House tour

Date: 12/26/2023

Stephan and I are looking at Penny and Josh’s old house on Hideaway Lane. It’s for sale, and empty. I wasn’t expecting Penny to be there- Stephan and I are just outside, looking at the yard and the trees. I notice the playground set, a simple one with one swing and something to climb up into. The wood is old, you can tell it’s been there for awhile. It must be Fall, there are leaves on the ground and most of the trees are bare or losing the rest of their leaves. Penny shows up, and remembers me. She has two big white dogs with her, Pyrenees I think. They are very friendly and sweet dogs. There is a golf ball on the ground that Stephan picks up, and a small snowman made out of two golfballs that he leaves. Penny and I are talking. I ask her how Josh has been, and she says good. She is short, with short dirty blonde hair. She walks us around the outside of the house- there are two hot tubs, and the whole time we are still talking, just her and I. Stephan is quiet, I think he’s getting impatient with being there and all the talking. Penny offers to show us inside the house, she says she has someone showing up at 5 to look at the house and it’s only 4:30 so we have time. The dogs come inside with us. The house is like I remember it- big open cathedral ceiling where the living room is, big glass windows. Beautiful wood floors. Stephan and I go down to the living room, there is a comfortable rug on the floor. I lay on the ground with the dogs and am just petting them. I must fall asleep because then I am getting up and it is 5:59. Stephan clearly wants to leave. We start to leave and Penny comes back inside to say that the people who showed up for the tour weren’t the people she expected. I tell her we are leaving, and thank her for letting us look around and spend time with her dogs. She is nice. She tells me the hardest part about having a place listed for sale and not living there is the people who just come over to poop. Apparently people sneak onto the property to poop because they know no one is there. It makes me think of offering to hang out there when she isn’t there, to have a car there and some lights on. But, it isn’t my problem I remind myself. So I tell her how crazy that is. Stephan and I leave.