“Well, honey it’s difficult right now.” My grandmother unconsciously mimicked the very words I used in my conversation with Inez. It was hard to think I was only as good as my last escrow. Times were tough. It’s just business. Production, not relationships, matter.
“But how are you doing?” I asked. I grabbed the opportunity to distract myself from my own increasing spiral of doom, despair and misery.
I heard and could almost feel another heavy sigh over the phone.
“Oh, you know, friends drive me. The members of the Brotherhood leave food on the porch for me, I have to walk to get it, but,” she countered quickly, “I have a walking cast and so it’s not too hard, and the boys have been great. Pat and Mike are excellent but don’t want to stay in the house. Brick and Raul are lovely but Brick is a disaster in the kitchen and I have to clean up the whole kitchen including the floor every time he warms up the soup that the ladies leave, and all Raul wants to do is film me and ask me questions about how I’m feeling.” She paused giving me time to imagine some other issues she did not mention: help with bath, getting dressed in the morning, getting her coffee.
“I have a funeral tomorrow and no one can drive me, it’s down in Auburn.”
“You didn’t mention one of your friends was sick.”
“It was sudden.” She said.
I heard another volley of gunshots in the background. I didn’t like the sound of guns; I didn’t like the sound of her voice. I didn’t like it at all.
What was going on up there?
“I’ll be right up.”
Do post a review! Recycle the good vibes:
It’s good for the reader,
it’s good for the writer
You’ll have your chance on the final page
In Good Faith began as a story about the world’s worst nonprofit. I wrote it while I worked as the Marketing Director for United Way, so I had plenty of material from which to draw. The Homeless Prevention League doesn’t really exist of course, but it made for a great sub plot to a Real Estate Diva Mystery. You never know when a very bad attitude will come in handy.
Now the official part:
Catharine Bramkamp is the writer part of Newbie Writers Podcast (www.NewbieWriters.com) that focuses on newer writers and their concerns. She is a successful writing coach and author of a dozen books including the five book Real Estate Diva Mystery Series and most recently, Future Girls (Eternal Press). She holds two degrees in English, and is an adjunct professor of writing for two Universities.
She and her husband have parented two boys past the age of self-destruction and into the age of annoying two word text missives No character in the Real Estate Diva Mystery series is real, except for maybe Allison.
www.YourbookstartsHere.com
Comments? [email protected]
Photo by Deanne Fitzmaurice
Catharine Bramkamp - Real Estate Diva 03 - In Good Faith Page 26
