She Handed Me a Paper Plate, So I Canceled Her Whole Family novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: Lot One
The auction began at ten on Saturday, on the front lawn of the house I had paid for.
A hundred people stood on the frozen grass in coats, with numbered paddles.
Dealers in work boots had come from three counties.
A cluster of young women with phones stood by the mailbox, and I realized they were Kelsey's followers.
They had come to bid on a piece of the paper plate house.
Esther stood on the porch in her navy coat with her handbag in front of her.
A sheriff's deputy stood two steps behind her, because the lender's men took possession at noon.
The club women had come too.
They sat in a row of folding chairs at the edge of the lawn in tweed and gloves, and when Esther's eyes crossed them, every one of them looked at her program.
The auctioneer wore a quilted vest and spoke in a flat country drawl.
"Lot one, folks. A fourteen-seat dining table, mahogany veneer, with chairs. Who'll give me five hundred?"
I raised my paddle.
"Five hundred, the lady in navy. Six?"
A dealer lifted a finger.
I lifted mine again.
"Eight," said the dealer.
"Fifteen hundred," I said.
The dealer shrugged and put his hand in his pocket.
"Sold. Fifteen hundred dollars to paddle forty-one."
On the porch, Esther's head turned slowly.
I walked over to the club manager, who stood by the fence with his hands folded and a very uneasy face.
"This table goes to the club kitchen," I said. "The staff eat at it first. There's a crate of sixty-two pieces of bone china coming with it."
"Mrs. Hartnell, I don't know that the board would..."
"He'll take it," said the gray-haired woman from the row of chairs.
She had not looked up from her program.
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