FORECLOSURE

Seems like with the subprime lending crisis things are getting tough all over the world. Belts have to be tightened or, sometimes...loosened.

Kyle and Jennifer Schulz ran up a whopper on multiple credit cards, and then the mortgage payments and interest rates went through the farking roof. There was no choice but to put nineteen year old Joey, only recently purchased with a Master Platinum card, up for sale in the front yard. They hated to do it, but needed fast cash to try and save the old house.

Joey was a good buck; corn fed Nebraska stock, and cost a fortune. Standing shackled to the wood siding out in the front yard with his shirt stripped off and trousers undone, he quickly attracted a crowd of potential buyers. OK, maybe they weren't all there with wallets at the ready, but eager, nevertheless, to make a show of things- pawing Joey's fine torso and otherwise gawking at the promise nestling in his unzipped pants.

The dark haired stranger would have been called a carpet bagger in another time and place. He flashed a wallet and it was stuffed with cash. Joey was snapped up for a bargain price and the stranger seemed mightily pleased with the young stud's attributes as he surveyed his purchase.

Joey just wanted to get the thing over with and, more than a little scared, hoped his new quarters wouldn't be any worse than the dog house out in the back garden of the Schulz' place...but, then again, no one really cared what Joey thought about things. Kyle and Jennifer tossed a last wistful look at their lost luxury commodity and gently propelled him toward the waiting van. Just as the stranger was about to drive away with Joey, crying a little, with his hands cuffed behind his back, Kyle came running up to the driver's seat window. 'Hey man!' he said, all breathless, 'Really appreciate you helping me and Jen out and all...' He handed the stranger a thick leather strap. 'Reckoned I'd throw this in for free,' he said and waved as the van pulled out from the curb and rounded the corner of the block.