Read Catharine Bramkamp - Real Estate Diva 05 - A 380 Degree View for Free Online

recorded overture.
    There is no need to describe the play, the plot or anything else.  Sarah Miller was pretty, engaging and a terrible vocalist.  I cringed when she reached vainly for the high notes in Somewhere Over the Rainbow .
    The munchkins were played by local children who either enjoyed too little rehearsal time, or never listened to direction in the first place (I played a child in Music Man , so I know). The munchkins milled around on stage, looking like a crowd with no one to lynch.  It worked fine, cute can still carry a scene.   Dorothy was game and focused, but it seemed Sarah was losing her edge.  She looked weary, as if she had already spent too much time working on the Kansas property.
    I snuck a peek at my phone in case Carrie had called back.  No messages unless you count the four from the office. I ignored those.
    As soon as the curtain fell completing the first act, a young man, (young by Claim Jump standards) stood and applauded.  The rest of the audience murmured and cautiously scooted to the lobby. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road played softly in the background as we all regrouped for a short intermission.
    “That’s him,” Prue whispered.
    “What’s him?”
    “That’s the boy who just put in a bid to buy the Library.”
    “He can’t do that.” I said automatically. “It’s state owned.”
    “No, no, the old library.”
    “My library!”
    Prue rolled her eyes.  “Yes, your library.  Anyway there he is.”
    “Very cute.” Raul observed.  “Should we call on him?”  He glanced at Brick who studiously looked through the advertising in the program; he showed great interest in a picture of lawn furniture.  
    “You could,” Prue encouraged. “So far he only has met the members of the Brotherhood of Cornish Men.”
    “Mores the pity, that’s a formidable group. I’m surprised they didn’t frighten the poor boy away.”
    “They tried, no luck. They, I mean we, are not happy with having to put the building on sale, if that’s what you mean. Lucky put in the competing bid, the state can’t support it anymore.”
    I did not ask how my grandmother knew who put in a sealed bid for a former state-owned property. She herself was a member of the Brotherhood of Cornish Men, and they knew everything there was to know in Claim Jump.
    The young man in question was attractive in a rakish, irresponsible way. He gave the impression he never really held a job. I automatically compared him to Mr. Ben Stone (Rock Solid Service), no comparison.
    I did know Sarah Miller after all. But once I saw her, I remembered more about her. Sarah is a player in the long narrative that is Claim Jump.  Sarah was born here and never left.  Her mother left both Claim Jump and baby Sarah and moved to the Ridge in a haze of pot smoke and acromony. The grandparents, being most excellent Christians, took in the baby even while they disowned their own daughter. 
    Prue shook her head. “I don’t know what will happen to her when her grandparents die.  She has no job, fewer prospects.”
    That’s Prue, always looking on the bright side.
    Summer was back. She clutched a plastic glass of Charles Shaw red and stalked around the lobby. She periodically dashed out to the sidewalk, checked, then returned with a dejected expression on her face.
    The theater lobby is small and hot. Winter or summer, the audience spills out the entrance doors to the sidewalk. Some patrons wander all the way down the sidewalk to the Mine Shaft bar and never return. One year, during a particularly painful interpretation of Fiddler on the Roof , a majority, enough to be noticeable, never returned for the second act. Summer actually walked down to the bar and rounded up a good dozen members of her audience and forced marched them back to the theater.  We all knew then how the residents of Anatevka must have felt.
    I usually don’t dress to attend any event or program in Claim Jump; it’s just not necessary. No one wears makeup around