THE MIDNIGHT SKULKER 10

San Diego, California

February 28, 1974

5:03 p.m.  Pacific Standard Time

In the Buick, driving to Shelter Island, Marsha now in the front seat, “I’ll call you in the morning at… Give me some time to see what else may be available and I’ll call you in your room at, say, eleven.”

“Sounds good to me, Len.”

 “As soon as we check in we’re going to call Alice, uh, our broker to see what happened at the house today.”

 Glancing to his right, “I’ll also check to see if that last house is still available.”

Cooling on both the house and Leonard, “Like the house, don’t like the price, so we’ll see about that.”

Checking into the Shelter Inn, “You’re in room 422…” the desk manager said, handing him two keys along with two 4X4 message slips. “…and you’ve two calls, Mister Lipensky.”

“Thanks’.” Taking the keys and the message slips…

“Two calls?” Heading to the elevator. “Who from?”

In the elevator, “One’s an ‘urgent’ from Alice…”

“Which could be something good.”

“Or something bad,” Mitchell said.

Thinking the other call might be from, “Who’s the other call from, your mother?”

“No. It’s another ‘urgent’ from a, uh, ‘Sophie Chen’ of Century 21, here in San Diego along with her phone number.

Unlocking the door to room 422, quickly looking about the beautifully appointed hotel room and a fast glance out the window, “Great view,” Marsha said. “I’m calling Alice!”

“It’s after seven there.”

“I’ll call her at home.” Sitting on the edge of the bed, dialing ‘O’, Marsha gave the hotel operator Alice’s home number in Schaumberg, Illinois.

Hoping she’d be home, the phone rang four times before being picked up.

“Marcie!” Alice shouted sounding rather breathless, “Your timing’s great!”

“What’s wrong? How come you’re out of breath?”

“I just pulled in and heard the phone ringing and, hoping it was you or Mitch, ran to get it.”

“Hoping it was ‘us’, why?”

“First off, we must have had seventy brokers through today and had the first offer at about four-thirty…”

Looking at Mitchell, “We had an offer on the house today?”

Sitting on the bed, “We had an offer on the house today?” directly alongside of Marsha so he could listen to the phone also.

“That Mitchell?”

“Yeah, he wanted to know if we had an offer on the house today.”

“Yeah, you had an offer today at about four-thirty and that’s when I called you, but…” catching her breath, “that’s why I just got in?”

“We had an offer at four thirty and that’s why you just got in at, uh, seven ten?”

“Yeah. I just left your house because we have two more offers.”

“ ‘Three offers’? Mitchie, we’ve had three offers on the house!”

“Yeah, I heard. So… Let me talk to Alice!” Taking the phone, but holding it at an angle so Marsha might hear. “What kind of offers? What are they offering to pay?” he asked excitedly. “So what do we do now, Alice?”

“You have a pencil and paper?”

“Marcie, check the desk to see if there’s paper and a pencil.”

Rushing to the desk, opening the drawer there was a 5X7 pad of hotel letterhead paper.

“Okay, got it. Now what?”

“Write these three names, one on top of the other leaving room between.”

‘Marcie, write these three names, one on top of the other leaving room between.”

“ ‘Weinstein’ …. ‘Bowers’ ….  ‘Limberger’.”

Repeating the names to Marsha…

“Okay,” Alice said, under ‘Weinstein’ write ‘one-hundred-five-thousand’…”

“Under  ‘Weinstein’,” Motioning to Marsha to write, “write one hundred-five-thousand!”  Mitchell exclaimed, “They offered ‘one hundred, five thousand’?”

Looking up, Marsha’s mouth dropped open.

“Yes, but wait, there’s more…” Alice said, “Still with ‘Weinstein’, they are pre-approved and will come in with all cash, but want a thirty day closing.”

Motioning to Marsha to write, “ ‘Weinstein’ will come in with all cash…Thirty days?” Shrugging his shoulders, “How can we be out in thirty days?” he asked Alice and, indirectly, Marsha.

“Yeah,” Marsha repeated, “how can we be out in thirty days?”

