by Matthew Nuth
* * *
Lyle laid his Virginia to rest on a typically beautiful fall day in Fort Collins. Paul’s father sat at Lyle’s right, Paul’s mother to his left. His mother’s hands lightly grasping Lyles in hers. The four of them had been together for decades, longer than any of them had the right to hope for. They were as close as siblings; not by blood, but by circumstance. They had shared the stress of the Great Depression and had prevailed; only as a result of the gifts and support they had given each other. They had never had to make promises since they knew they would always be there for one another; any promises would have been redundant.
Wet trails traced down Lyles cheeks. He wept. Not for Virginia’s death; he had no doubt she was in a better place now. He wept at being separated from her for the first time in more than 50 years. He felt alone. Separation was a funny thing. He could be on a job away from Virginia for days and never miss her, knowing she would be waiting for him upon his return. Now his heart was tearing at the loss; and it had the feeling of perpetual separation had started the moment William had told him what had happened to his Virginia. He was now lost, not knowing what to do, a flag without wind.
Paul and his family, along with William stood behind the trio as the coffin was slowly lowered into the ground. Cal held his little Randall’s hand. Cal was a grown-up to Randall, and he needed the comfort of his big brother. Around the Simmons clan gathered the entire corporate family of PW Simmons. Virginia was certainly loved by more than Lyle.
Chapter 20
Uncle Bill and I were interrupted by Mark, “You two have a visitor and she’s a lot better looking than Tim or me.” Mark led Mom up the steps to our “private” dining room.
“Mom, shouldn’t you be with Dad?” I must have looked incredulous because Mom started to laugh.
“Randall, it is okay. Honest. Bob is there and he takes great care of your Dad. He’ll give us a call if anything changes. If it does, we can be home in less than 15 minutes. I don’t know what your Uncle told you about the Mattsons, but I needed to come here to tell you a little about that time.” Then to Mark, “You know I love this place, Mark. It’s a shame that I could not get my son or brother to invite me to lunch here. It’s not often I get to go to an eclectic place like The Cut Above on someone else’s dime. Mark, you just make sure that old fart, William, picks up the tab for me, okay?” She winked at Mark as he turned to walk back down the steps.
Mom plowed on, looking directly at me. “You know your Granddad sacrificed almost everything he had for his family and Lyle and Virginia. The Great Depression was hard on them and harder than any of us alive today can comprehend. In one respect, it made your Granddad one of the most generous people I have ever known and yet, in another, it led to him doing one of the worse things I could imagine by not giving that money back to the Mattsons.
“Your Dad got caught up in that. Having some spare money was a new experience for him. Even to this day, I suspect he would try to justify actions by saying he was just trying to take care of his family. Let’s face it, at that time he was just overwhelmed with greed and selfishness. I think it happens to everyone at some time or another. At that time, he was faced with an opportunity to give some of it back; not because he owed it, but just because it was the right thing to do. He made the wrong decision back then. He never thought,” then nodding to William, “that his brother would be the one that would have to make things right.
“William, you will never know how much Paul and I are thankful you did what you did.” She paused as if she were replaying the time in her mind. “Paul never made that mistake again, and I don’t think Lattimore, your Granddad,” she looked to me “ever got over the shame. He never showed his face in the office again. He was so disappointed in himself. You know I think that for the rest of your Granddad’s life contrition greeted him in the morning and kissed him goodnight when he laid down to sleep. I still feel sorry for him.”
“It’s okay, Mom, I get it and everything is good now, right?”
“I just thought you needed to hear how your Dad changed back then. You never got to see why your Dad did some of the things he did.” Then smiling at Uncle Bill, “I think William might have some context that would be good for you to hear about your Dad, that’s all.”
With this, instead of turning the conversation over to Uncle Bill she embarked on a conversation about a time and people I had no recollection of.
