Chapter 2

The real estate agent, a very conservatively dressed woman in her early fifties, opened the door and stepped back to let the couple into the house. Experience with couples of all ages, races, sexual orientations, and religions kept her from reacting to the age difference in the couple. The man was at least twenty years older than the young woman. Having been dumped by a husband who had traded her in ‘for a younger model,’ she had to work hard not to show her true feelings.

She said, “Com...”

Betsy darted around her, spun around taking in the room, and then headed off into the house without saying a word. Gary groaned and shook his head, hoping that she would stay in the house. Shocked, the real estate stared in the direction in which the young woman had disappeared.

“Sorry about that,” Gary said.

“I hope she finds the rest room in time,” the woman said thinking that was the only explanation that made sense.

“She’s just excited about looking over the house,” Gary said.

“Oh, sorry, I just assumed...”

“Don’t worry about it,” Gary said interrupting the flustered woman.

“It’s just that...”

“How much is it?” Betsy asked while tapping the woman on her shoulder.

Startled, the woman answered, “Uh ... Twelve - five.”

Flashing a toothy grin, Betsy held out a debit card and said, “I’ll take it.”

“I don’t think you understand – that’s 12.5 million,” the agent said staring at the plastic card and wondering what she was supposed to do with it.

“I’ll take it,” Betsy said shoving the card into the woman’s hand.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” the woman asked holding up the plastic card.

“Run it through the little charge machine.”

“Uh...”

While stripping out of her clothes, Betsy said, “I’ll be swimming while you do whatever you do to make the house mine.”

Gary said, “Stay here for a minute, damn it!”

By the time the real estate agent had gathered her wits sufficiently to do more than stutter, Betsy was naked and running out the back of the house.

Weakly, she muttered, “Excuse me.”

Gary shook his head in dismay. Not for the last time he wondered how he had ended up with this job. He wondered why he had even answered the telephone, having seen that it was Ling calling him. His life would have been a whole lot easier, if he had just ignored it.

He sighed and then said, “Talk about stupid. I should have rolled over and gone back to sleep.”

“I don’t understand,” the real estate agent said.

“Let’s start over again,” Gary said.

“Good idea.”

“I’m Gary Sellers. The young woman who ran through here is Betsy Carter. She’s looking for a house to purchase.”

“I’m Karen Osterfeld.”

“Nice to meet you, Ms. Osterfeld.”

“When are the two of you looking to move in?”

“You’re not going to like the answer,” Gary said shifting from foot to foot nervously.

“Why?”

“You can assume that Betsy expects to move in right this minute,” Gary answered.

“That’s not possible.”

Gary said, “I know that.”

“We’ve got to make an offer to the owners, get a reply from them, arrange for an inspection, get a mortgage, and do a title search before we can even schedule a closing,” the agent said.

“She just handed you a debit card to pay cash for the house. She’s going to come back expecting to own the house,” Gary said.

“This is a debit card?” Karen asked looking at the plastic card as if it was a snake.

“Yes.”

“With a twelve million dollar plus limit?”

“I assume so. You’ll have to call the bank to ensure there are sufficient funds in her account.”

“I don’t know,” Karen said uneasy.

“What’s the matter?”

“I don’t think we can do this,” Karen said still staring at the debit card.

Gary said, “Let me call one of her mothers.”

“One of her, ahhh?” Karen asked wondering if she had stepped into an alternative reality.

This meeting had seemed like such a simple thing – go to this house and show it to a prospective buyer. She even had the paperwork in her car to fill out in the unlikely case that the prospect decided to make an offer on the first visit. Nothing had prepared her for Betsy.

“She’s got four of them.”

Karen screamed when a wet hand descended upon her shoulder. She spun around to find Betsy standing there dripping water onto the carpet. It was obvious that the young woman had been totally immersed in water.

“If you need some help, call my brother William. He handles all of my money. Knowing him, my account has probably only got a couple of million on deposit at the moment. It might take him a couple of hours to arrange the rest. He’s really good with money,” Betsy said.

“How do I get in touch with William?”

“You can call him on the phone,” Betsy said before turning around and dashing towards the rear door.

“What’s his number?” Karen called out after Betsy.

“I’ll make the call,” Gary said.

“How did she get all of the way to the ocean and back so quickly?” Karen asked.

The ocean was behind the house, but it was nearly two hundred yards away. She didn’t think Betsy had enough time to walk all of that way and back in the short period of time that had elapsed.

