The slate is three hundred fifty thousand, and the repairs are another fifteen thousand, along with thirty thousand to replace the rotting roof beams and another sixty-five thousand to insulate the roof. Altogether, it's four hundred sixty thousand dollars to fix the roof. He looks at his phone, where his bank account is open, after all the artifacts from Africa were sold. The price of repairing the roof was negligible.

  He puts his phone away and goes upstairs to find the main bedroom. As he enters, he sees that the bed has gotten rained on before someone came to board up the window, so he decides to go and take the military cot he found in a surplus store and sets it up in the relatively clean walk-in closet.

  As he sets up the cot, he hears something from the attic, like clawed feet walking over the hardwood floor. As he listens, he can hear a faint whistle that sounds oddly like a giggle before it gets shushed by something else. He places his pistol near the cot and lies down on it, he is pretty sure a bird made it into the attic. “I'll need to put the tarp back properly tomorrow.” He tries to think of what else needs to be done in the estate, but it doesn't last long as he quickly falls asleep.

  The next day, as he wakes up and feels the sun coming through the small window of the walk-in closet, he gets up and goes downstairs and back out to his truck, where he gets the last of his possessions. he brings in the suitcases with his clothes and other essentials and lastly he goes to take the groceries he bought but half of it is gone. Oliver looks at the half-empty bag in the back of his pickup. “I should have brought it inside yesterday.”

  He brings the leftover groceries to the kitchen and opens the fridge only to find it is not working. He pulls it out of its spot to get a look behind it, only to find all the copper missing. “What! Why would someone take the copper out of the fridge and then put it back? I have to go get a new fridge and some tools for the wall and go to the roofer's office to discuss the quote for the new roof. but first, I'm getting rid of you,” he says while pointing at the fridge. He goes to the garage in hopes of finding something to help him move the fridge. The garage is a mess as it is filled with so much stuff: racks full of chemicals, several shelves with ruined paint cans, a stack of boxes that reaches the ceiling, and a bunch of gardening supplies. Among the gardening supplies is a wheelbarrow. While it's rusted through, it will be enough to get the fridge to the truck, and he might as well take the wheelbarrow to the scrapyard while he takes the fridge there.

  As he brings the wheelbarrow to the kitchen, it leaves a trail of rusted metal flakes from the garage to the kitchen, but it matters little as he needs to clean the entire estate anyway. With a bit of struggle, he gets the fridge into the wheelbarrow, and as he lifts the handlebars, the rusted metal creaks, and he tries to quickly get them both outside before the wheelbarrow crumbles.

  The wheelbarrow holds on until it's outside, but now it has to face a new challenge: the steps in front of the estate. Oliver carefully pushes it down the first step, but the metal doesn't hold the bars that hold the wheel snap, and the wheelbarrow crashes down the steps along with the fridge. Oliver stands atop the steps and shrugs before going to his pickup and driving it closer to the crash site. With some struggle, he gets the fridge into the truckbed and throws in the pieces of the wheelbarrow.

  This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

  After securing everything with straps, he begins the drive back to town. Driving through the abandoned town of gafvert, he thinks about just dumping it in an abandoned house, but he is thinking of buying the town after his estate is fixed and decides to just do it properly and go to Ely to drop it at the scrapyard there.

  The drive to Ely is nice, the weather is good, and the views of the lakes and streams are great. Even the town of Ely has a nice look to it, as many of the stores along the main road have a rustic feel, such as the small wooden buildings with the charming signs above them. Oliver drives slowly and looks around until he finds what he is looking for: the appliance store. He parks his pickup and goes inside the building that looks straight out of the 70s. he pushes the door open, and the bell signals his arrival. A man busy with another customer tells oliver, “I will be right with you.” oliver nods and looks around and looks at the models of refrigerator they have in stock he looks at one he likes and that will fit where the old fridge was. The man, now finished with the other customer, approaches Oliver and holds out his hand. “Good morning sir, my name is Terry, what can i help you with today.” oliver shakes the mans hand and answers, “Nice to meet you I'm Oliver. The fridge in my new house is broken and I need a new one. i took a look around and this one will be fine for the time being.” oliver gestures at the fridge he was looking at.

  Terry asks, “For the time being, are you going to renovate? This is a decently expensive fridge. You might want to look at some cheaper ones if you're planning on getting a different one later.”

  Oliver answers, “No, this one is good. When I renovate the kitchen, I will put this one in the garage, I would rather that it lasts a long time than that I have to come back to replace it in a year or two.”

  Terry nods and tells him, “if you're after a long lasting one, I have just the one you need.” he leads me to another part of the store where there are more fridges while the fridge i was looking for was nice and sleek this one was robust and blocky and terry begins to explain “we have been selling this model for decades its affordable reliable and if it breaks within ten years you get your money back guarantee. I know it is not the prettiest machine out there, but if you're planning on putting it in the garage, it won't matter much.”

  He looks at the fridge and thinks to himself, “Doesn't grandma have one of these in her storage room? She bought that one before I was born, and it still works.” he opens the fridge and it seems like a good purchase so he turns to terry “i’ll take this one then. When is the soonest you can have one ready?”

  Terry opened his notebook and said, “We can send it over at 1 pm today; plus, we will install it for no cost if you live in the area.”

  Oliver asks him, “Is Gafvert close enough for this to also apply?”

  Terry looks surprised. “Why would you want to live there? no offence, but that place is… not the greatest place to live.”

  Oliver shrugs. “I inherited the house, and I liked the area. It's not even in the town; you just have to go through there to get to my house.”

  Terry nods and tells him, “Well, you live where you want to live, and yes, we will deliver there for free. We just need the address, and we can finalize the sale.

  Oliver nods and follows him to the desk and pays for the fridge before asking, “Is there a junkyard nearby? I need to get rid of the old fridge.”

  Terry answers There is one in Winston. Just follow the main road until the turn. Just keep going straight past the wolf center, then at the lumberjack statue, turn left, and then keep going straight until you find Winton Road, and then you just drive down it. The junkyard is on the left; you can't miss it.”

  Oliver thanks Terry, heads back out to his pickup, and follows the directions given to him. he stops at the lumberjack statue and sends a picture to the family group chat before continuing to the junkyard.