Helen was feeling rather chilly in the miserable autumn afternoon. She hoped that it would not start to rain or at least not before the prospective buyers would come in. When she decided to personally take care of the sale of Aunt Laura’s house, her mom told her she was crazy. As she was waiting for the buyers who were already half an hour late, she was tempted to agree. But then, it was her who inherited the house, despite her mother being Aunt Laura’s sister. She owed her that at least.

“Hello, you must be the Saunders?” She greeted the young couple when they finally arrived. The young woman and the older man, she corrected herself.

“Not yet but soon,” the girl replied with a smile, flashing her diamond ring.

“Nice to meet you, you must be Helen Worthing?” The man’s handshake was firm, no nonsense. Helen was glad she wasn’t working for him. She just nodded not expecting him to apologise for being late. He was not the type and his soon-to-be-wife probably didn’t see anything wrong with letting someone to wait outside for an half an hour on a cold afternoon.

All forgotten, Helen smiled her warmest smile you would offer to strangers you have nothing in common except for trying to sell them your house.

“Please, come in,” she motioned towards the door. She struggled with opening the doors as always but it gave in. “It has quite some character,” she muttered as a half of an excuse. She looked around trying to see the place through the eyes of the visitors. The weathered carpet, the wallpaper that was all the rage in the 50s, the dial telephone hanging on the wall — it was all just bringing lovely memories and wrapping her in love.

“Yes, it certainly has,” Mr Saunders commented rather rudely. “Well, it will anyway all go.”

“Oh my God, there is that funny telephone thing there,” soon-to-be-Mrs-Saunders pointed out. She clearly marvelled at the antiquity.

“My grandfather was one of the first people to have one in the street,” Helen said proudly.

“Yes, we will have to strip everything down,” Mr Saunders murmured again.

Helen stopped mid-step.

“Excuse me?” She turned around to face them.

“Well, clearly the house hasn’t been renovated lately.”

“But that’s part of the charm.”

“What, run-down carpet? An ancient phone in the hallway?”

“That was the custom,” Helen felt like it was her place to defend it. “My grandfather and then my aunt had often lodgers, the phone in the hallway made sense.”

“Yes, they had. But now?”

“Honey, don’t worry about it. We will just have it all stripped down and redone,” soon-to-be-Mrs-Saunders cooed clearing up the air between Helen and Mr Saunders. He just shrugged.

Stripped down? They would just change the whole place?

“You are right, something more modern…”

“Oh, black and white… The kitchen would all go… Can I have a stainless steel?”

The phone rang. Helen waked up from her thoughts. She didn’t even realise the couple have passed her in their manic excitement. The phone rang again. She picked it up. She wanted to let her aunt know that she has a phone call but stopped herself. She realised her aunt was gone. There was no one on the line. Actually, she also reminded herself that she had the phone disconnected weeks ago.

“I am not selling, sorry,” she just said, out of the blue.

“What?!” Helen had finally the couple’s attention. They looked at her as if they have never seen her before and perhaps they never had.

“I am not selling,” she repeated as she hanged up the phone.

“But what will you do with such a large house?”

Helen suddenly knew what her Aunt Laura would have wanted her to do with it.

“Run a B&B like my aunt did,” she replied, and she could feel her aunt smiling.