* * *
Adam and Sheila Hendrick with their three young kids strapped into the back of their Dodge Polaris station wagon pulled into Fort Collins for the first time. This was an adventure. None of them had ever been to Colorado, and compared to their active lives in Palo Alto, a growing and affluent community just south of San Francisco, California, this was the real wild west. They had decided to take the risk of leaving the high energy and pace of the city that was fast becoming the center of the technology development in the entire country for an opportunity to leapfrog their peers by being part of their company’s first management team outside of the region a prominent newspaper writer had recently tagged as the Silicon Valley. For Adam, the move meant a move into middle management, a new title, a small bump in pay, and a lot of risk. In the longer term, Adam was hoping that the move would also mean some serious money, prestige, and perhaps a return to the Bay Area in a few years as a Vice President.
For now, however, the title and challenge would need to be enough.
For Sheila, the move held other promise. Her family had outgrown their small apartment in Palo Alto, and she had no pretense to believe their income would keep up with the rapidly rising real estate costs. Having a comfortable home in which to raise her family would mean hours of commuting for Adam every day. In effect, a big house would come with a life in which she would raise the kids on her own. Fort Collins provided the promise of breaking the dilemma. Homes were affordable and the commute was comparatively nonexistent. Out here a ten-minute drive was long. Of course, there would be cold weather and snow, but that was part of the charm. Everything was exciting and exhilarating; a new beginning.
In order to avoid having to dig into their meager saving, Adam and Sheila had decided to drive cross-country, staying in inexpensive motels, pocketing whatever they could from the small relocation stipend that had been provided to them from the company to pay for food, gas, and hotels. Once in Fort Collins, the company had also agreed to pay for two months of temporary accommodations. Whatever they saved would be set aside to pay for the incidental costs that would undoubtedly surprise them with their first home purchase.
Adam could not help but chuckle when he glanced at his wife’s face as they pulled into town in the early evening. As they exited the freeway, the young family had a short drive directly west to get to heart of Fort Collins. The sun was just disappearing behind a jet-black silhouette of mountains; the bright light of day giving way to an amazing panorama of red-orange in the western sky to a deep purple to the east behind them. The effect was breathtaking. In this instant, he knew leaving here to return to San Francisco probably was not in the cards. He could see Sheila was mesmerized and hooked.
“Adam, I love it. I never realized that moving to the country would come with this. It will be like our own special art gallery, presented to us by God every night. This is gorgeous. We need a house facing that,” Sheila said staring at the sunset.
“It is nice, and we should be able to afford a great house here. Something we would never be able to buy back home; I mean in Palo Alto.” Adam corrected himself, realizing that Palo Alto was no longer home. Then upon stopping at the first traffic light heading into town, “Welcome to home.”
The company had already arranged for the Hendrick family to stay at a fresh, new hotel close by the University. Until they could find a house, they would cram themselves into two adjoining rooms with a small kitchenette. Adam pulled up to the hotel entrance, but rather than pulling into the parking lot to check in, Adam d
ecided to drive on. “Let’s drive around a little to get our bearings while the kids are sleeping.”
Sheila made no reply, instead just looked out the side window taking in all that she could about this new small town that would now be home.
Adam turned south onto what was apparently the town’s main thoroughfare toward what would eventually be their company’s newest manufacturing site and the first outside of the bay area. “Let’s look to see what the houses look like close to the plant. Wouldn’t it be nice not to have to fight traffic to and from work? Hell, you and I might actually get to see each other occasionally.”
With the kids still soundly dreaming in the back of the car, Adam and Sheila began to weave north and south through small neighborhoods. They were thrilled by both the lack of traffic and the quaintness of the communities. “Thrilled” might sound like an overstatement, but for the Hendrick family, the lack of traffic would give them back three hours in the car every day. It was as if they had taken all that was good from where they left and pulled all the cars and congestion away. No, commuting would not be an issue. It was wonderful, and Adam was beginning to forget quickly about any ideas of returning to Palo Alto in a few years. Maybe this was the place to raise his family.
