Realty

By Anara Guard

A short story of an encounter between a realtor and a bear, who is searching for a mountain home. Everything seems benign at first, until the bear becomes insulted and loses his temper.

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Wind Publishing
• Release date: Jan 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386568896

Anara Guard

Anara Guard grew up in Chicago. Her lifelong love of reading has led her to jobs as diverse as minding a Chicago news stand at the age of nine, working as a librarian in a small New England town, fact-checking manuscripts for Houghton Mifflin, and writing book reviews. An award-winning poet, she has had short stories published in the anthology, Twenty Twenty: 43 Stories from a Year Like No Other; in her collection, Remedies for Hunger; and in various literary magazines. She attended Bread Loaf Writers Workshop and the Community of Writers. She is currently working on her second novel.

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Realty

Anara Guard

Published by New Wind Publishing, 2018.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Realty

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About the Author

Realty

In eighteen years of selling properties for Mountain Homes Realty, this was my first bear. Our office manager warned me that his English wasn’t very good. He doesn’t speak too clearly, Maureen, Sarah said. But he’s looking for a two bedroom with a view for under three hundred thou. She made an appointment for me to show him properties on a Saturday in February.

In the movies, real estate agents are usually a forty-something blonde in a business suit. Her high heels clatter on the parquet floors of high-rise apartments she shows to good-looking couples. She only has a bit part: throw open the doors of the walk-in closets and then disappear.

Sometimes clients look disappointed when they meet me. I do keep my hair a bright platinum, but I’m ten years older and, I’ll admit to thirty pounds heavier than the Hollywood version. No high heels; I wear rubber-soled shoes in summer, Sorel boots in winter. Susan always says, Mom, you’re so practical. Then she sighs. She might not mean it as a compliment.

But I’m glad I can open fireplace dampers, use a plumber’s snake, and re-light the pilot of a gas water heater. I might not be the top seller on Turner’s Mountain, but I do all right. I raised Susan by myself, she turned out okay, married with two little ones now, and I’ve