by Jane Gill
“I thought, uh, since you knew about him leasing the farm out that maybe Daddy gave it to you at one time or another, or told you where it was,” she answered.
“So, you ain’t done nothin’ yet about sellin’ the place?” he asked.
“No,” she said. “I just told you, we’ve got to have an estate opened before we can do anything. I just asked you about the deed in case you knew where it was. Having the deed would make things a lot easier, okay?” He was getting on her nerves.
“And you just now gettin’ around to tellin’ me all this?” His tone was accusatory.
“No, again,” she said. “This is the first time I’ve had time to call to tell you this.”
“Oh, I see,” he said. Sarcasm oozed over the phone line. “You’ve got time to talk to your old boyfriend, Dwight, who’s now a lawyer, and you got time to talk about flyin’ back down to Florida to meet with him. But in between all that, you didn’t have time to call your own brother. Yeah, I get it.”
“Oh, no, you don’t, Martin Stovall!” she shouted into the phone. “Don’t you throw your insinuations at me! You think that I’m just twiddling my thumbs up here? I have a job, too, you know. And I plowed through Daddy’s papers before I did anything else so you could have the title to the truck you wanted!”
“Yeah, but it won’t do me no good without some kind of court papers,” he commented dryly.
“Exactly,” she snapped back. “That’s why I need to talk to a lawyer—to get the papers from the court down there. Dwight says that while you and I probably have a right to the land, we don’t have the right to sell it until the court says we do. It’s the same thing with transferring the title to the truck,” she said smugly. “It’s not a big deal.”
“Now, don’t go getting’ all bent out of shape,” he said. “First you say we got to have a lawyer, and then you say it ain’t no big deal. Which is it, Luella?”
“Okay, see, I got an offer in the mail right when I got back home, but it was some realtor, and he wanted to buy the farm right away. Zach and I think he was a speculator.” Lu said.
“What!” Martin shouted. “And you just decided not to bother to tell me?”
“Martin, listen, this guy was real slick. Even Zach thinks all he wants is to grab it up cheap and turn around and sell it to some developer for a big profit,” she argued, working to remain calm.
“Yeah, but how much was he offerin’, and how do you know it wasn’t the only offer we’d get? Real estate is dropping like a rock, for crying out loud,” he shouted into the phone. “Damn it to hell, Lu. If this is how it’s gonna be, then maybe I need to get my own lawyer.”
“Will you please listen?” she pleaded as she struggled to keep her composure. “I was going to call you, but when I told this Ashworth guy that we couldn’t find the deed, he made a big deal out of it. Like he was going to drop his offer.”
“So, you didn’t think you should call me, huh?” he said.
“I’ve looked all over the internet at property values in Flagler county, and that farm is worth a whole lot more than this guy offered,” she said. “And, yes, I did think about calling you, but then I decided to call Dwight first.” she said with finality.
“You know, Lu,” he said purposefully. “See, that’s how you are. Ain’t nothin’ changed with you. I don’t know why I ever let you handle this. You always gotta have a little secret on the side, don’t you?”
“What do you mean, ‘on the side’?” she asked.
“Just like college, huh? Stayin’ in Florida wasn’t never good enough for you. Oh, no. But you didn’t lower that boom until the last minute, did you? Not until you had talked to practically everybody else in the county about it, like you were takin’ a survey or somethin’. Then, suddenly you’re a big shot with a fancy scholarship that you accepted, without even talkin’ to Daddy, by the way. And you say you’re goin’ up north. No warning, just start a big fight—right in the peak of the growin’ season.”
Lu’s biggest supporter at school was Mrs. Pruitt, her guidance counselor. She took Lu under her wing and encouraged her to apply for every scholarship she could find.
“You’ve got so much going for you,” she said. “Let’s try for the full scholarships first!”
Once Lu filled out the applications and wrote the required essays, Mrs. Pruitt went over them carefully, making suggestions and pointing out errors.
