The 'Cousins'

Part Fifty-Beta : Walt Bursts His Chains

 This Chapter is dedicated to FakeDeadGirlFriend, another talented, mature author with a number of varied and interesting stories on Wattpad. His 'Day in the Office" is a short story with which anybody who has ever been around a high pressure sales office will instantly resonate and recognise the characters. It is a gripping story that deserves a much wider readership. If you are not famiiliar with FDG's work, I recommend you go to his site and read 'A Day in the Office' for starters!

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‘Walt Bursts His Chains’

A/N: This is the second part of Chapter Fifty and follows on directly without a break from the previous part.  In this part Walt explains to the condo residents the difficulty they are in because of their sub-prime mortgages and how these non-conforming loans came into the marketplace. For many reading outside of North America the term 'sub-prime' is just a term used by the financial markets and in this chapter Walt Kempster gives his view on how an unregulated market built a gravy train that all, otherwise responsible, people climbed readily on board; including politicians and those that should have known better. You can skip this part with little loss to the main story line if you are cognisant with the facts, but I would recommend you sit with the condo dwellers and listen to Walt.

Timeline: 0927, Friday 20th April :: Whitewater Condo , Inside the Padilla apartment.

Walt stood feeling rather awkward and self-conscious on the oilcloth covering of the Padilla kitchen floor.  He faced the small group of condo residents gathering around the table in the parlour part of the long kitchen cum living room. There was no warmth or welcome here for him.   ‘They’re on the carpet in the lounge area and I’m on the oilcloth in the kitchen; says a lot about what they think of me and probably my message.’  

His palms itched again and he felt beads of sweat running cold down his spine.  The speech he had planned for them earlier no longer seemed such a good idea. He stood shuffling from one foot to the next under their furtive scrutiny. They talked to each other in lowered voices, with their hands shielding their mouths so he could not hear what they were saying. Walt knew he had no friends in this room, and was on his own.

Honora Padilla sat obliquely on a chair at the far end of the table where she could face him and watch out for the youngsters. She had constructed a pen out of boxes and chairs to contain the three toddlers from outside plus her own three. 

Walt looked around the group and recognised them all from past meetings. They were waiting for Sofia Quinones to come down before they could start. Walt looked them over to make sure he knew their names in case they spoke. He’d like to use their names when he made his replies to them. 

The tiny figure of Ebonie Marrs sat next to Honora on the right side of the table. Next to her sat the big Pole, Gerry Wolny and his wife. He didn’t know her name. On the other side of the table Esteban Quinones kept a chair next to him for his wife, Sofia. ‘But where’s big Ali’ Walt wondered, ‘and his wife Martha, and Honora’s husband? It’s important they all hear me at the same time.’

Walt looked away from the table as he could not bear to see so much unspoken mistrust and dislike for him in their stares. He was locally born and belonged here, like most of them, yet he could see they considered him an outsider. ‘Death by association,’ he thought. His standing in this community was something else he had reason to thank Mitt Fawley for spoiling for him.

Sofia ran into the room to sit next to her husband burbling unintelligible apologies in a mixture of English and Spanish. Walt heaved a sigh of relief. He hated this waiting, especially knowing what he was about to say and do.