She looked to Gary for an answer, but he was busy entering a telephone number in his cell phone. He waited for an answer and then said, “Hello, Barbara. I’m Gary Sellers. I’m currently the bodyguard for Betsy Carter.”

Karen listened to the one side of the conversation. She wondered if the young woman was some kind of pop music star to have a body guard. Based on how quickly she had shed her clothes, it wasn’t too much of a stretch to make that assumption. It seemed to her that female rock stars tended to shed their clothes at the drop of a hat.

“She’s trying to buy a house and wants William’s help ... Ah ... You can take care of the details?”

Karen was seriously confused by this point in time.

“She handed the realtor a debit card saying that she wanted the house, and then ran off to swim in the ocean.”

“I know, but Betsy doesn’t know that. Do you want to talk to the realtor? I should be down by the ocean trying to do my bodyguard thing,” Gary said.

“Okay,” Gary said. He handed the phone to Karen and said, “Talk to Barbara.”

Karen took the phone and tentatively said, “Hello?”

Gary walked through the house following the wet footprints to the back door. He stepped outside and spotted the path that led to the ocean. He took a deep breath as if to steel himself for what he was going to find and followed the path.

The path led to a huge beach with golden sand which curved around a large bay. He figured it had to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. From where he stood, his back was to a line of exotic plants and palms, with mountains visible off in the distance to the left and right of him. It was truly a paradise.

He spotted Betsy well offshore. She flew out of the water and then landed on her side like some kind of dolphin or porpoise. A few seconds later she was again leaping out of the water. He wondered how deep the water was out there. There was no way that she was jumping off the bottom.

There was an elderly couple somewhat down the beach. The woman was gesturing wildly, pausing only occasionally to point in Betsy’s direction. The man had a huge grin on his face. It appeared that the man and woman had completely different reactions to seeing Betsy charge across the beach, naked.

While heading over to the couple, Gary looked back out in the water. Betsy was moving towards the shore at an incredible speed. She was cutting through the water like a shark. At the last moment, she stood and raced out of the ocean leaving a spray of water behind her. She was headed towards the couple on the beach.

Gary took off at a run, hoping to reach the couple before Betsy did, fully aware that it was a slim hope at best. He managed to arrive at the couple a few seconds after Betsy.

Excitedly, Betsy asked, “Do you live here?”

The woman frowned at Betsy clearly disapproving of the absence of clothing. Gary could understand the woman’s reaction, particularly based on how her husband was reacting to Betsy’s appearance. He clearly enjoyed the view Betsy was providing him.

The man replied, “Yes. We live in the house right over there.”

Allowing her exuberance free rein, Betsy leapt forward, hugged the woman, picked her up, and swung her from side to side.

She screamed, “We’re going to be neighbors! We’re going to have so much fun together!”

“Oh my God!” the woman said, clearly horrified at the prospect.

The man grinned. Gary covered his eyes with his hand while Betsy greeted the man in the same manner. The older man seemed quite pleased with her greeting.

“I’m George and that’s my wife, Bess.”

“Hi, George. Hi, Bess. I’m Betsy!”

“Nice to meet you Betsy,” George said.

Betsy said, “I’m going for a little swim. I’ll be right back.”

Without waiting for a reply, Betsy tore off at a run towards the water. She was waving her arms in the air enjoying the run on the sand. Ten feet into the water, she leapt into the air and disappeared into the water.

Gary said, “Hello. I’m Gary Sellers – her bodyguard.”

“This is not a clothing optional beach,” Bess said with ice in her voice.

“It is now,” Gary muttered.

He knew there was no way that they’d get Betsy to wear a swimming suit. They could arrest her everyday and that wouldn’t stop her from swimming naked in the ocean. He looked back at the ocean wondering how many problems Betsy was creating. She was already two hundred yards off shore.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Bess said.

With a worried expression on his face, George looked out at where Betsy was swimming. He said, “She might not want to go out that far. There are occasionally sharks out there.”

“Oh, God. I’ll never get her out of the water now,” Gary said.

“What?”

“It’s a long story. Let’s just say that she loves sharks,” Gary said.

George said, “They aren’t friendly little sharks. They’ve caught Mako sharks out there.”

“It just gets better and better,” Gary said. Looking up at the sky, he yelled, “Why are you doing this to me, God? I’ve tried to be a good man.”

“You should call her in,” George said.

Gary said, “It will do no good.”

Bess said, “You aren’t a very good bodyguard.”

Gary replied, “You do not want to get between her and a shark. She loves sharks. Sharks love her.”

“Yeah, they’d love to eat her,” George said.