PART6
“A permanent easement.”
“How wide?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“On how much leverage you have.”
I stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
She leaned back.
“It means don’t negotiate against yourself.”
Then she showed me something else.
A document from the county.
My eyes moved down the page.
Then stopped.
“What’s this?”
Evelyn said nothing.
I read it again.
Parcel 44-118 provides the only practical connection between the approved compression facility and the existing transmission corridor without requiring relocation of the county access road.
I looked up.
“They need my property.”
“Very badly.”
“How badly?”
Evelyn smiled.
“Badly enough that they’ve already spent millions designing around it.”
Bernard added, “And now they’re hoping you’ll believe it’s just ten acres of weeds.”
I thought about Harold’s children.
The parking lot.
The laughter.
The words.
Take it as a compliment.
For fourteen years, they had looked through me as though I were furniture.
Now a corporation was doing the same thing.
They thought I was an old widow sitting alone on ten acres.
They had no idea what Harold had left me.
But Evelyn wasn’t finished.
“There is another problem.”
“What?”
“The route approved in February isn’t the route they’re going to be able to build.”
“Why?”
She turned another document around.
I read the heading.
Environmental Constraint Review.
Then I saw the words:
Wetland impact.
“Your northeast corner contains protected wetlands.”
I frowned.
“But they surveyed it.”
“Exactly.”
“So they knew.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“They can’t simply build wherever they want.”
I felt something shift inside me.
For the first time since Harold died, I wasn’t merely grieving.
I was paying attention.
Evelyn pointed to another line.
“And there’s one more thing.”
“What?”
“The county’s approval is conditional.”
“Conditional on what?”
She looked at Bernard.
Bernard nodded.
Then she looked at me.
“Acquiring a legal access agreement from you.”
I stared at the document.
“They haven’t acquired it.”
“No.”
“So the project isn’t fully buildable.”
“Correct.”
I leaned back.
For the first time, I understood what Harold meant.
You are not asking them for a favor.
They need something you own.
I whispered his name.
“Harold.”
Bernard heard me.
“What?”
I shook my head.
“Nothing.”
But inside, I could almost hear him.
Don’t let them rush you, honey.
At noon, my stepdaughter, Melissa, called.
I hadn’t heard from her since the funeral.
I almost didn’t answer.
But something told me to.
“Hello?”
“Are you at the house?”
“Yes.”
“Can we come over?”
“Why?”
She sighed.
“Dad’s things.”
“Your things were removed yesterday.”
“We forgot some stuff.”
“Like what?”
Another pause.
“Important things.”
I looked at Bernard and Evelyn.
They both stayed silent.
I said, “Come at two.”
Melissa arrived with her brother, Todd.
They pulled into the driveway in the same black SUV they’d used on the day of the will reading.
Neither looked at me when they walked inside.
Todd went straight toward Harold’s study.
I stopped him.
“Where are you going?”
“To get Dad’s watch.”
“The watch was in the jewelry box.”
“We didn’t see it.”
“You took the jewelry box.”
He stopped.
Melissa said, “Doreen, we’re not here to argue.”
“Good.”
I stepped aside.
“You can tell me what you need.”
Melissa looked around the house.
For the first time, she seemed uncertain.
“You’ve changed things.”
“I haven’t touched anything.”
She stared at me.
Then she said, “Dad would’ve wanted us to have his personal things.”
“I agree.”
“Then let us take them.”
“I will.”
Todd looked at me suspiciously.
“Why are you being so cooperative?”
I smiled.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
Neither answered.
Then Melissa noticed the papers on the kitchen table.
Her eyes narrowed.
“What’s that?”
“Documents.”
“About what?”
“My property.”
Todd laughed.
“That junk land?”
I looked at him.
“Yes.”
“You’re actually going to keep it?”
“Yes.”
Melissa shook her head.
“Dad always had weird ideas.”
“Sometimes.”
Todd grabbed a box from the study.
As he walked past me, he said casually:
“Don’t get too attached to that place.”
I watched him.
“Why?”
He shrugged.
“Nobody wants it.”
I said nothing.
He walked away.
But Melissa stopped at the doorway.
She turned back.
“Doreen?”
“Yes?”
“There’s been some talk.”
“What kind of talk?”
“That company that’s interested in the land.”
My heart beat once.
Hard.
“Who told you?”
She hesitated.
“Todd heard something.”
“What?”
