"It's an older home, and I'll be honest with you, it could use some renovations? Especially the main floor," the sales agent said as we pulled out from his office parking lot. "Having said that, the structure's in great shape. It's a solid brick exterior, the roof was just re-done four years ago, and they upgraded the insution at the same time."

  He made the turn onto main street as he continued, "Furnace and air conditioner are both less than ten years old, but the kitchen appliances are a little older. But like I said, a reno would go a long way with this property."

  I nodded, "We got that from the listing and the pictures, Mr. Green."

  "Please," he said as he gnced over his shoulder and gave both Jenna and I a smarmy smile, "Call me Jake."

  My girlfriend and I were sitting together in the back seat of Jake's car, so when his attention returned to the road he didn't see my eye-roll or the face I made at him. Jenna saw though, and she stifled a snrk sound as she turned away to look out the car window.

  Jake Green worked for one of the other real estate agencies in town, which kind made him my competition. In this case he was acting as agent for the seller, while I was agent for the buyer. Although that line was a bit more blurry when the buyer and her agent were in a retionship.

  And while I hadn't actually met Jake before today, it only took me about ten or twelve minutes to decide he was the kind of guy who probably got on well with Jason McTavish. Or at least, he'd have got on with Jason before my coworker's epiphany st week.

  On the other hand, that thought reminded me to keep my mouth shut and especially to avoid using the W word again. And luckily, Jenna didn't seem to be bothered by the guy at all. She was mostly just excited about seeing the property.

  It was te afternoon on Friday, and today's tour would be the second house we'd visited so far. The first one happened yesterday, and while I thought the pce was pretty good my genie friend didn't like it. She said it cked character and didn't feel homey enough for her.

  "Is there anything we should know about the location?" I asked, to avoid having to engage in small-talk with Mr. Green. "Any details that weren't mentioned in the listing, I mean?"

  Jake replied, "We'll be there in just a minute or two so you can see for yourselves, but I think you'll agree the area's almost perfect. It's an established neighbourhood, just a block south of the downtown core. There's plenty of mature trees around, including several on the lot itself."

  We turned off Main onto one of the side streets as he continued, "In fact Mill Creek Park is less than a hundred meters from the front door, and the creek itself runs along the property line at the edge of the backyard."

  "It's a good location in terms of schooling as well," he added as we made another turn. "So it's an ideal pce to raise kids. There's a public school less than ten minute's walk from the house. And for older kids, the high school's only about a twenty minute walk, plus the local community college is walking distance as well."

  A small bridge took us over Mill Creek, then a few moments ter we crossed some old train tacks that weaved their way through town. Just a second or two after that we turned onto another small road and crossed those tracks a second time, before finally pulling into the driveway of an older split-level house.

  I already knew from the details and photos in the listing that it had two bedrooms and one and a half bathrooms. Just like I already knew pretty much everything Jake just told us. To be honest we really didn't need him at all, except he was the sales agent and Jenna needed to see the pce in person so she could make a decision.

  As the three of us emerged from the car I commented, "You mentioned it was an ideal spot for raising kids, but it seems awfully close to those train tracks. And while having a creek run past the backyard sounds nice, are there any safety concerns there? Especially for younger children?"

  "I don't think there's been a train through this neighbourhood since some time in the nineteen nineties," Jake replied smoothly. "The only train that still uses this line nowadays is a scenic tourist attraction, and even that doesn't come by here. It starts at the old station near Town Line then runs south from there."

  Jenna pouted, "Aww. I would have liked watching trains go by our house."

  The expression on the guy's face left me fighting to suppress a smile. I hadn't meant to set him up, I had no idea my genie friend would be interested in trains. And I already knew the tracks here were disused, I was just trying to needle him about the safety aspect since he'd pyed up how suitable it was for small children.

  Same thing with the creek, I knew there weren't any real safety issues there. It was probably no more than fifteen centimetres deep and less than two meters wide. In the spring and autumn or immediately after a big storm there might be some spots that'd be hazardous to very small children, but parents didn't leave children that young unattended anyways. Especially not anywhere near water.

  As soon as we stepped inside Jenna's mood flipped from pouty and sad to smiles and excitement. Jake started doing a tour and spiel but the genie completely ignored him and started exploring the pce on her own while we just tagged along after her.

  "Vikki look!" she excimed from the rge windows in the combination living-dining-room. "You can see the train tracks from here!"

  Then she was off again while Jake was trying to talk about the flooring and the paint and whatever else he wanted to point out. Jenna ran up the half-flight of stairs and poked her head into the first doorway she found in the upper level.

  "The bathroom's kind of small," she announced. "It's not any bigger than the one in the apartment. We can fix that ter though."

  Jake started talking about the plumbing fixtures but neither Jenna or I were paying any attention to him at all anymore. I simply followed my genie around as she dashed from pce to pce like a kid in a candy store who was too excited to actually stop and try anything.

  "Ooh! You can see the creek out the bedroom windows!" she excimed happily while standing in the middle of the master bedroom.

  Then she sat on the edge of the bed and started bouncing, but soon slowed as a frown settled on her expression. "Except you can't see the creek from down here, the window's too high up. And a super-tall pillow mountain isn't as fun as it sounds? We could try that, but we'd probably just sink and end up somewhere in the middle of it by morning."

  "Then again we could just move the window down lower," she added thoughtfully. "But no, then we wouldn't be able to see much when we were standing up. I suppose we could make it bigger... Or oh! What if we turned the window into one of those gss door thingies? With a thing outside where we could stand? And we could get chairs or something! Wouldn't that be nice?"

  I gave her a sympathetic smile as I replied, "That's certainly one of the renovations you could consider, if you do end up buying this property. It's probably not too common with this style of house, but adding a little balcony off the master bedroom isn't unheard of."

