The house had good bones,' the real estate agent told them, but needed some renovation work. Drew was skeptical, remembering how his Dad once told him, If a real estate agent tells you a place needs a little work. That means it should be torn down." The agent acknowledged that it would be an outlier, and not exactly what they had described as a target. But, with their budget and their goals in divergent places, even Drew know that they'd have to compromise.
"It's pretty big," Mickey said, scanning the interior panorama from the kitchen to the adjacent dining room and beyond to the living room. Without furniture, his voice echoed off the paneled walls and parquet floors.
According to what the guys were told, it hadn't been vacant for very long at all - only a few weeks. But it had never been renovated in probably 80 years, and combining the old fashioned window radiators and original 1920's kitchen with the peeling paint, it had a touch of `haunted house' to it. But both of them noticed the fine detail on the paneling and the ceiling.
"Yeah, there's even a pantry back here," Drew replied as he opened a narrow door next to the refrigerator, it's hinges creaking loudly as he forced it open. "Wow, it's big! You could feed an army from here."
"Most of these old places have one," the agent said, glancing back into the dimly lit space, it's walls lined with empty white shelves.
"Along with a maid's room, of course, back when domestic help was cheap," she continued, now motioning to a tiny alcove next to the pantry. "Most of those become studies, or in-law units or something like that."
"Hmmm...Mickey said as he stepped through the alcove into the space. "If we got a place like this, I wonder if my Mom would like it. I mean, being in a separate area of the house."
Following right behind him, Drew looked around. "It's kind of cozy, I think. I don't know if she would enjoy this, like you say, because it's a bit isolated from the other parts of the house. But it has nice view of the backyard."
"Well, if we like it well enough, we can bring her by and see what she thinks," Mickey replied as he motioned the agent to continue the tour.
After walking through the other spaces downstairs, including the huge dining room and family room, they came to the central foyer, with a large staircase connecting to the bedrooms upstairs. It was so spacious that they could even climb side-by-side to the second floor, stopping on the landing to admire the view out the bay window into the back yard. Mickey put his finger on the leaded joint between the intricate geometrically patterned glass, admiring the craftsmanship.
"Gosh, this is nice," Mickey remarked as traced the sharp glass edge between panels. "I know it's old and kind of rundown right now, but I never thought that I might live in a house like this."
"It's within reach, if you really like it and we can get the financing together," Drew replied, already scheming in his head about how they might make the numbers work. `Maybe refinancing the lake house? Ask Casey for help? Work part-time? he asked himself.
"This place would be 10 times the price in Greenwich," he added.
"Yeah, I know. I guess it's the virtue of the old suburbs, at least here in the Midwest. Low demand for older style housing. But I really like these houses. I know it's kind of a cliché, but they really do have character. Even if we had the money, I wouldn't want to be in the new developments in the far-out suburbs."
"If we find the right place, I think that it can be a really good deal," Mickey added. "But even a good deal will be a stretch for us, I know." Then he sighed. "If we could just swing one of these places, we could really put down roots and not have to move. I'd like that more than anything."
Knowing what a sacrifice that Drew had made to commit to a move back to his hometown, Mickey studied every gesture and utterance for signs of what Drew thought of each of the places that they toured. And he was also grateful that Drew had assumed the handling of their finances, with a strategic awareness regarding money and negotiating that clearly showed he had kept his eyes and ears open around the kitchen table with his father.
"This bedroom arrangement is great," Drew said as they strolled through the upstairs hallway. He chipped a piece of curling paint off of the wall. "It really does need a lot of work, a lot more than the other places. But it seems like a really nice floor plan."
"That chipped paint is what puts it in your price range, guys," the agent reminded them. "A lot of people don't like to do any work, they just want to move in. But if you want a place like this, with your price point, you'll need to add some sweat equity."
