February 11th148 Festive LaneMartha’s Birthday3:35 p.m.         Several months passed, and despite numerous showings and a half dozen Realtors representing the property, Martha was still without a buyer for the house.     Over thirty interested and potential buyers inspected the house. Many made generous offers of over $4.3 million for the prime location of the four-acre estate. Martha was not concerned with the money. She only wanted to sell the house to someone that would live in it and love it. Unfortunately, none of the serious buyers was interested in living in the house, much less loving it. They were only interested in demolishing the structure and rebuilding on the property. Martha ran out of potential buyers as well as willing Realtors. After the first open house, every Realtor she signed to represent the house quickly canceled their listing agreement. They assumed that Martha was senile and unstable due to refusing offer after offer regardless of how generous the amount was. She would make each Realtor very uncomfortable when she would ask a potential buyer about their personal family history and the status of living relatives and friends. Time after time, the buyers would respond to how big and caring their family was, but Martha would dismiss their offer.     Today was Martha’s birthday, and she only had a few months remaining to sell the magical old house to a deserving family. Having scared off every available Realtor in the area, Martha was forced to sell the house on her own.     It was an unusually warm day for February, and traffic in the area was more congested than in several months. Martha was working down in her basement, trying to clean up some of the mess accumulated over the years. The dark, damp basement was dimly lit by the shadow of a bare incandescent bulb hanging from a black frayed electrical cord casting its light. Martha rummaged through the effects of corrugated boxes when she came across newspapers dated 1936 that shouted headlines about a new Zeppelin being introduced in Germany. She found an old ten-ounce soda bottle that bottlers hadn’t used for over 20 years. The more memories she uncovered, the more depressed she became. Every item brought back a memory that made her think fondly of better days.      As she moved throughout the cellar, she passed in front of a ground-level basement window that looked out to the front yard. She could see the “For Sale by Owner” sign she had placed there two days earlier.      She moved away from the window, and as a beam of light shined past her. It cast a natural spotlight on a mouse gnawing at a box that sat on the floor. Martha screamed!  The mouse was just as startled and scampered off in a flash. Martha regained her composure and grabbed a nearby broom. She quietly and slowly moved toward where she last saw the mouse runoff and slowly raised the broom over her head. She turned the corner to a stack of boxes ready to pounce on the furry rodent, and the doorbell rang. She screamed again! Jumping back and dropping the broom, she tried to catch her breath. Her heart was pounding a thousand beats per minute. She slowly made her way up the basement stairs to the kitchen area when the doorbell rang again.      “Just a moment; I’m coming,” she shouted.     When Martha opened the front entry door, a young man, a younger woman, and a small ten-year-old boy greeted her.      In his thirties, the handsome young man asked, “Excuse me, but is this house still for sale?”      “Why, yes, it is. Would you like to come in and look around?” Martha asked. Listen now.

Ver todos los episodios