“The seller’s broker will have the signed contract in hand by noon,” he said.

“Closing is set for November fourteenth.”

I left his office by the side door and went down the marble steps to Central Avenue.

I rode the city bus up North Central and walked three blocks past the dry irrigation ditch to Willow Creek Lane.

The house stood sixty feet back from the road behind a low brick wall, shaded by an old pecan tree whose lower limbs drooped heavily over the driveway.

A wooden listing sign hung from the metal gatepost, but there were no other cars along the lane.