Countenance of Man

by Matthew Nuth

  Chapter 21

  Adam had extended his walk to take in the downtown after dropping by their hotel. Sheila and the kids had not been in the hotel room; he could only assume they were checking out the area around the home of her dreams for schools, churches, shopping, and doctors. She was doing most of the heavy lifting to make this transition work.

  His walk had taken him all the way to downtown, not more than a couple blocks from the house they were intending to buy; and more importantly close to the offices of PW Simmons. The walk had emboldened him to drop in unannounced and what? Plead his case for why the Simmons should accept an offer that had yet to be made? Try to make Paul or William Simmons to realize their price was too high? As he stood by the PW Simmons entrance he realized how stupid he was being, but he walked in anyway and asked the receptionist if Paul or William was in.

  The receptionist smiled with that receptionist-only type of smile, the one that made it perfectly clear that they were really the boss because they effectively controlled the keys of the kingdom. Adam was prepared for the deflating questions; either ‘Do you have an appointment?’ or ‘Is Mister Simmons expecting you?’ At that he would politely have to respond “No” and he would then be informed that Mister Simmons is busy, but if he would leave his name and number, she would make sure he got the message. Adam would have walked this entire way for nothing. Maybe it would be good if the receptionist merely blew him off; he really did not know what to say to Simmons anyway. He suspected, Joe Klein would be incensed if he knew that he was here to speak to Mister Simmons.

  The receptionist surprised Paul. “Sure, Paul is in the back. I think he is just getting ready to leave early today, so you almost missed him. William normally does not come in to this office, but you should normally be able to reach him at the Simmons Auto Mall during the day. Let me see if I can steal a few minutes with Paul for you. By the way, what is your name?” The receptionist, hopped out of her chair and knocked on a door leading into a glass walled conference room. Inside Adam could see the gentleman he had met a couple hours earlier at Klein Realty along with an older fellow. The older fellow was obviously comfortable; he had his legs propped up on the conference table and his hands were clasped behind his head as he and Paul were in what appeared to be a jovial conversation.

  Paul and Lyle heard the receptionist knock and promptly invited her in. “What’s up, Kathy?”

  “You have a young fellow out there that would like to speak with you or your brother. I thought you might want to see him before heading off to Cal’s ball game.”

  Paul looked out through the window and spied Adam. “Oh, I think that he is the fellow that wants to buy Mom and Dad’s home. Tell you what, Kathy, send him on in. It shouldn’t take too long.” Then to Lyle, “Lyle, tell Sam I am on my way so save me a seat right behind home plate. This game should be a good one. Win this one and we’re off to Denver in a couple of days for the Championship.”

  Lyle pulled himself to his feet “Paul, don’t be late. It hurts Cal when his daddy doesn’t show in time for the games.” Lyle walked out the door ahead of Kathy and gave a look of apprehension towards Adam as he walked by.

  The receptionist motioned to Adam to come on back to the conference room. As Adam walked into the room she suggested “We can reschedule if you need to. Paul has to leave soon.”

  “Thanks, Kathy. What can I do for you, Adam, right?”

  “Thank you for seeing me, Mister Simmons. I just happened to be walking downtown and wanted to come in and introduce myself more formally and perhaps talk with you about your parent’s home. My wife, Sheila, loves it, but I am not sure that we will be able to afford it. In any case, I was going to make an offer tomorrow and I did not want to offend you with an amount that was too low. It’s just that it is all I think we will be able to afford.”

  Paul, looked at his watch, knowing he needed to leave soon to make baseball games opening pitch. Looking back to Adam, “I really don’t know why you came here, Adam. This is really something you need to leave to Joe Klein. I don’t want to talk with you about offers. You understand? That is why we listed it with him. Now, so as not to make this meeting a waste of time for either of us, let me tell you a little about the house.” Paul loved talking homes, especially when the work his company had completed had given them new life. In this case, Simmons Company had taken on the challenge of almost completely rebuilding the house from inside out. Electrical wiring and plumbing had been replaced. The old fuse box had been replaced by modern circuit breakers. The Kitchen and bathrooms had all been remodeled with the modern cabinets, fixtures, and appliances. The place was now a show home. They had maintained the quaint structural aspects of the place while giving the home new life. Paul and William had sunk way too much into the home, but this was a labor of love. A gift to his dead parents and to the town.

  By the time Paul had provided Adam an overview of everything they had completed on the house, Adam was convinced even more of the value; and that they would never be able to afford it. The Simmons surely would not bend on the offer.

  Paul looked to his watch again. “Shit, you held me way too long. I have to leave now.”

  Paul gathered his coat and left the drawings on the table. As he opened the door to leave, he called to the receptionist, “Kathy, would you show Mister Hendrick out. I am way late.” Paul was out the door before Adam could thank him for his time.

  “I’m sorry. It probably was not a good time for a meeting, Mister Hendrick. If you need to reschedule some more time with Mister Simmons, I’ll be glad to set something up for you.” Kathy offered.

  “Thank you, but I don’t think it will be necessary. I think I upset him enough already.” Adam walked home.

