“Hey! Why don’t you watch where you are going!?” she hollers out the window, waving her arm.
Clearly, she’s not letting me out of the driveway, so I pull back into the garage and get out, trying to arrange my face into a believable scowl. The passenger door swings open on her Suburban.
“You’re not even going to let me drive myself?” I mumble, irritated and pleased at the same time.
“You drive like a little old lady,” she quips. “What if we are late? What if you miss it?”
“Well, then, step on it!”
“You got it, sister!”
She actually does floor it, and the Suburban’s engine roars as we hurtle down the farm roads. If I weren’t so nervous, I would be enjoying this.
The woman at the auction barely glances at me when she gives me my bidding slip and takes my check for the deposit. I want to talk to her for some stupid reason. I want to talk to everybody, to share this excited feeling. But nobody really cares, I guess. It’s just another day at the office for them. They aren’t rehabilitating their entire lives, I guess, the way I am.
“Okay, so what do we do?” Wanda whispers conspiratorially. “Do we need to be in front? I can get you to the front or something. I bet you all the old guys would fall over all at once if I just push one of them.”
“Jeez, it doesn’t have to be like that,” I chuckle, though I am happy for the distraction. “I just need to be somewhere in that little group. There’s only like fifteen of us, so I think the auction guy can see me okay.”
“And, what? You raise your paddle like on TV shows?”
“Just watch,” I whisper, shouldering past one of the older fellas. “You’ll figure it out. Our development will be last.”
Just like last time, the auctioneer starts with single-family houses and duplexes that were repossessed by the county for various infractions, usually tax liens. The men around me buy them up one by one with a sort of bored attitude, not even a real sense of competition.
There is just a single moment of excitement over a four-bedroom home in a nicer area that starts an enthusiastic bidding war. It finishes just under current market value, with the winner sucking his teeth in disappointment that he didn’t get a better deal.
“I hope he knows what he’s doing,” she mutters, a little too loudly for my taste. “That guy just paid market value.”
He glances over at us, clearly annoyed and with very good hearing. Wanda just shrugs defiantly. I like it that she is not the kind of woman to turn away and pretend she didn’t say anything.
“Our next and final item is the Feather Rock subdivision,” the auctioneer starts in, and my heart gives a stubborn leap in my chest.
“That’s us!” Wanda announces, ignoring the glare that I give her.
Despite myself, I glance around at the other faces. I’ve been so nervous this whole time, with my skin crawling as though I expect Ron to walk up right behind me and probably fire me on the spot. I’m afraid to turn around and see Ron hauling ass up the courthouse steps.
But Wanda isn’t afraid. Her head swivels around as she squints across the parking lot, keeping vigilant watch for me.
“Oh, shit,” she mutters.
“What?” I gasp, so startled that I don’t hear what the auctioneer says right away.
“Be right back! Do your thing!” she says quickly as she nudges me toward the auctioneer and disappears behind me.
My breath turns to concrete in my lungs as I try to focus all my attention on the auctioneer. He makes an opening bid and I raise my hand. He nods at me, then moves on immediately, asking if anybody else would like to bid. His eyes scan the small crowd, focusing briefly over my head and I wonder if Ron is coming up the stairs right now. If he’s running. If he’s got his hand raised like he’s bidding.
“Going once!”
I think I’m holding my breath. I can barely hear anything around me.
“Going twice!”
“Wait!?
? I hear a howl behind me, but I refuse to turn around.
With my jaw clenched, I watch the auctioneer’s lips. My knees are shaking.