The meandering car ride had brought them to an older section of town with majestic trees and dignified, large homes. “Stop, Adam, look at this home.” She pointed at a house with a Klein Realty for sale sign planted in its front yard. “It would be perfect; slow street, nice trees, close to the schools for the kids and I think it is vacant. Pull over and let’s take a look to see what we can see in the moonlight.”
This was the start of Adam’s introduction to Paul Simmons.
* * *
“Seriously? You found a place already. Where is it?”
Adam described the house and location to one of his new friends, a local contractor that was working on their new company facility. The contractor had lived in Fort Collins his entire life and Adam wanted his inputs on real estate in town.
“Adam, that place is the old Simmons home. It has been vacant for a few months; ever since the wife passed away. Old man Simmons kicked off a couple of years ago. You will love the place. Their two boys inherited the place and have pretty much rebuilt it from the inside out. By the way, you will likely be dealing with Joe Klein to buy the place. He has been a friend and associate of the Simmons family for years, so be careful, but he will be easier to deal with than the oldest boy, Paul Simmons.
“You know he has a reputation for being pretty hard to deal with, plus, you don’t want to piss him off. He is kind of a big shot in town. He is actually developing that.” The contractor pointed across the field to a stretch of buildings that would eventually become a large indoor shopping mall. “Plus, he owns the Chevy, Buick, and Pontiac dealerships in town. Shit, if you upset him, you’ll have to commute from Denver.”
Adam thought this old construction worker was pulling his leg. “Okay, he can’t really be that scary. I can handle my own in negotiations. Besides, he if he wants to sell the place, he’ll deal just like anybody else.”
“Yeah, sure.” The contractor smiled. “Tell me how your offer goes, okay? Oh, and be clear with your offer contingencies. He is pretty hard core with earnest money. Rumor has it that years ago, he had a customer that got laid off from his job and couldn’t afford to complete the deal to buy one of the Simmons’s homes, but since he had signed a contract, Paul Simmons said ‘fuck you’ and had the guy thrown out of their office. He wouldn’t give him a penny back and the guy killed himself. Hell, Simmons never even sent a letter of condolence. He’s pretty tough. My recommendation; if you want the house, don’t haggle too much; you’ll just piss him off.”
Adam felt the acid rising in his stomach. He had no idea what he had gotten into. His wife had fallen in love with the place their first night into town and had become even more infatuated after a brief walkthrough the house this morning. The price was well outside their budget, but Adam had expressed his confidence to Sheila that they could make a low-ball offer and get the place. It was now starting to look as though he had made a promise he was going to have trouble keeping. Sheila was going to be so disappointed. She had already picked the rooms for the kids, and after dropping him off to work, she was planning to drive around to check out the schools close to the house.
“Look, I’ll just go over to this Simmons guy’s office and introduce myself. How can he turn down this face?” Adam smiled.
“My recommendation, take your wife. Her face is hell of a lot better looking.”
After the conversation, Adam decided that it would be best to skip work this afternoon and steal a ride from one of his co-workers to drop him off at the realtor’s office. He could walk to their motel from Klein Realty.
* * *
The car ride was only a few miles, but for Adam it seemed to take forever. His imagination was running through scenario after scenario of dealing with Simmons. He wanted to understand if Joe Klein would be their ally in working with the Simmons. He needed his realtor to be in his camp to come up with a reasonable offer. The crusty contractor already had him thinking he had better scrap his low-ball offer strategy.
Adam had called Joe Klein to make sure he would be available that afternoon and to give him a heads-up regarding what he wanted to talk about. He was surprised at Joe’s casual transparency on the call. He fully admitted he and the Simmons family had been friends and business associates for years. Although Klein acknowledged he had a close relation with Paul Simmons, he felt confident that he could adequately represent Adam and Sheila, but would completely understand if they wanted to work with a different realty office to develop the offer. Adam decided to stay with Joe.
