What Wonders Never Cease

“I can’t believe were really here,” Essa says “Shonta is this really happening?”

“Yes it is, Essa,” Shonta responds with a smile. “We’re finally at the closing table.”

It had taken months for them to get to the closing table. Eight of them to be exact, although it felt more like eighteen. Shonta had gone through two lenders, three appraisals and inspections, one of them disputed. Two sets of financial records sent to lenders, credit reports checked, finances scrutinized and money taken out of her early retirement account to make this deal to go through. It almost seemed pointless.

Essa was on the verge of giving up and considered pulling out of the deal and just listing the house on the market to make her sale. Shonta doesn’t know why she didn’t do that but she was grateful she didn’t. And finally, she’d found a lender that would loan her the money to buy the property she sought – a three-bedroom, two bathroom house equipped with a home office and sunroom. WITH a guest house just feet away on the same land!

Money’s had come to accounts for distribution. They were signing the papers, all that was left now were the exchange of keys. Only, Essa never gave her the keys. As they sat and signed, signed and waited. Shonta awaited the keys to her new property. Although she was new to the homebuying process this much she knew. At the end of the deal, she needed the keys.

As Essa drives Shonta back to work to finish her work day, both women were so excited that this was finally past them they forgot about the keys altogether. Until Shonta got home later that night. She was all packed and ready to move into the new place. Her parents, who were also packed and ready to go, were just as equally awaiting this victory.

“So, where are the keys?” dad asks.

“Oh wow, I forgot to get them from her earlier.” Shonta remembers.

“I’ll just go by there and get em.”

With the Uhual loaded, the threesome heads to the new location, only to find Essa isn’t there. Not so much as a key waiting for them. Calls and texts go unreturned. They were getting quite irritated – especially Shonta. They go to the guest house to find an open window where an ac unit lies.

“What, now I’ve got to break into my own house?” she says. “I’m okay with that.”

Her father removes the unit and they climb inside. The smell was so horrible. A mix of smoke, filth, stuffiness and fog. Shonta’s asthma was flaring up, she opens the door QUICKLY to let in some light. And AIR.

The floor was covered in what looked like a carpet that had once been cream, perhaps, and was now a stained-tarred beige. “Oh my God, I knew it.” She gags. “CARPET. This has gotta go.”

As they began to look around at Shonta’s new guest home for her parents. They get an idea of what stays and what’s going. There were dirty dishes in the sink. The inside of the cabinets were in disarray. There was garbage on the living room and back bedroom floors and a bed frame left from the previous tenant in the main room. So they got to work cleaning, they found brooms and trash bags and swept everything from the back room into the living room. Bagging everything up, Shonta searches the closets. There were no clothing rods in any of them and the shelves were like weird oven-like grills. Thin white stripes and a small overhanging.

“What kind of shelves are these?” mom asks. “Where’s the rod? Whose bright idea was this?”

Shonta moves to the next closet in the master bedroom and sees the exact same shelves, minus a rod.

“I’m starting to think whomever had this house before Essa, didn’t know anything about closets.” Shonta continues sweeping the floor. She sweeps across something that feels smoother than the rundown carpet. Trying to sweep it again she realizes it wasn’t going to get out of that corner with a broom, so she tries to pick it up, but there was nothing to grab.

Grabbing her phone, she turns on her light to see better. There was a loose piece of carpet and what looked like a small hump. She lifts the carpet to retrieve a little black notebook.

“Aww cute.” She says, flipping through its empty pages. “Another journal to add to my little collection, Sweet.” She places it in her pocket

Much of the day had gone by and finally one house was cleared. Things that were useless and discarded were taken to the curb. Giving the family the chance to move her parents’ things inside.

Essa finally made her way to the old property she used to own to give Shonta the keys. Oddly enough though, once she got out of her car she practically ignored that the family was even there as she opens the door.

“Hey Essa, how’s it going?”

“It’s okay.”

“So you ready to give up the keys, yet?”

“I’ve still got some things to get out in the front room.”

“If you want you know we’ll help you get them in the truck. I can move some of my things in the back while helping you get yours out.”

“Oh no, thank you. I just want to get my things out first before you move yours in. I‘ve got it.”

Essa goes in the house and locks the door as she finishes moving out.

“What is happening?” Shonta wonders aloud. “Did she just lock me out my own house?”

Yes she did. Refusing to let Shonta inside as she moves her things from the back room into the living room. With this being a new experience for Shonta she doesn’t quite know how to handle it. So she takes a chair from the side of the house and places it outside her walkway, waiting for the cops.

“What seems to be the problem Miss?”

“Well, I just bought this house and the previous owner has locked me out refusing to let me move my things in.”

“Is she in there now?”

“Yes, she’s in there. She said she had some things in the back room to take to the living room and I offered to help. Then I suggested while we were doing that I could move some of my things in the back. That’s when she said she wanted to get her things out before I moved mine in then she went inside and locked the doors. She never gave me any keys at closing.”

One officer walks up to the door and knocks, speaking to Essa for a brief moment. He returns to Shonta.

“Well, Miss. It seems like she’s moving her things now, so I’d just let her do that. Sometimes we may only make a situation worse.”

Finally, the move was over. The cops left after Essa rode off in her Uhual. Shonta and her parents were left to move her things into her new home. Luckily this house was better off than the other one. No clean up to do, no dingy carpet.

Unpacking some of her clothes and some toiletries, Shonta runs a nice warm bath in the master bedroom she chose as her own that has an private bathroom adjacent. She pours some bubbles in and waits in her towel. Noticing the extra door behind the main bathroom door to the linen closet she stares at it as the water rises.

Her eyes trail away to the clothes she just took off on the floor. Reaching for the little black pad she opens it yet again to suddenly find there are words written inside.

“Aww man. I thought I had a new little book.” She pouts disappointingly. Running her fingers through the pages she takes a little time to read what was inside. There were a bunch or doddles inside and one caught Shonta’s eyes. It looked like closet of the room she were in. The picture showed the space in the back of the top shelf. So she goes towards it, feeling around and finds nothing.

“Aww.” She said. “Oh well.”

Looking for the note pad again on the floor of the closet, she reaches for it again, feeling a draft.

“Oooo, gotta do something about that soon.” She declares. Something catches her eyes again. This time it’s a little white bulge blending into the plank. It doesn’t look like any of the other part of the wall. So she feels it. Pulling it from the wall to see it wasn’t even part of the wall at all. Opening it up she finds a bill~fold and inside it were none other than BILLS.

Dollar bills. With a small Post-it that read $20,000.

Shonta stares, suddenly her mouth turns into a smile. She puts the money back in the bill-fold and into her pocket. Stepping into the tub.

“Well this turned out to be a Great end to the day.”