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“I think it makes sense. Let's get some bids and take it from there.”
He had clearly met his match in the straight-talk department. We exchanged pleasant-
ries and showed her around our place.
“My brother and his wife are coming by for dinner tomorrow night,” she said. “Why
don't you guys drift down for a drink beforehand?”
We'd be delighted.
☼ ☼ ☼
Considering that Vieques is really nothing more than a small town surrounded by water, it
was strange that we never heard any gossip. Ever.
Not that we hadn't tried our best over the years to extract the odd tidbit of information
from Jane, but she always clammed up the minute we started asking questions; and while
we admired her professionalism, it seemed like she could have thrown us a juicy morsel
here and there.
In any case, Hal and his wife Margot, a realtor, had lived on the island for two decades,
and after a couple of glasses of wine they told us more about Vieques than we'd learned
during the past four years.
Not that any of it was mean-spirited. Actually, none of it. Just interesting. When you've
put your heart and soul into a place, it's nice to know a little bit about how it works, and
Hal and Margot were happy to share what they knew.
Case in point: Margot was able to tell us how long our house had been on the market
when we bought it, why it hadn't sold previously, and so forth. Real estate junkies that we
are, we found this fascinating.
We were also charmed by Corinne and Mark, who told hilarious stories about the trials
and tribulations of getting their house built, something we could relate to only too well.
And they served great snacks with our cocktails.
Better still, when it came time to talk about the wall, they were clear-eyed and realistic
about how complicated a seemingly-simple project like this could become in Vieques. They
were well aware that the whole thing might take months longer than predicted and would
almost definitely go somewhat, if not significantly, over budget.
Sometimes there's just no substitute for having walked the walk.
So we set the wheels in motion. To start the bidding process, Hal made a Tuesday morn-
ing appointment for all of us with the contractor who had built Corinne's and Mark's house.
This seemed as good a place as any to begin the bidding process. He was a known quantity,
after all, and did good work.
His name was Falco, and he was due at nine-thirty but showed up at eight forty-five.
Corinne and Mark were still asleep. We were awake but grumpy and it was raining.
We had never actually taken a good look at our property from our neighbors' yard. It
wasn't a pretty sight. Sure, our house itself looked great, but the dirt embankment separ-
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