Adam’s co-worker, a fellow engineer that had also recently relocated to Fort Collins, pulled into the drive and stopped short of the office entrance. “You want me to wait?”
Adam politely thanked him for the ride, but declined the offer to wait. “I’ll see you in the morning. Hopefully, we will have submitted an offer by then.”
Adam got out the car and walked to the office entrance as his ride rolled out of the parking lot. Instead of entering, Adam decided to take a moment to collect his thoughts on what he wanted to discuss with Joe. Neither he nor Sheila had been a home buyer before. All he knew was this was the largest purchase they had ever made.
“You okay, Adam?” Joe Klein startled Adam. “You look positively lost. I was watching you from inside and beginning to think you changed your mind or perhaps are waiting for your wife and kids. Sheila, right?” Joe opened the door to the realty and shepherded Adam inside. “At least come inside out of the heat to wait.”
“Of course, but no need to wait for Sheila. I just thought I should have a talk with you about an offer on the Simmons’s place.”
“Well, come on in my office then.”
As Adam entered Joe’s office he was surprised to find he and Joe were not alone. “Adam, meet Paul Simmons. He was just here to touch base on a couple things related to one of their developments for which we represent his company PW Simmons, I thought you would at least like to say hello.”
Paul got up from his chair and stuck out his right hand to shake. “Good to meet you, Adam. Joe says you and your family might be interested in Mom and Dad’s house. My brother and I would love to see a family in the place, so I won’t hold you up from your conversations. Good luck.”
Paul waved to Joe over his shoulder as he exited the office. “Joe, see you tomorrow. Okay?” and then disappeared behind the closing door.
Joe turned to Adam, “So you want to talk offer. Just so you know, I will present whatever you want, but I doubt Paul or William, that’s Paul’s brother, will be very receptive to offers below asking price.”
“That was what I was afraid of, but Sheila is so in love with the house I wanted to at least give it a try. Don’ t you think fifty tho
usand dollars is pretty steep? I mean the house is big and the location is great, but that is almost twice the price of the average home in town. I was hoping to offer maybe forty-five thousand and even at that, it is going to be a dicey to see if we can qualify for the financing.” Adam paused for feedback from Joe.
“Look, I think it would be smart to start looking at other homes, perhaps closer to your new plant. PW Simmons is building some great homes in a development just north of your facility and they are right in your price range.” Joe, got up to pull a home brochure from his file cabinet.
“Can we at least try on the offer?” Adam asked. “I was thinking we could offer something like forty-five thousand.”
Joe turned back to Adam, a man with beer budget, a good beer, yes, but still beer, and a champagne taste. “I’ll tell you what, let’s get your wife over here and pull together an offer sheet. You will need to give me a check for $900 to accompany the offer. I will present it to Paul and William tomorrow. Okay?”
* * *
Adam was glad he would be walking home this afternoon. He had so many things cluttering
his mind, he could not focus. The walk would give him time to collect his thoughts. Top of mind was needing to make an appointment with his credit union to see if they would even consider financing him for the purchase. He could imagine the manager looking at him sadly and just shaking his head to inform him the loan just was not going to happen. He had already considered asking Sheila’s parents for help with the down payment. He was too proud to ask his own folks. It was going to be tough enough just coming up with $900 in earnest money to accompany the offer let alone an additional thirty-six hundred bucks to make up the balance of the 10% down payment.
It was hard not to get his hopes up even though he really had no reason to expect that they would be able to pull this off. Sheila did not have a job and what little savings they did have was tied up in company stock. They had not even begun to think about the incremental money they would need to come up with for closing costs. Maybe it would be better to punt on buying the Simmons house and focus their efforts on a more practical and affordable new home close to the plant. They were beautiful homes, but not what his bride had her heart set on; and he did not want to disappoint her, at least not if he didn’t need to.
