The locomotive whistled vigorously, the engineer, reversing the steam, backed the train for nearly a mile—retiring, like a jumper, in order to take ... longer leap. Then, with another whistle, he began to move forward, the train increased its speed, and soon its rapidity became frightful, a prolonged screech issued from the locomotive, the piston worked up and down twenty strokes to the second. They perceived that the whole train, rushing on at the rate of a hundred miles an hour, hardly bore. The man grabs my hand and tries to get it to release his neck. So I start punching him in the face with my left hand. He does some kind of spin and I can’t keep hold of him, but his nose is bleeding now. [Good girl.] I see him grab the knife off the ground. [Oh shit! Think. Think.] My foot is resting on something, it’s my sweatshirt. I grab it and stand up, wrapping it around my left hand and forearm. Not much of a shield, but it’s better than nothing. He looks really angry now, as he wipes. A lot. I barely get any time away from that place. I don’t have time to decorate, I'm sorry if it isn't to your liking, but they've given me a few days off to help you acclimatise to your surroundings, and try and find your feet.” He shuffled around and fidgeted, “You can stay here as long as you like, honestly, it is a little lonely.” I considered what he was saying to me, how long had it been since he had company here? Did he have a relationship going? I wondered about him as much as he did. ”“That’s $38k in total commission?” Caroline asked.“Correct Caroline, you did that in your head?” Sheila reacted.“Yeah, no big deal. So, 25% of $38,000 dollars is $9,500, so why is this check for $13,300 dollars?”“Because I motivate my Realtors by adding 10% of the total commission to their split,” I replied.“And who listed this place?” Caroline went on.“I did, Caroline.”“So, the other $24.7k is yours, holy crap Richard. That’s a butt load of money.”Sheila and I had a good laugh about this,.