"We didn't plan on that, or at least hoped not to have to do too much. Mickey will be busy with work, and we want to start a family right away, so I'm not sure how we'd do it," Drew replied. "It needs a new kitchen, bathrooms, a lot of stuff. But everything else about this place is just what we want."
"And look at this view into the backyard! Wow!" Mickey exclaimed as he stepped into the master bedroom with its own large bay window overlooking the semi-jungle that had taken over the yard.
"That fence looks like Fort Knox, though. I wonder why they built it so high." Drew asked. "It's like they were expecting an invasion."
"The guy who lived here was something of a recluse, and from what I can tell, wasn't particularly involved with the neighbors. I guess the he just wanted extreme privacy," she joked.
"It's too bad," Mickey added. "If that fence wasn't there it could practically be a regulation soccer field if you added in the lot behind this."
"That's if you can get along with the neighbors," the agent responded. "I don't' want to discourage you from trying anything, but it's best to assume that things like that won't happen, at least at this stage. You have to work with the worst case.'
"I know, I know," he responded, already resigned. "But it does give me other thoughts. Maybe we should look for more land, too. I mean, kids need a lot of space to play, you know?" he said turning toward Drew.
Putting his hand on Mickey's shoulder, he replied, "Even in areas like this, we're just on the edge of affordability. But if we keep looking I'll bet that we'll find the perfect house, right in that sweet spot of price and size and character," he added, "It will take time, but we'll figure out a way to do it."
After they had finished touring the second floor bedroom areas, the agent led them back downstairs. After carefully looking through the former maid's room again, the trio made their way through the double doors of the adjacent breakfast room out to the backyard.
"Hmmm...," Drew murmured as he made his way to the back of the lot, crunching the weeds with his feet, blazing a trail for the others to follow. "This yard really is big, which is great, but let's see what that guy was protecting himself from."
Grasping the sides of one of the sharply pointed pickets at the top of the fence, Drew hoisted himself up, slipping his foot onto a horizontal 2x4 brace about a third of the way up the frame. The agent demurred, her high heels not meant for climbing, but Mickey followed Drew's lead and found himself looking onto the well-tended lawn of the neighboring property.
Together they scanned the lawn and remarked about the many children's toys, including a swing set and sandbox and slides. None of them were store-bought plastic contraptions, but built-in structures made mostly from wood. It almost looked like an outdoor adult par course built for kids. There was bar-b-que there, too, at the edge of a large terrace outside what was probably a breakfast room similar to the house that they were touring.
Mickey was about to point out something on the house when suddenly he heard a child's voice just beneath him on the other side of the fence.
"Hi!" a little girl said, looking up at him.
Mickey hesitated for moment. Thinking of his scars, and the reaction that he sometimes got from kids, he tried to think of some way to respond without turning his head toward her.
But she had already seen him.
"Oooooohhh...she said softly," clearly noticing his face.
Mickey now looked back down at her as she studied him. She didn't seem scared and didn't back away, but he held his breath. `Who knows what she'll say,' he thought to himself.
Hooking her finger into her lips, perplexed at what she was looking at, she continued to scrutinize him. Then her face suddenly brightened as she blurted out, "You have a boo-boo!"
Momentarily, Mickey was dazed. Ever since the injury, he had heard pizza face,' crater face,' and any other number of hurtful remarks. He was used to them by now. But no one had ever said this. He couldn't think of what to reply, but she didn't give him time anyway.
"Does it hurt?" she asked.
He paused before answering, then smiled. "Not anymore, but thank you for asking."
"I have a boo-boo, too!" She then proclaimed, "Do you want to see it?"
Before Mickey could answer, she stripped off her pants and was just starting to pull off her shirt when they heard a voice behind her.
"Chessie! Put your clothes back on!" the voice said, with exasperated humor.
They could hear the quick clip of racing flip-flops before they saw a tall guy not much older than them coming toward her, holding in his right arm a little boy who was giggling and pointing at the girl.
"But I want to show him my boo-boo!" She pleaded.