“Yeah, I thought that would be a problem… Okay let’s go to ‘Bowers’. They’re not pre-approved but their home sold about a week ago. I looked into the sale and it looks very strong, so the Bowers look really good and they offered one-hundred-two-thousand, but can live with the ninety day closing; actually want a ninety day closing.”

Looking at Marsha, “ ‘Bowers’; one-hundred-two-thousand… ninety day closing.”

“ ‘Limberger’… You ready for this?” Not waiting for an answer. “ ‘Limberger offered one ten, but they want a thirty day closing also.”

Uh-oh! “ ‘Limberger’,” Mitchell repeated, looking at Marsha. “One hundred-ten-thousand dollars.”

Looking up, blinking her eyes a number of times, “Holy shit!”

“Yeah, ‘holy shit’ you bet! But Limberger wants thirty days also.”

“You and Marsha want to think about it and get back to me?”

“Give us a minute, will you, Alice.”

Holding his hand over the phone’s mouthpiece, ”So, what do you think?”

“Jesus, Mitchie, ‘one-hundred-ten-thousand dollars’! You think we can be out in a month?”

“Marcie, it’s not getting out of our place, it’s getting in to… where?. I’ll tell you, though, if we can’t get into whatever we buy here in thirty days, the extra ten grand will sure give us a hell of a nice vacation until we do.”

“Hold on.” Digging through her purse, finding the sales brochure for the home in El Cajon.  “Damn!” she said, “they want ninety days.”

“Well, there’s always tomorrow and we may get lucky, but if not…” 

Repeating, “ ‘The extra ten grand will sure give us a hell of a nice vacation until we do’.”

Nodding agreement, “Okay, Alice,” Mitchell said, “we’ll go with the Limbergers… What do we do now?”

Get down to the closest Western Union and send a telegram to my attention accepting the Limberger offer and giving me permission to complete the sale and get the paperwork started.”

“That’s what you want us to say: we accept the Limberger offer and give Alice Meade permission to complete the sale?”

“Yes, that’ll be fine.”

 “Where should we have the telegram sent; your home or office?”

“It’s seven-thirty here now and there’s not much I can do tonight, so you might as well have it wired to the office.”

“Soon as we hang up, Marcie and I’ll find a Western Union office and get the telegram out immediately”

“You sure of this now? No changing your minds!”

“We’re sure!” Looking at Marsha, “We’re sure about this, aren’t we?”

“Yes! Absolutely sure!”

“Yes! We’re absolutely sure!”

“Good, I’ll call the buyer’s broker and tell her ’it’s a deal’.”

“Great! Thanks’ Alice, you did a really good job.”

Dropping the phone onto the cradle, Mitchell took a deep breath… then kissed his wife.

“The other call…”

“The other call?”

“Yes, the call from that Century 21 broker.”

“Oh, yeah. Think I should call now?”

“Sure, why not, it’s only five-thirty.”

“Want to find a Western Union office first?”

“No. Alice said there’s nothing she can do tonight anyway…”

“Other than contacting the other broker.”

“Yeah, there’s nothing she can do other than contacting the other broker so, so I’m curious as to how this other broker found us.”

Dialing the number…

Picked up on the first ring: “Century twenty-One; Sophie Chen.”

“Hi,” – Mrs., Miss? – “Miss Chen. You called us. This is Mitchell Lipensky.”

“Mr. Lipensky! Great! I’ve been waiting for your call.”

“ ‘You’ve been waiting for my call’?” he questioned. “I didn’t know that I was even going to call until just now. How do you even know that we’re here, in San Diego and at this hotel?”

“I’ll tell you in a minute, but have you made an offer on a house yet?”

“No, but we’re working with another…”

“I’ve got your new home!”

“Excuse me!”

“Mr. Lipensky, I said that I have your new home.”

Looking at Marsha, “She says she’s got our new home’!”

“Yes,” Sophie said confidently. “I know exactly what you’re looking for, and I have your new home!”

©September 30, 2011 / Mark M. Lichterman