As the weeks crawled by, Lu watched for the mail every day. She tried to talk to Daddy about college, but he said she needed to get her head out of the clouds. After all, he pointed out, there wasn’t any money in their family for high-falutin’ colleges. When she finally got the letter from Temple University she sat on her bed clutching the envelope and whispering, “Please, please, let this be it!” She could hardly contain her excitement.
At the dinner table that night, Lu waited until her father was finished and was stirring his coffee, leaning back in his chair, relaxed. She wanted to tell him her good news before he buried himself in one of his farm journals. Once he opened those, the whole evening would be lost while he read the articles.
Carefully, she laid the letter out on the table. She pressed the folds of it open with her palm as she announced that she’d gotten a full scholarship. Everything went wrong. He stared at her. “What you thinkin’, girl?” he asked.
“Daddy, you know I want to go to college,” she said. “Mrs. Pruitt, my guidance counselor at school, she said—”
“Oh, well,” he said with mock amusement.”So, this Mrs. Pruitt is behind all this?Maybe she can just come up with the money, huh?”
“Daddy, that’s what I’m trying to tell you!” Lu interrupted. “See, here, read this letter, it’s all going to be free. Free, Daddy!” Her heart raced.
He stood up from the table so quick he almost knocked over his coffee cup. Grammy reached across the table to steady it, glaring at Lu.
“Free!” he said. His voice was so low it sent shivers down Lu’s spine. “Let me tell you somethin’, girl, they ain’t no such thing as free in this life. Now you done gone behind my back with this, got this Mrs. Pruitt all involved in our private business.” He shook his head as he leaned against the sink, his arms folded over his chest.
The silence stretched between them. Martin and Grammy sat stock still at the table. Lu’s throat went dry. She’d never seen him so angry.
At last she found her voice. “I’m going, Daddy,” she said. “No matter what you say, I’m going!”
He turned his back to her and put both hands on the sink.
“Where is this place, this Temple?” he asked, his voice gruff.
“It’s up north—in Pennsylvania,” she replied timidly.
“Up north, huh,” he commented. “That’s what you been wantin’—isn’t it?” His voice was accusatory as he turned again and looked down at her. He moved toward the table, picked up the letter, and balled it in his fist.
Lu didn’t know what to do. Her precious letter, her entire future, balled up in a wad. She had never defied her father in her entire life, but she pushed her chair back with the back of her legs and stood. She held out a shaking hand.
“Give me my letter,” she demanded.
The two of them stood only feet apart for a long moment.
Finally, her father tossed the crumbled letter on the table. He would not hand it to her. She grabbed it and tried to straighten it out by pressing it on her chest. Her whole body shook, but she refused to take her eyes off his.
“Then go,” he said. “It’s what you want, go ahead and go up north where you think life is so great. Just don’t come cryin’ to me some day down the road and tellin’ me you was wrong, either!”
“I hate you, I hate you!” she shouted, tears burning her eyes as she pounded off to her bedroom and slammed the door.
“I didn’t start that fight, Martin!” she hollered into the phone. She had never expected Martin’s anger to be so intense.
“You damn sure did!” he shoute
d back. “’Daddy’,” Martin said, mimicking her voice. ‘I accepted that scholarship to Temple University.’ Boom! Right there at the supper table. And then in no time, you just got yourself on the train and left. That was nice, Luella, real nice.”
“Now, you listen to me,” she argued. “You want to know what’s wrong with you? You’ve been jealous of me all these years, that’s what!”
“Jealous?” he screamed. “Jealous of what? You think you got anything I want?”
“Yeah, I do!” she spat. “You blame me because I left that dirt farm, and you’ve been mad at me ever since. You bet I left. Damn it all, Martin. You could have done the same thing and you know it.”
There was silence on the line. When he finally spoke, his voice was cold. “Yeah, I was fifteen. I coulda’ done the same thing. Yeah, I see that now, fifteen, a freshman in high school.”