"Later, young lady," he countered as he set down what Mickey assumed to be a brother as he helped her put her pants back on.
Looking up at Drew and Mickey, he said, "Sorry, did she throw something over the fence? I know that you all don't like it when the toys fly over."
The guys looked at each other, then Drew said, "Um, sorry...we don't live here. We're just potential buyers looking at the place."
The guy froze in place for a moment before looking up at them. "You mean Mr. Cole doesn't live there anymore?"
"No, the house just went on the market," Drew replied. He looked over as Mickey was making funny faces at Chessie and her brother. The neighbor looked over and saw them, too.
"Holy cow! " the guy replied at he gently snapped the elastic band of Chessie's pants around her waist. "Gosh, he couldn't have been dead very long. I think that I saw him about a month ago from upstairs, but maybe it was longer - I don't exactly remember. In any case, I guess the family really wants to sell fast. Really fast," he continued, reaching over and stroking the boy's neck.
"The body was barely cold,' the agent murmured from the other side of the fence as she stood on the ground behind the Drew and Mickey.
"So, you all are thinking about buying?" the guy asked, looking up at them as they both leaned over the sharp pickets to smile again at Chessie and the little boy.
"Well, we're seeing what's out there on the market. Today has been house tours, and we'll spend the next couple days comparing and figuring out next steps," Drew replied.
"Sounds good. Ask me whatever you want about the neighborhood," he replied. "By the way I should introduce myself," he said, reaching up as Drew outstretched his hand. "My name is Bik Kovar. I live here with my wife Laura and these two rascals," he said as he pulled them close.
"This is Brady," he said, reaching over and scratching his son's stomach to peals of laughter. "And I think that you've already met Chessie here," he continued, giving her an equally intense tummy rub and getting more squeals in return.
Smiling as they introduced themselves, Drew and Mickey both waved down at the kids. People would often recognize them from the news or TV, even though the most sensational headlines were now more than a year ago. Maybe Bik recognized them, too, Mickey thought. But if he did, he was too polite to say anything.
But for his part, Mickey recognized the similarity of Bik's last name to his new boss, though Kovar was not a real unusual name around Cleveland. So he held off on asking about any possible connection.
After they had chatted for a few minutes, however, Mickey couldn't hold back his curiosity. Even though it was probably a waste of time, he didn't want to miss the chance to make any kind of connection now that he was finally returning to his hometown.
"By the way, Bik, I just took a job with a law firm downtown and my new bosses name is Brad Kovar. Is that any relation to you?"
Bik looked up at him and smiled, then turned toward the house and cried out, "hey Dad!"
Looking up at the house, Mickey saw Mr. Kovar stick his head out of the door and waved at him. He definitely looked surprised.
"Hey!" Brad yelled back as he stepped out of the door and trotted toward them. "What they heck are you doing here?!"
"We're playing hooky from school and looking for houses, and this is the last stop of the day," Mickey replied. "You know how 3L year is. You can even look at real estate," he said, getting a chuckle from Brad as he approached.
"By the way, before anything else, I want to introduce you to Drew," Mickey replied as Brad finally reached them.
"Don't stab yourself up there!" Brad said as he reached up and met Drew's again outstretched hand more than halfway.
"Hey, would you guys like to come over after your tour?" Bik asked. "We could tell you more about the neighborhood if you're interested, and you wouldn't have to risk impaling yourselves up there."
"That's a good idea," their agent called up to them from down below. "You won't get better inside information. We can meet and talk later and you can tell me what you think about all of these places."
Mickey glanced over at Drew, who looked down at Chessie. "Can we come over to your house?"
Chessie blushed and turned to hug her Dad, but not before peaking up at Drew and giggling again.
"We've been here like six months now," Bik said, bouncing Brady on his lap. "it's been great being with family, which was the big reason that we moved back here."
"Eventually, the kids will be able to walk to their grandads' house and their cousins, who are only a block or so away. And grandads can visit them too, like one of them is now," Bik added. "So that all works out great."
