TUESDAY TALES - HAZY

Howdy! Thank you for coming. This week the word prompt is "hazy." We have another snippet from "Renovating the Billionaire."

I hope you enjoy it. Scroll down to go back to Tuesday Tales and the excellent authors there. 

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“Here’s the key,” Robbie, his right-hand man said.

“Do I really have to do this?”

“I think so. But you’re the boss.”

“Be back in an hour.”

“Right.”
With a groan of disgust, Stryker Alexander West exited the limo and headed for the steps of the old house. He shoved the key in the rusty lock and turned. Reluctantly, the tumblers clicked into place. His memory of the inside was hazy.

He recalled warm, delicious smells coming from the kitchen. His aunt, Minnie, had been an excellent cook. Not a gourmet, but she could make a stew that would bring a grown man to tears. His mouth watered as the long-forgotten scents awakened his taste buds.

Opening the front door, he was hit with the stench of cat urine. The smell was overpowering, pushing him back a few steps. His eyes stung. Ducking under a cob web, he forced himself to walk through the living room. Stryker forced a long, once-elegant window open. 

Gulping fresh air, he turned to examine the room. He wondered what Minnie had done with the thousands of dollars he’d sent her each month to keep up the house. Surely, she had not used one single cent to maintain it.

The furniture was covered with dusty sheets. The braided rug that had once brought color and warmth to the room had faded and grown shabby. Paint on the walls cracked and peeled, the wood floor, once polished and gleaming, was scuffed and scratched. The chandelier was missing. Old wires sprung from the ceiling like weeds in Minnie’s once-tended garden.

His heart squeezed. Did he dare explore the other rooms? Curiosity overcame fear, compelling him to forge ahead. One room was worse than the next. Corralling his emotions, his resolve to raze the structure hardened. There was nothing left of the place he had called home. Best to take this monstrosity down and hope to erase the memory of the shambles it had become.

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