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“Penny, I promise you that I am much too scared of you right now to make fun of you,” I smile.
She opens her mouth to say something, then closes it again. After looking around for a few seconds, her posture noticeably slackens, and she allows herself a half of a smile.
“It’s just dismissive,” she shrugs. “Like women can’t have real emotions, or real frustrations or reactions. We are always just ‘crazy.’ It’s belittling.”
“I never thought about that way,” I admit. “If it makes you feel any better, I really do take you seriously. And whatever it is that you’re working on, I totally respect it. I will find a different word to describe this… phase you are in.”
She rolls her eyes, picking up a fork sullenly.
“A phase?” she repeats as she slowly wraps spaghetti around the fork tines. “Is that what you are calling it?”
“If you have a better word for it, I am all ears.”
“I’m just doing research,” she sighs, popping a bit of shrimp into her mouth and chewing with satisfaction. “Oh my God, this is delicious. I didn’t even realize I was hungry.”
“Research, okay. That’s what I will call it next time.”
“And I’m not crazy, I’m just excited, I guess,” she continues, her eyes glued to her plate.
I can feel what she’s thinking. She’s gotten some idea, some vision of the future and then invested all her mental energy into sniffing out a path to that fairytale vision. It’s really pretty remarkable, I have to admit. A combination of cleverness and stubbornness with a healthy dash of manic energy means that Penny can really get quite a lot done during these phases.
I mean, research.
We eat for a little while, and I’m happy just to enjoy the meal. I like being able to sense her thoughts, even when she’s not talking, even when she’s just focused and somewhere else. It’s nice to be next to her, to have her energy in the house.
After the meal is nearly through, I can sense that she is more relaxed. Less frenetic.
“So, what kind of thing are you researching? More environmentally-conscious construction stuff?”
She spears the last chunk of pancetta from her plate and chews it thoughtfully.
“Sort of…” she sighs. “I showed Elsie around the development today and she mentioned something that just kind of got stuck in my head, you know? She said there were a lot of other developments like this one that had been abandoned during the financial downturn. So I thought I would take a look. Just poke around and see?”
Shyly, her eyes flutter up to meet mine. She’s acting modest, but I can tell it’s actually a little bigger than that.
“More developments like Crosswind?” I ask, trying to gently guide her deeper into the conversation. “What did you find?”
Her eyes widen excitedly and her cheeks instantly blush. “So much!” she stage-whispers.
With her fingertips, she flips her laptop around to face me and taps on the screen.
“Just in Stinson County, there are eight more developments like Crosswind that were abandoned at more or less the same time. Three of them have been repossessed by the bank or by the county. The other five, I can’t tell. They might be in private hands or whatever. But these three…”
I cringe, afraid of what she is going to say next.
“These three are prime, ready to go. Two of them are coming up for auction this week. One of them is a hundred and twenty units, which seems like a lot. But the other one is only fifty-six. I can do that, Clay!”
I freeze in place, watching her carefully.
“With the commission from the sale to Elise’s company? I think I really could do it!”
“They’re all in this county, you say?” I ask gently.
“Yeah, that’s where I started. I’m most familiar with this area, but I could expand the search. Maybe even dive into Missouri. Why are you asking me that way? Is everything okay?”
I try to formulate a way to tell her this that isn’t going to burst her bubble too violently. I know that she can be a little devastated when her fairytale vision doesn’t quite work out.
“Well, it’s just that… it’s not a mistake that Ron was there at the Crosswind auction. That’s kind of his forte. If you are looking at auctions… You guys are going to run into each other again. Is that what you want?”