"But it would be a change for you, Drew," he added, "like it was for Laura. She's not home right now, but it would be great for you to meet her and see what she thinks about the area. She's from Chicago, so a big city person, like yourself. She's been really great about the move, but it's not always perfect and there are lots of things to think about."
"What have been the downsides, if you don't mind me asking," Mickey said, more for Drew's benefit more than his own.
Bik sighed. "To be honest, probably the biggest one has been the neighbors. I think we had a bit of romantic view of what the relationships would be like, or at least a view that was overly optimistic. Not that we expected the welcome wagon to be permanently parked in our driveway, but we've had almost no interaction with any of the neighbors, especially from the house that you're looking at.
"The kids were raised with great neighbors around our house," Brad added. "I don't know what it is, but there are very few kids around here. The houses are all big, too, but it seems like it's a lot of empty nesters who are glad to have empty nests."
"Oh - and the guy who lived in the house that you're looking at. Brady once accidently threw a plastic soccer ball over the wall and that guy returned it the next day. Punctured."
"What a prick!" Bik said, shaking his head.
"Speaking of neighbors, Mickey and I were talking about something as we looked around at the yards from the upstairs at the house," Drew said. "Before I mention this, I should say that we have a couple other places to evaluate and all, and don't even know if we can afford this house, but I wanted to ask a question, if you don't' mind."
"What's that?" Bik replied as he helped Brady crawl onto his grandpa's lap.
"If we get that house, and it's a big `if' right now, of course - we can't even make an offer until I start working," he said, counting down the days until he graduated and could start making money, only weeks away. "But if we get it, we would love to take down that fence and kind of have one big backyard that all our kids would all share. Would you and your wife be OK without a fence?"
Bik's eyes lit up. "Are you kidding! I can definitely speak for Laura and tell you that we'd love that! Oh my gosh, getting rid of that eyesore and turning our backyards into one big playground. That would be awesome!"
"We have a dog," Drew added, arching his eyebrows. "She's getting old, but she loves to have a big yard, too."
Bik held Chessie up in his arms. "Do you like doggies?"
She shook her head up and down, and once again fell giggling into her father's lap.
"This yard would really be command central for the neighborhood," Brad added. "Peter and Marty and their new one, who you have yet to meet, only live a block away, and our middle son, Robert, and his wife and their kids are only another block in the other direction. And Mike and I are around, too. I could see a yard like this being a fantastic attraction for all the neighborhood kids."
Drew looked at Mickey. "It sounds, really great, but I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves. I just hope it stays on the market long enough for us to make an offer."
"That's true," Brad added. "We're kind of dreaming here, lots of stuff needs to fall into place, one of the important ones being that the house doesn't get snapped up before you guys can make an offer.
"I'm working on that one already, Bik added, Chessie bouncing up and down on his leg. "I'm trying to think of how to make myself into the neighbor from hell, at least as long as the house is still on the market."
"What do you think?" Mickey asked as they walked around the block and back to their car.
"It was really great to meet them all, especially your boss. He seems like a nice guy, I can see why you wanted to work with him."
"He is, and I'm even more convinced now that it was the right choice. But, I mean, what do you think of this place, and the other places?"
Drew looked down, then up at Mickey. "It was great talking to everyone, to find out about the neighborhood and get to know them a bit, too. I really liked Bik, and the kids were really fun," he added.
"But we need to consider all sides of it. My dad would say, what kind of investment is each house? What is the resale potential? How much does it cost to maintain? Can we afford it? And one more thing that even he had to admit...the intangibles.'"
As they walked, they used these points as a criteria to discuss the pros and cons of each place. The first place they saw was in pristine, move-in condition, had the minimum bedrooms, and the price was within their limits.
