"I've been figuring," he said. "Why, I'll bet a horned toad the
Moonrise takes in two thousand a month. Say they want fifty thousand
for the place, it would just about pay itself off, interest and
expenses and all, in three years. It sounds pretty good to me. What do
you think--shall we look into it?"
As I said, our going into the motel business was all Grant's idea.
While Donna took her nap that afternoon, and David alternately dug in
the gravel and drew out from his mouth for inspection a long string of
gum, we lay in the sunshine on one of the green islands and talked
feverishly. Grant had been wanting to get away from factory work; for a
year he had been looking around in his spare time for a profitable
business. He had wanted an automobile agency or a farm implement
agency, but now he was willing to give up those plans in favor of
getting a motel. Ever since our marriage six years ago we had saved our
money; aside from our house and furniture, our only big expenses had
been David, born five years ago, and Donna, born one year ago. We hoped
that what we had saved--five thousand dollars--would be enough for a
down payment on a motel.
When I saw the manager of the motel digging weeds out of the gravel I
sauntered up to him and engaged him in a long conversation that dealt
with everything from black widow spiders to the cost of living, and
worked itself slowly to the subject of motels.
I told him frankly that we were thinking of going into the motel
business, and asked if the Moonrise happened to be for sale.
He was a handsome, stocky man whose face dripped water continually.
Sweat rolled in oily beads from his eyebrows, from his chin, and from
the end of his nose, and it ran in a rivulet down the vertical wrinkle
above his nose.
"Yes," he said, wiping the perspiration from his forehead with the back
of his hand. "We've just decided to put it up for sale. The income
varies from fifteen hundred to over two thousand, depending on the
season. Wonderful climate, here in the San Gorgonio Pass, even if it is
a little windy sometimes. It's a new motel, six months old; all the
furniture is maple, everything brand new. Sixty-seven thousand."