  The following day, Adam was surprised to get a call at the motel before heading off to work. “Joe Klein, here. Can I meet with you and Sheila to finalize the offer paperwork? I finished it up yesterday evening and was hoping to touch base with Paul at his son’s ball game to butter him up, but he did not get there until the third inning and he did not look too happy, so I passed on discussing it with him. I can go over the offer with him today after you review what I have. You will need to bring a check for the $900, too. If you want, I can swing by now and meet with you both at your motel. That would be a lot easier than you having to roust the kids over to my office.”

  “Uh, sure. That would be fine.” Then putting his hand over the receiver to mute his conversation with his wife, “Sheila, this is Joe Klein. He has the paperwork for our offer on the house. I told him we could only afford forty-five K. You okay with that as an offer?”

  “Sure, I guess, but can we really afford it?” she asked.

  Back into the phone, “Joe, I think it would be great to have you come by here. Can we talk about financing; too, before we submit the offer?” Adam knew that Joe had a lot of experience regarding mortgages and it was time to make sure they were not getting in over their heads on the deal.

  * * *

  Sheila had a fresh pot of coffee waiting in the hotel room by the time Joe knocked on the door. The room was loud with the sound of playing children even though their kids were sequestered in the adjoining room. The hotel walls provided little to no sound insulation.

  Adam and Sheila had cleared a section on the small kitchen table to provide Joe some room to go over the offer and to take a look at the family’s finances to see if there was really any hope of getting the financing to make the offer work, assuming the Simmons accepted the proposal.

  “Look, the benefit you have is that you have some great employment history, plus, your financial ratios all work. I think the financing will go through as long as you can come up with the down payment. Even with that your monthly cost is going to be a little higher than you expected since you are going to have to pay some incremental costs for private mortgage insurance.” Joe pulled out a table that outlined the monthly payment schedule for various mortgage a
mounts based on the current interest rates. In addition, he reviewed the maximum ratio of monthly payments to their family income that the bank would be looking for in order to approve the loan. They would be fine, although tight. The monthly payment would be about a hundred dollars higher than they had been spending on rent at their previous home.

  Then moving on to the offer. Joe Klein reiterated that he was extremely skeptical that the Simmons would even consider the offer. He became even more skeptical upon learning that Adam had showed up at the PW Simmons office the previous evening to discuss the home. “Not to be rude, Adam, but you did not help yourself by pulling that stunt. Paul, was late to his own son’s high school playoff game because of you and he wasn’t too happy. Just let me take it from here if you really want the house. One more stunt like last night and I think you will need to write-off the house and probably look to get a different realtor. Understand?”

  “Understood.”

  Sheila looked to her husband and then back to Joe. “Is Mister Simmons upset at Adam? I mean should we give up now?”

  Joe started to laugh and belted out “Not on your life. We need to get you guys into a house. Hotels are tough enough for one or two people, but a family of five. No way. I have an appointment with Paul and William already set up for lunch to present the offer. You have the check for the earnest money?”

  Sheila pulled out her purse and their checkbook and wrote out a check for the required dollar amount. “We have money in the account to cover this and my Mom and Dad have agreed to give us the rest of the down payment, but that might take a few weeks. Will that be soon enough?”

  “Well that depends, when will you want to move in?”

  Adam and Sheila began to feel a new sense of optimism that the house purchase would actually happen and the timing was great. What little furniture they had was already on its way from California. They had planned for the furniture to go into storage for at least one month and likely two. Closing quickly on the house might allow them to avoid the second month of storage fees on this end of the trip. Every dollar helped.

  “Look, assuming you have been straight with me on all of your finances and your parents’ gift of the down payment, I have one additional thing we might be able to do to make this a little easier on you two.” Joe pulled out another set of papers.

  “I won’t show this to Paul or William unless the offer gets accepted, but this is a temporary lease agreement to let you move in before the closing. Believe it or not, William and Paul actually have hearts and I think that if we provide a reasonable rent proposal, they’d be willing to let you occupy early. Your kids would sure like that. You would give up the pool, but you could have your furniture delivered directly to the house and you could stop living out of suitcases and boxes.”

  Adam, Sheila, and Joe Klein agreed on a $400 monthly rent amount. Although the amount was more than they would likely spend for their mortgage payment, it would be less than the amount allocated for their temporary living. It would be significantly more comfortable and let them save money; sounded like a pretty good deal.

  Joe left a little over an hour after he arrived, committing to give them a call that evening with the Simmons’s response.

  * * *

  Adam knocked on the hotel door with his forehead; his arms full with two bags of groceries and a large box of Pampers he had picked up on the way home. After the meeting with Klein, he had taken the car to the office to get some work done.

  Stopping by the grocery store on the way home was a duty that came with having the car.

  Although Sheila would normally have dropped Adam at work so she could keep the car, today she had planned to let the kids play in the hotel pool a while and then they would walk to the library. It would make for a full afternoon. The pool always wiped the kids out. They would go to sleep early tonight. She and Adam would have the evening to themselves, except for the call from Joe.

  Sheila opened the door for Adam.

