The Next Generation: The Auction Part 2

 The sweat was running into his eyes and his head was aching. He'd been an auctioneer for over twenty years and he needed some time off. That's why he'd hired an assistant. She seemed like she was doing okay. She had sold the ranch and there wasn't much left to get rid of. The commission they would make on the sale would sure help out his finances even though he had to share the money. Maybe when he got home his wife would have dinner ready for a change. Maybe just maybe she would smile when he walked in the door. That's a lot of maybes for one day. She wanted to move to Illinois. Today that idea didn't seem half bad. It was probably a lot cooler up there. The kids were getting old enough that they wouldn't care. One was in college and the other in a trade school. He wanted to be an auctioneer. "I should have talked him out of that, but that's what he wanted to do." The little girls were still hanging around the trailer full of junk. One was talking to him.

"What do you want, little girl? I'm a busy man. You want to buy this box?  So do you have money?Well, do you have a number?  You have to have a number. Yeah, I guess you can use your mom's number. What is it? #32? Okay, what will you pay for this box?" Marlee said, "I have four dollars, but I don't want to spend it all. I'll give you two dollars." The auctioneer started his chant but quickly noticed that he no longer had a crowd of people around the trailer. They were all walking towards the barn. "What is going on? Yes you can have that box. Now go find your mom, but don't forget to pay the clerk over there at the trailer. Now scat!"

As he quickly walked towards the barn he began to get worried. What was happening? There were two ladies crying and two men shaking their heads at his assistant and using really loud voices, in fact they were yelling at her!

 "Alright, alright. Now what's this all about? You bid on the ranch, but you didn't mean to? Quit your crying and tell me what exactly happened."

"I'll tell you what happened she over bid me and now we can't buy the ranch of our dreams. We've been scrimping and saving for years. Why did you have to ruin everything?"

After pulling his assistant aside she explained that she thought that the woman that waved her number at her wanted to get in on the bidding of the ranch.

 "Wait a minute! I don't want this ranch. We are on vacation and that's all there is to it!" 

"Well, let us have it for our bid then. We want this ranch. Please!"

The auctioneers head felt like it was splitting in two. The people on vacation were in trouble. There was over a million dollars in back taxes due on the ranch. They had bid, accidentally or not $1, 853, 782. They were liable for that money. If they didn't pay it it would go on their credit as a black mark and then the ranch would have to go back up for sale again at a later date because the taxes were accumulating as they spoke. He tried to explain to both couples that accident or not, #32 was the owner of the ranch.

"Can we buy the ranch from them for what we bid?" the young woman sobbed. "No. I told you that they now own it. You would have to make up the difference to buy it. Then you could own it." The young woman cried so hard she could hardly breathe and the other couple stood holding each other; both of which were in shock. They knew nothing about ranching. They certainly didn't want their credit to go bad. What could they do?

                                                                 *****

 He arrived at the flea market with the bag of jewels in his pocket. Now to find the woman that he knew would give him below market value and make a fortune for the jewelry, but it would still give him a good chunk of change. That money would buy him a home and maybe even a better car. He would be set and his brother would be in Florida without the jewels. He laughed to himself again while he was browsing the open air market. "Serves him right. His brother was the Golden Boy and he was the black sheep of the family. Now the table was turned. "Ha! There's her booth. I recognize some of her jewelry that she uses for a front. Wait, there's a man sitting there. Well, I'll just ask for her. Maybe she's on a break. Hope she's not in jail again. She needs to be more careful who she buys and sells to."

Marlee and one of the girls that had been standing beside her were looking at the things in the box that she had just bought. "Mom's been gone for awhile. I don't think I can carry this big box by myself. Another girl said, "I will help you. Soon there were three girls helping Marlee carry the big box to her parent's car. "Thank you so much for helping me. Do you want to help me look in the box to see if I bought anything really valuable? My mom told me that sometimes there are treasures in boxes at auctions." They all agreed to sit down and carefully take things out of the box to see if there was a treasure somewhere at the bottom.

After quite some time the girls said they couldn't see anything valuable in the box. They told Marlee they had to go find their parents or grandparents. They told her how sorry they were that she had spent her two dollars for junk and were on their way.

Marlee waved good-bye to them wishing they would stay and be friends. She had lots of friends at home and missed them.  She decided to open up a really old book. A picture fell out on the ground. She picked it up and said, "Wow! This picture looks kinda like me. I've never been to Texas before so I guess it's just an old old picture of a little girl that looks a little like me. I'll have to show mom if she ever gets back here. I'm getting thirsty. I'll look for her by the food truck. I'm glad I didn't spend all of my money on that box of stuff. I'm ready to go back on the road to do something fun. Maybe get a hotel and go swimming. Yes, that's a really good idea."