LOVING THE HEAD MAN by Katherine Cachitorie Page B

like that!”
       It always hurt Bree to her heart the way her mother would lash out at her, but it wasn’t as if she wasn’t used to it.  “What auction, Ma?” she asked again.
       “The house,” Ricky said, which caused a stern rebuke from Francine.
       “What you tellin’ her for?  She don’t give a shit about you and me neither!”
       “She didn’t have to bail you out,” Candace reminded her mother, only to get rebuked also.
       “You shut the fuck up!” Francine yelled.  “You ain’t nothing but a child.  You don’t know shit about shit so shut the hell up!”
       Bree’s leg touched her sister’s arm.  “What about the house?” Bree asked Ricky, certain that she would get nothing from her mother.
       “She couldn’t make the payments on the mortgage, so it’s up for auction in a couple weeks.”
       “In nine days to be precise,” Malcolm said.  “That’s why I asked if you had a game plan.”
       Bree thought he was talking about a game plan to secure her mother’s release.  That was why she said yes.  But she was still confused.  “But what mortgage,” she asked.  “Pop paid off this house before he died.  And   he left the house to me.”
       “The second mortgage,” Ricky said.  “Ma got Dad to sign the papers two years ago, just before he died.”
       “But he didn’t know what he was signing.  He was sick out of his mind.”
       Francine looked at Bree with a look that could bend steel.  “What you tryin’ to accuse me of fraud?” she asked Bree.
       “The house was supposed to go to me when Daddy died.  He left the   house to me.  And you knew he was going to.   How could you . . .”
       Bree was stunned.  She couldn’t believe her mother would be that irresponsible with the only thing, and she meant the only thing, they as a family had in this world.  And it wasn’t exactly the Taj Mahal.  It was, in truth, a small, shack of a house but with a good roof, three bedrooms, and a big backyard.  She looked at Candace.  “Why didn’t you tell me, Can?”
       “I didn’t know until last night, when I heard Malcolm talking to Ma about it.”
       Bree looked at Malcolm.  “How much?”
       “She has to have forty-four to keep the house.”
       “Hundred?” Bree asked, hopelessly hopeful.
       “Thousand,” Malcolm said as she knew he would.  “She couldn’t or didn’t pay the mortgage, the bank therefore exercised its right to accelerate the Note, which, as you know, means that the entire loan, not just the back payments, became due.  She’s already received the Notice of Foreclosure sale, which gave her thirty days advance notice of the date of sale.  There are only nine days left.  And she has to have forty-four thousand dollars in nine days or bids will be open to the public and this house will most definitely be sold.”
       It felt as if a ton of bricks had fallen on Bree.  She could hardly believe it.  Her father worked his entire life to pay off this home, and just like that it was about to be taken away?  “How could you do something like that?” Bree confronted her mother.
       “Bree, don’t,” Candace said.
       “You know what this place means to Pop,” Bree kept on.
       “Yeah, well, pop’s dead, ain’t he?” Francine said.  “And I still had bills to pay.  Ain’t nobody round here taking care of me.  TiTi, Candy, Ricky, all them sitting around here expecting me to hold down this household.   You ain’t helping.”
       “I just got out of law school, Ma, and when I got that expense check from Colgate I sent every dime I could to you, and you know that.”
       “Well that wasn’t near ‘bout enough, and you know that !”
       But it was Titianna, Bree’s younger sister,