The `intangibles?' Neither was excited. It was close to a busy commercial road, which worried both for the kids. And while the house had all the space, it was just very...boring. Just hallways and rooms. And the backyard wasn't nearly this big. While it was also affordable, it didn't seem to Mickey like it caught Drew's imagination either. Similar with the other houses.
After they had both gotten into the car that was still parked in the house's driveway, Drew paused before he put the key in the ignition.
"You know, this place is a real stretch for us. It's the biggest of them all, and has the best backyard, especially if we can combine them. I really like that," he said.
"But we'd have to put in some sweat equity, cleaning painting, fixing stuff up. We can't do some of the more complicated electrical and plumbing ourselves, but I'll bet that we could do some of it. And we can certainly do all the painting and knocking stuff down that we don't want."
"Hmmm...' and I think the oldest would go in that back bedroom. we could keep the younger ones closest to us," he added, ruminating for a moment.
"Are you up for that?" Drew asked.
Mickey looked at him. "It sounds like you can picture us there," Mickey said as Drew stared ahead. "Do you like that last house? Would you be happy there?"
Drew sighed. "It's a big leap, Mickey - more than we thought we could spend. We'll need to be really careful with money and everything else, at least for the first couple years, since we'll be carrying maintenance on the cabin, too. But, gosh. I like the house, and I like the neighbors, at least the ones right behind the house."
He paused before turning to Mickey. "Would you be happy there?"
"Yeah, I would," he replied before kissing Drew on the cheek. He tried to not mix business with pleasure, but at the moment, with such an important decision, couldn't help himself.
"It's one more reason that I want to get back here as soon as possible. We can't make an offer until I start working," he said before pausing.
"It's funny. I really enjoyed my graduation from Middlefield. I looked forward to it and had a lot of fun, and it was important."
"But college and law school – I mean, they just seemed like a means to an end. I guess maybe I've gotten too serious. I don't know. I just want to get back home and move on with life."
Drew looked at him, then put the key in the ignition. This old car didn't start as smoothly as the fancy one that he sold, but right now for some reason it sounded better than that one ever did. "You may have spent all your wanderlust at Middlefield. Ever since I've known you, you've just ached to come back home. Not that Middlefield is the whole world, of course, but it was away from home. Yet as special as it became, there was no place like home for you."
"I knew that when I started college, but I was afraid that I might regret it, you know, looking way past the college experience," Mickey said, leaning back in the seat. "For a lot of kids, it was really great - a fresh start, new environment, all that. But I'd already had that at Middlefield."
"I saw almost the first week that college was really different. At Middlefield, we did everything together, classes, sports, living, eating, just about everything. For some people, it's kind of suffocating, but after I adjusted I just loved it. Even people that I didn't know well, like Andrew, I still have a connection with."
"But in college, people sort of went their own way. Maybe that's good, I don't' know. And I guess that I didn't try to do much about it. I never really felt the connection that I did from boarding school, and the same with Law School, except for you," he said, poking Drew in the leg. "I just focused on the academic work."
Turning to Drew and looking at his eyes as he drove, Mickey asked, "Are you looking forward to graduation? You put it off for a year to be around for my 3L year. Are you excited?"
Drew didn't hesitate. "I think that I'm like you, but maybe for different reasons. Except for celebrating with our friends, I would be OK getting my diploma in the mail," he said, chuckling at his own indifference. "Coming out as gay, all the stuff with my Dad, the attention that we got, that was all pretty serious. I think it really focused me on what's important. The ceremony is nice, but I really want to get on with our own lives. Whatever gets that going is what I want to do."
"What about your mom? Is she looking forward to it?"
"Graduation from Middlefield was the high point for her, too. I think that she sensed how I felt about college and knew that I wanted to come home. So she hasn't made a big deal out of it, except that I think she's looking forward to seeing us graduate together."
"Well now, we have to show up for sure!" Drew replied smiling.
Mickey slumped back in his seat as he folded his hands across his chest. "Let's pack the car before the ceremonies so that we're ready to go."