Haunted House Flipper

Chapter 44

We put away the equipment and got into my car.

"You sure you're okay with us getting in your car with all this grass all over our shoes and clothes?" Cordo asked.

"It's only going to get messier. Hop on in," I said.

After buying gallons and gallons of light beige paint, several drop cloths, rollers, paint trays, and brushes, we were at my house. We had also swung by the pastor's house to pick up Cordo's very few belongings.

"I'm sorry. I don't have a guest bed, but I've fallen asleep on the couch many times and it's very comfortable," I said.

"Trust me bro, anything is better than what I'm used to. Thanks for letting me stay here. You have a bit more room than the pastor. I kind of felt intrusive at his place, but he was really nice about it. His wife is really nice too, and man can she cook, but I'm glad they have the place back to themselves."

He stopped and looked around at my sparse bachelor pad.

"I don't mean to be rude, but it kinda looks like you don't have people over much."

"Yeah. I never have people over."

"Why not? This is a nice place."

"Thanks. I guess I just don't really have any friends. Just my goldfish," I said.

"What about Claire?"

"Yeah we're friends, but I've only known her for a few days."

Cordo just stared at me then. It seemed like even he had more of a social life as a homeless man than I did. I never wanted to go back to being a lonely selfish loser. That's why I had to make this sale of the mansion. I had to help Claire pay her medical bills as her employer, even if she didn't do any work for me yet. And then I needed to get another house for her to work on. I needed a reason for her to stay in my life.

"Well, I've got to go. Please make yourself at home and help yourself to anything you can find in the kitchen or fridge. Okay where did I put my camera? It must still be in the car."

I turned to Cordo.

"So yeah. The fridge. I don't think I have much, but I'll be back early in the morning and we can grab some breakfast before getting back to work on the mansion."

"Cool. Does your fish need to be fed?"

"Oh yeah. Thanks. I'm a little flustered."

I walked over to my fishbowl.

"It's cool man. You've got a lot going on."

"I do."

My fish saw my huge form looming over his tank and swam around in a quick circle. I loved it when he did that. To think he was the only other being I had put effort into since my one time foster dad. The one who liked home remodeling TV shows years and years before. The little bit of joy I got from my dependable fish was all I had for years.

I thought about how much more enjoyable and deep my joy had been the few days I got to enjoy with Claire. Even Cordo was nice to be around. He came from a very different place, but he was still so easy to get along with. No pretense. No posturing. Just down to earth people being themselves. It was really refreshing. I suddenly felt free to say what I meant instead of crafting my every word to get what I wanted out of people.

"You're a good guy Cordo. I like you. I don't know what kind of stuff you had going on before, but you're a hard worker and I'd be happy to keep you on helping me fix up houses. With any luck I'll always have a lot of work for you to help me with. Hopefully someday Claire will work with me again too."

"Thanks man. I have a long way to go to repay you for saving me from that demon. I'm in your debt."

"I'm glad I could help. Alright, I'm just going to snap some pictures of my house and then I'm out of here."

"So you can sell it?"

"Yep."

I ran outside for pictures of the exterior while there was still a little light left. Then I went inside and walked around getting great pictures of each room in the house. I grabbed my laptop, and headed for the door.

"See you tomorrow," I said.

"Later man. Good luck."

"Thanks."

And with that I headed out and drove to the Poltergeist Palace. It didn't take me long to get there and soon I was knocking on the front door. The owner opened it and smiled.

"Hi. Thanks again for doing this. Come on in. I hope this works," Nick said.

"Me too. I am really motivated to get your house sold. I will do whatever it takes."

"That's great to hear. I have a meeting in the morning so I'm going to hit the hay. I put a pillow and a blanket in there on the couch for you. Do you need anything else?"

"Just a spare key if you have one," I said.

"Yeah, let me go grab it."

He ran off and came back with a key.

"For showings?" he asked.

"That's the plan. Hopefully calls will start flooding in. If they don't I'll do an open house."

"Okay. That sounds good. Thank you."

"Yeah. Thanks for the pillow and blanket. If I don't see you in the morning I'll keep you up to speed on my progress," I said.

"Sounds good. You probably won't. I'll be leaving pretty early. Good luck, and good night."

Once he walked away I pulled out my laptop and got to work. First I transferred all the photos of my house off of my camera to my computer. Then I setup my camera and made sure I had a wide view of the couch where I would be sleeping. I set it up to stream live online using several different services to try and get as many views as possible.

I titled the video streams "Spending the Night in the Poltergeist Palace" hoping that would attract some attention. Once that was going I began touching up the photos I took of my house. Once they were bright and looked inviting I uploaded them to a bunch of websites putting my house up for sale. I hoped offers would come in soon.

Next I started building a website for my new business which I called Haunted House Flipper. I wrote up my story and the supernatural services I could provide. That took me a while. Once I had the pages built I headed over to a website to register my business and get a business license. It was cheaper than I was expecting. I had finally caught up on my work. I put my laptop away and crawled under the blanket on the couch. I fell asleep right away.

I woke up to the sound of someone knocking on the front door.