The Christmas House Read Online Free PDF Page A

Birthday
    3:35 p.m.
        
                  Several months passed and despite numerous showings and a half of dozen Realtors representing the property, Martha was still without a buyer for the house.
                  Many interested and potential buyers inspected the house. Many made generous offers of over $2.3 million dollars 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 were 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. Every Realtor she signed with to represent the house quickly canceled their listing agreement after the first Open House. The assumed that Martha was senile and unstable due to refusing offer after offer, regardless how generous the amount. She would make each Realtor very uncomfortable when she would ask a potential buyer about their personnel family history and the status of living relatives and friends. Time after time, as the buyers would respond as to how large and caring their family was, Martha would dismiss their offer.
                  Today was Martha’s birthday and she only had a few months remaining to sell the 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 it had been for the past several months. Martha was working down in her basement, trying to clean up some of the mess that accumulated over the years. The dark and damp basement was dimly lit by the shadowed light of a bare incandescent bulb hanging from a black frayed cord as Martha rummaged through the affects stored in corrugated boxes. 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 hadn’t been used by bottlers 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 that she placed there, just 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 in the direction of where she last saw the mouse run off and slowly raised the broom over her head. As she turned the corner around a stack of boxes ready to bounce on the furry rodent, the doorbell rang and 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.
         The handsome young man, in his thirties 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.
         “Well, if it wouldn’t be too much of an imposition, yes that would be fine,” the young man replied.
         Martha opened the door wide and the three guests entered the house. The young woman, now in full view, was pregnant and carrying high.
         “It’s going