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A Promptoberfest story
© 2024 by Walter Reimer

Thumbnail art by  tegerio

Prompt: picture


The raccoon climbed out of his small Hissan Gecko SUV and adjusted his tie as the family who had followed him stopped their own sedan and got out of the car. Like him, they were raccoons. The husband and wife were looking at the house, the husband cocking his head skeptically while his mate had a grin on her face. Their oldest child, a daughter, was looking around while glancing at her phone. Their youngest, a teenaged boy, just looked bored.

The realtor sympathized with the young boar. He put his best professional smile on and walked over to them as they stood on the sidewalk. “Good morning!”

The husband nodded at him, still looking at the house. “Hi, Bob.”

The wife said, “Good morning. This is, well, a little further out than we were looking for.” Her ringed tail whisked back and forth.

Bob nodded. “The price range and wish list you gave me forced me to look further away from where you wanted to buy, but I’m asking you to reserve judgement until after you’ve seen the place. You also wanted closer access to schools for your kits, and this part of the city just opened two new schools.”

The husband nodded, while his wife said, “Okay, let’s see what you found.”

“Sure. This is a recently built two story home, with four bedrooms and four bathrooms, an open-plan first-floor living space, two car garage and a furnished basement. Do you want to walk around the property first, or go on in to take a look?”

“Let’s see the yard first,” the husband said.

“Sure,” Bob said, and he led the family around the house. “The lot’s two hundred feet deep by one hundred wide,” he explained. “Neighbors on either side with the same size lots, and you can see the woods along the back property line. The deck was built along with the house, and is accessible through the dining area and the living room.”

“No pool?” the boy asked.

“I’m afraid not,” Bob replied. “The yard’s not fenced in, and local laws require locked privacy fencing for safety.”

“Oh,” and the kit lapsed into a bored silence, his tail drooping slightly.

“Still, a great place to set up the grill for a party,” his mother said. Her mate nodded, and they ended the walk around at the front door.

Bob produced the key and opened the door. “Here’s the entrance hall, openings to the right and left lead into the living and dining rooms. The floor’s tiled.” The parents nodded while the two kits gawked. “We’ll start in the living room,” and he led them to the left.

“Wow,” the daughter said, her first word since getting out of the car. The rest of the family seemed to echo her sentiments.

“It’s an open plan,” Bob explained, “with a breakfast bar-style setup separating the living room from the kitchen. The floor’s laminate to simulate wood, even to the texture, and the fireplace is stone and mortar.”

“Lot of windows,” the husband said. “Must be a bitch to heat in the winter.”

“All of the windows are insulated,” Bob countered. “There’s good insulation and the HVAC system’s a brand new high-efficiency model.”

“And there’s a fireplace,” the wife added.

“There is a fireplace,” Bob said with a smile on his face. “The breakfast bar and the staircase act as the dividing line, as you see, with stairs going up to the first floor and down to the basement,” and he placed a paw on the accordion-style folding door that concealed the staircases, “but I need to show you the kitchen, first.”

He led them into the area and now it was the parents’ turn to say “Wow,” almost in chorus. Bob grinned. “All the appliances are brand new, with tiled back splashes and simulated marble countertops. There’s an island with an overhead pot rack. The track lighting overhead is movable, so you can set it up however you like. The kitchen also has access to the garage.”

“Impressive,” the husband said, looking around. “The dining room’s small.”

“Compared to the living room, yes,” Bob conceded, “but there’s enough room for a good-sized dining table, maybe ten people. Now, upstairs or downstairs?”

“Let’s look upstairs,” the wife said, her green eyes in her black fur mask twinkling. “I want to see the bedrooms.”

“Fair enough. Let’s go.”

“Okay,” and Bob led them up the stairs to the second floor. “The master suite faces the woods, and it takes up about half the second floor,” and he opened the door. As the parents looked around the realtor added, “The en suite bathroom faces the woods as well, and – “

“Good Lord, will you look at the closet!” the wife said, her tail bottling as she walked into the room. Her husband’s tail bottled as well, likely at the prospect of her wanting to go on a shopping spree.

Bob cleared his throat. “Yes, the walk-in closet’s very nice, but come look at the bathroom,” which was done in snowy white tile and featured a garden-style spa tub and a walk-in shower big enough for two furs. The windows were sited so that someone couldn’t see anything provocative from ground level.

After the master suite, the two bedrooms facing the street were anticlimactic. Decent-sized, and each with their own bathrooms and closets. The daughter and son finally started showing interest as Bob explained the features and dimensions of each bedroom, which were larger than their rooms at their current address.

The two kits looked hopefully at their parents as their father said, “Shall we talk about price?”

Bob looked surprised. “Don’t you want to see the basement first?”

Husband and wife glanced at each other. “To tell the truth, I almost forgot,” she said, ears dipping slightly. “The master suite – “

“Yeah, it’s pretty good,” Bob chuckled. “Follow me, and I’ll show you what lies beneath.”

He led them down to the basement. “There’s the fourth bedroom, with its bathroom and closet, hookups for the laundry, and – “

“Enough space for a playroom or den,” the wife said, eyeing her husband. The boar’s skeptical expression had faded slightly while thinking of the potential uses of the space. “Now, let’s go up to the kitchen, and we’ll have the money talk.”

The daughter and son were wandering around, occasionally talking to each other in low tones. “Now,” Bob said, “how much do you think this place is worth?”

“Um, a million five?” the wife asked.

“A million,” the husband said flatly.

Bob raised a finger. “Sorry, but this house is listed at eight hundred thousand,” and the raccoon relished the amazed looks on his clients’ faces. “That is slightly more than you anticipated paying, but with lower interest rates the payments shouldn’t be too bad.” The idea seemed to appeal to them, and Bob started to move in for the kill.

“I’d like you to think for a moment and see yourselves in this place five years from now. Family dinners, living in these spaces, watching football downstairs or hosting parties and barbecues, things like that. While you do that, I said that this was a little out of the area you were looking for, and while that’s true, it won’t add more than fifteen minutes to your commute – I drove it, so I could make sure,” and he grinned as the husband gave a grudging nod. “I also mentioned two new schools. One is a high school, and the other is the Crowley Center for Necromancy.”

There was a startled exclamation from the son of the family. “The Crowley Center?” he gasped. Bob nodded and the youngster turned a set of powerful puppy eyes on his parents.

Shrugging off the effect with an effort his father said, “Jack wanted to enroll at Pigknuckle’s, but when all the faculty were put on the sexual offender registry, he was pretty disappointed.”

“I want to be a necromancer!” Jack blurted. “I got some friends who are opossums.”

“That’s a worthwhile goal,” Bob said, and he clasped his paws as he turned toward the parents. “I . . . well, I admit I was keeping one final selling point in my back pocket.”

The skeptical look came to the husband’s face again. “And that was?”

“There are a dozen restaurants within two miles of where we’re standing.”

All four members of the family stared at him. “Dumpsters?” the wife asked.

“Unsecured dumpsters,” Bob said.

Husband and wife looked at each other. “Could you excuse us, please?” the wife asked.

“Sure,” Bob said. “I’ll be outside,” and he walked out onto the deck and waited, looking out at the forest.

It took maybe ten minutes before the daughter opened the patio door and waved him inside. “And what have you decided?” Bob asked.

The husband stuck out a paw. “You’ve got yourself a deal,” the boar said.

Bob shook the paw and smiled. “We’ll arrange a meeting in my office to get into the nitty-gritty about the money, and I’ll start drawing up the papers.”



end