Chapter 4 - The Visit With Toby
On Saturday, Benjamin drove back to the ranch with Toby in the backseat and a framed photograph of Catherine on the passenger seat.
Harold was surprised to see them.
Toby ran ahead.
“Grandpa! Mom says I can spend the day if you want.”
Harold looked at Benjamin.
“Sandra didn’t come?”
“No.”
That answer seemed to tell Harold more than Benjamin intended.
The day went awkwardly at first.
Benjamin offered to fix fence posts. Harold said they could manage after lunch.
Toby followed his grandfather through the chicken yard, asked to gather eggs, and listened wide-eyed to stories about Catherine teaching first grade at the county school.
“She kept spare pencils in every drawer,” Harold told him. “She said nobody learns well when they feel embarrassed.”
Benjamin stood at the kitchen sink pretending he wasn’t listening.
Later he stepped into the feed room looking for a wrench and noticed a survey map spread across a worktable.
Several acres on the west side of the ranch were marked in blue.
Beside the map sat a business card:
Martha Cline, Attorney at Law — Estates & Agricultural Property
Harold entered quietly behind him.
“Looking for something?”
“A wrench.”
“You found paperwork instead.”
Benjamin held up the card.
“Dad, what’s going on?”
Harold took the card and set it back down.
“Land business.”
“What kind of land business?”
“The kind a man handles before his knee gives out and his grandson gets older.”
That was not really an answer.
On the drive home, Toby asked if Grandpa was rich.
Benjamin almost laughed.
“Why would you ask that?”
“Because he has maps and a lawyer. That’s rich-people stuff.”
Benjamin smiled despite himself.
“Lawyers also mean old people are thinking ahead.”
Toby grew quiet.
“Is Grandpa going away?”
Benjamin looked out at the road ahead.
He didn’t know whether his father was planning a sale, a will, or something else entirely.
May you like
He only knew Harold had wanted to see something with his own eyes.
And whatever he saw at the house in Richmond had clearly changed him.
