained laugh.

“I don’t know if I could ever afford a neighborhood like that one… I man after the hospice and all the other medical bills….” She shook her head. “I don’t know, Miss Barker.”

Geraldine shrugged.

“How about you just take a leap of faith, huh? That is well within your nature.”

Cynthia bit her lower lip. Her boss did have a point. She was known to be a risk taker and her risky moves always paid off.

“Come on, Cynthia. What happened to the girl who leased the impossible property?”

Geraldine was unrelenting but she had to be because convincing Cynthia was no easy task. It was that very conversation that saw Cynthia become one of the youngest home owners at twenty-eight. With the plan she made, her house would be completely paid off by the time she turned thirty-three. That was merely a dream for most people, but she had made it happen.

As Cynthia sat there reading all she could about Nate Duncan, she could not help but feel excited. That property was going to look great on her portfolio and she just could not wait to see the task through. All she had to do was plan to meet Nate Duncan and then everything would fall into place.

 *****

After the encounter with the staff at the Duncan Plaza, Nate had half a mind to shave his locks and his rough beard. He did not know if it was the general look that he had that made people treat him differently especially people who were supposed to respect him. He sometimes blamed his parents for giving him such a sheltered life. Being an African American man in the United States was definitely not the easiest thing. Hell, being anything rather than a white person was almost impossible. There was so much racism and hate going around that he was confused the world kept going at all.

When he woke up the next morning, Nate lay in bed thinking about what was supposed to be his way forward. He still had to meet Elise. Have an actual conversation with her. It was not something he was looking forward to mostly because she could be a little too much to handle. He felt himself breathing harder and faster just thinking about seeing his stepmother. Apart from the fact that he had never really liked her, he still had to deal with the little piece of information the Duncan family lawyer had told him when he got the news about his father’s death.

“Your father left you everything, Nate. Every last cent,” the lawyer, Frank Montgomery had said.

“What are you talking about?” Nate was confused. “What about Elise?”

“She only gets a settlement. Three hundred thousand dollars and the cabin at the lake,” Frank Montgomery said.

Nate understood only too well why his father had left the cabin at the lake to Elise. That was where they first spent time alone together and it was also there that they decided to get married. So, yeah, it made sense that he would have wanted her to keep it. But three hundred thousand? Nate was only too sure that Elise Warner thought that she deserved more.

He was still deep in thought when he heard a knock on his door.

“Room service!” s voice on the other side of the door called.

“What the hell… I did not order any room service.” He rolled out of bed and threw on his bathrobe before he made his way to the door. He opened the door to find one of the hotel staff standing there with a food trolley

“Mr. Duncan… good morning. The hotel just wanted to give you a complimentary breakfast after the um….” Nate could see discomfort on his face as he tried to get the right politically correct word. “Disagreement,” he said after a long pause.