  "Yeah!" she grinned. And a moment ter was off again to continue exploring.

  This time while Jake and I followed the enthusiastic genie back down the stairs I asked him, "If Miss Jenkins decides this is the pce for her she's probably going to be in a big hurry to make the move. How fast will your clients be prepared to close on the property?"

  "I think four weeks would be about the best they could do," he replied in a slightly guarded tone. "If your client was looking for anything quicker, that would probably take some additional negotiations. It might go a long way to speed things up if your client was prepared to take care of any additional expenses the sellers were to incur? Like for example if they needed to move their belongings into storage for some interim period?"

  I'd pretty much expected something along those lines. Considering the owners were obviously still living in the house, they were probably waiting to sell this pce before they could make an offer on wherever they were going next.

  Meanwhile Jake asked, "I take it your client already has her financing in order? I don't imagine the sellers here will be too eager to go out of their way for a conditional offer."

  "How can you call this a half-bath room?" Jenna interjected as she stood inside the powder room in the finished basement. "It doesn't have half a bath. It doesn't have any bath at all, it's just a toilet and a sink. I think if I was going to call this a half bath room I'd want to add half a bathtub. Or maybe make it half-sized? Or child-sized? Miniature tub, miniature toilet, miniature sink? Or just cut everything in half? Hmmm..."

  I could tell her questions were rhetorical, she was mostly just talking to herself as she wandered around. So I focused on Jake again and replied in a casual tone, "Actually Miss Jenkins doesn't require financing. I expect when she settles on a property she'll be prepared to make the full payment almost immediately, as soon as her offer's been accepted."

  "I see," Jake said, as his eyes sort of lit up a bit. "You know, this pce isn't bad as a starter home, but I have some much nicer properties I'd be happy to show Miss Jenkins."

  I tried not to roll my eyes as I replied, "I'm sure you do. And if she was interested in them, we'd have requested tours of them instead. But this is the pce she wanted to see, so let's just continue with the tour here."

  Then I turned my attention to my genie girlfriend and asked, "Do you want to have a look at the exterior at all? Maybe you'd like to check out the backyard and the creek?"

  "Oh yeah!" Jenna nodded. "How do we get there? I haven't seen a back door anywhere."

  Jake led us back up the stairs to the main level then through the kitchen as he expined, "There's no back door, but this side door opens onto the end of the driveway and gives you access to the yard."

  "Gotcha," the genie replied as she moved past him and straight across the back wn to the edge of the water.

  While she was busy inspecting whatever she found in the tiny creek I had a look around the back of the house. The yard was a good size, there were indeed several mature trees providing lots of shade while a row of bushes along either side offered some privacy from the neighbours. Along the back of the house was a stone patio, but many of the stones were cracked or broken. And an old metal garden shed to one side of the yard had plenty of rust showing through the fking paint.

  Still, the yard itself was nice and I could easily imagine some rexing summer evenings out there. Maybe with a BBQ and a gss of wine. That thought almost got me to start feeling guilty again about the whole thing. I was honestly a little excited about the prospect of living there, but I didn't want to let that on incase it influenced Jenna at all. I was adamant that it had to be her decision, since she was the one who'd be buying the pce.

  "Ah!" the genie suddenly excimed. "I saw a fish! It was tiny but there's definitely fishes in here!"

  I caught the puzzled look on Jake's face, and I couldn't help wondering what he was thinking. After a second or two I decided that he probably figured Jenna was some kind of heiress. Maybe he thought she had wealthy parents who'd be footing the bill for her new home and any upgrades and renovations she wanted. She certainly didn't come across as someone who'd become independently wealthy through hard work or some clever invention or anything along those lines.

  "Jenna?" I finally called over to her. "I'm sure the fish are very interesting, but we're actually here to see the property, remember?"

  She looked over at me like she was momentarily confused, "Huh? Oh yeah, right."

  "I like the pce. Let's buy it," she added in a casual distracted tone. Then her attention returned to the creek as she said, "I want to set up some chairs over here, so we can just sit and watch the water go by. It's really peaceful and rexing."

  That put a smile on Jake's face, but before he could say anything my genie let out a loud sigh. "It's really too bad the trains don't go by here anymore."

  "Yes that is a shame," I responded in a sympathetic tone. "If you're sure you want this house, we'll need to sit down and work out the details of your offer. Then I'll pass that on to Jake, and he'll take that to his client and we'll go from there."

  Jenna frowned, "Oh right. I can't just tap a cash card then move in this afternoon, huh?"

  I shook my head, "Unfortunately not. We'll have to do some negotiating before we can figure out when you'll be able to take possession."

  The cute genie looked back and forth between me and Mr. Green then asked, "Is this a money thing? Can we make it faster by spending more money? Because I'm totally ok with that."

  I tried not to wince as I realized she really did sound like a spoiled heiress when she talked like that. At least I was retively certain neither Jake or anyone else would guess she was a supernatural creature with fantastic powers, or that she could use those powers to just make money appear out of nowhere. And fortunately she hadn't mentioned or even hinted at magic once all afternoon.

  Meanwhile Jake was smiling again as he responded, "Money can definitely speed the process up, but even that that can't make things happen instantly. You'd need a magic wand if you really wanted to move in here today."

  "Why would I need a wand?" the genie asked as she tilted her head to one side. "Normally I just -"

  I interrupted before she could finish that sentence, "I think Mr. Green's point is there's plenty of paperwork and bureaucracy involved, when it comes to property transfers. But don't worry, I'll walk you through the process."

  "So why don't we head back to my office?" Jake suggested, "Then we can start discussing the details of Miss Jenkins' offer?"

  I shook my head, "Actually Jake I think my client and I would prefer to do that on our own? I'll email you her offer just as soon as I have it ready."

  PurpleCatGirl