  “Has Joe Klein called yet?” were the first words out of Adam’s mouth.

  “Well, I love you, too,” Sheila smiled, “and, no, Joe hasn’t called yet. Hopefully, no news is good news. I mean if the Simmons said no, it is pretty easy to call to tell us the deal is kaput.”

  Adam sat his bags down next to the sink. “Maybe they have a counter offer and Joe is pulling it together. That would be okay, as long as it isn’t too expensive. I hope I didn’t screw it up by going over the PW Simmons office. You should have seen Mister Simmons when he left. He seemed pretty agitated. Sounds like he hadn’t even cooled off by the time he had gotten to his son’s baseball game.”

  There was a loud knock at the door. Looking out the peep hole, Adam could see Paul Simmons and another man, a bigger, taller version of Paul, waiting in the hall.

  Adam whispered, “Shit, Sheila. Its Mister Simmons and another fellow. I’ll bet it is his brother; and they do not look happy.”

  “Well, let them in. Let’s see what they want.”

  Adam opened the door, but before he could get a word out of greeting, Paul Simmons took control. “Hello Adam. This is my brother William. Can we come in? We need to have a serious talk.”

  The request was more of an order than a question when coming from Paul. He was several inches taller than Adam and outweighed him by at least forty pounds and his brother was even larger. Adam moved to the side to let the imposing figures enter.

  “So, you must be Sheila. Where are the kids?” William asked.

  “Ben and Bernice are playing in the tub and our oldest, Lyle, is in the other room watching TV.” Sheila responded.

  “Lyle, nice name,” William replied.

  “Look, if you don’t mind, can we get down to business?” Paul interrupted.

  Sheila was taken back by the elder Simmons apparent directness, almost to the point of being rude. Small talk was obviously not this man’s strong suit, but then again, she did not want a conflict with him, so she motioned the men to her kitchen table and asked them if they would like some coffee or tea.

  “Thank you, but that will not be necessary, but one of you might want to tell me what the hell this is.” Paul held up the temporary occupancy lease they had signed for Joe Klein earlier this very morning.

  Adam was taken back, “Well, yes, it, uh, uh it was just a temporary agreement to let us move into the house before we could close; but if it is inappropriate . . . or if the rent is not enough, that is okay. We will stay here. I am sorry that it has upset you.”

  Paul looked to William with a stern face and slowly began to laugh. “My god, boy, we’re joking. There is no way a family should be living out of boxes if they don’t have to.” He tore up the lease and threw it on the table. “You move in tomorrow. Now don’t piss us off by not getting your financing straight.” Paul and William stood up.

  William reached into his pocket and fished out a couple keys to the home and tossed one to Adam the other to Sheila. “We’ll let ourselves out. Touch base with Joe to schedule closing.”

  After the door shut, Adam looked to Sheila. “What was that?”

  “You got me, but I think we have a new home.” Sheila threw her arms around Adam, burying her face in his neck and started to cry.

  Chapter 22

  “Your Dad and Uncle Bill thought they were so funny the way they stormed the Hendrick’s hotel room. I’m surprised the Hendricks didn’t pack up and leave town for good. I mean what businessmen act that way; and to think Joe thought it was funny, too. I will never understand men.” Mom could barely keep from laughing.

  I actually knew the Hendrick family pretty well. Their oldest boy, Lyle was only a few years younger than me and eventually joined our firm, PW Simmons several years ago. In effect, selling my grandparent’s house for a little below market was an investment Dad and Uncle Bill made a few decades ago that was still paying dividends.

  My Uncle Bill added,
“Randall, your Mom has no sense of humor. Let’s grab a quick lunch, I think it is time we got back home to see your Dad.”

  After we promised to come back for dinner, Mark bagged up four sandwiches for us to eat at the house. Tonight, he had arranged staffing so that he and Tim could join us.

  * * *.

  I carried one of the boxes of Simmons’ history back into Dad’s room. On its lid, rode two plates with sandwiches, one for me and one for the nurse, along with two cans of Coke. I figured digging through the box of pictures and files would help pass the time as I kept Dad company; or perhaps, he was keeping me company. Bob, got up from the padded chair as I walked in, sacrificing the comfortable seat for my benefit.

  “Don’t worry, Bob. Stay there, I can sit here in the folded chair next to the dresser drawers.”

  “You sure, it’s no problem.”

  “No, seriously, stay there. Over here I can flip on the lamp without bothering Dad. How is he doing?”

  “Why not ask him yourself?”

  I raised my eyes to Bob as if to say ‘and he is okay?’ Bob nodded back. Dad was awake again.

  “Dad, how are you? I’m sorry I wasn’t here this morning. Uncle Bill, Mom and I went over to The Cut Above. We figured you wouldn’t mind.”

  “That’s good, Randall. Can I have a sip of water? I am so thirsty.”

  I looked to Bob and he nodded that it was okay. I pulled Dad up gently with my left arm as Bob pushed the controller to raise the bed. Dad was so light. I was shocked at how his body had diminished. I held the cup to his parched lips and he sucked thirstily.