“No, not then,” she argued. “When you graduated, you could have gotten a scholarship, gone to college. You didn’t have to stay on that farm. That was your choice.”
“I stayed on that farm for my father and for Grammy Mayetta,” he said. “Daddy coulda’ never worked that farm by hisself and you know it! What the hell was I supposed to do? Tell me that, huh? Tell me that!”
There was another pause before he added, “And I stayed on that farm because you left! All that mattered to you was what you planned, nobody else. It was never about the family to you. It was always just about you! And you know what else? Huh? I stayed because my family mattered to me, and I knew no matter what, I was never gonna’ be like you.” He slammed down the phone.
Lu, furious, slammed her phone down as well. She sat down heavily into Zach’s overstuffed chair.
She was still in the chair when Zach and William came home. “I’m glad you’re back,” she said. “I ordered a pizza for you, William. It should be here soon.” She picked up her jacket which was on the ottoman. “I need to get out of this house for a while,” she said to Zach.
Her movements were mechanical, her face expressionless. Zach dutifully followed her out the door. “Where we goin’?” he asked as he turned the key in the ignition.
“Chinese,” she said, staring out the passenger window.
Zach drove to a nearby Chinese restaurant in silence. Lu had always insisted that the best way to settle things when one of them was angry was to go out to a restaurant. She believed it was a simple principle that if they were surrounded by strangers, arguments wouldn’t get out of hand, voices would remain subdued, and tears would not be used as ammunition. Once they were seated and the waiter had placed their iced teas in front of them, Lu related part of the conversation she had with Martin.
“Oh, is that what this is about? I was afraid I’d screwed something up.” Zach was clearly relieved. “So, what’s he think?”
“We really never got around to that,” she said, poking the lemon wedge down in her glass with the straw. “It ended up in a shouting match.”
“Did you tell him about the offer?” Zach asked.
“Actually, I tried to explain what Dwight said,” she outlined. “We need to make sure the property is in the Stovall name, and get whatever court paperwork we need to turn the truck over to him and to sell the farm. Oh, and we need to get an appraisal of the property. But he got all bent out of shape and accused me of doing things behind his back. Then he just hung up on me.”
Zach made himself busy unwrapping his straw. “That what Dwight said? I mean, get an appraisal? What’d your brother say about this Ashworth guy’s offer?” he asked.
“He accused me of keeping secrets ‘on the side’,” Lu rolled her eyes.
“Do you think you want to have Dwight call him?” he asked.
“No, I don’t,” she said. She related Elizabeth’s conversation with her after the funeral. Zach listened without comment. “Elizabeth clearly warned me. I guess now I see what she meant. All these years he’s been mad at me. I can’t believe I never realized how much my leaving hurt him. I feel just awful about it now. I honestly do, but that doesn’t give him the right to yell at me.”
Zach leaned back in the booth. “Then you need to tell him that. Just be careful when you do. I don’t want you begging him to forgive you or anything like that—no way.”
“I know what you mean,” she said. “I’ll be careful. I’ll give him a little time to calm down, and then I’ll straighten this out. But he’s going to know I have boundaries too! If we’re going to work together on this, then he needs to communicate in a civil way. Besides, I really don’t want to involve Dwight in a family feud. I think that would upset Martin even more.”
“Oh, I’m willing to bet you’re right about that,” Zach affirmed.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Time passed swiftly. Lu worked late every night as the April 15th tax deadline came and went. Her office was still swamped with client files and last-minute extensions. She received two additional letters from persons who expressed an interest in her father’s property. Both professed a desire to live in the central part of Florida, and while neither claimed to be a realtor, she was suspicious. Rory Ashworth stopped calling after she failed to respond to his second offer which arrived by regular mail and was for $25,000.00 less than the original offer. The letter that accompanied it said he needed to reduce the price because of possible legal entanglements that needed to be straightened out.
The next thing she knew Penn State let out for the summer. She drove up to State College and brought Susan and her belongings home for the summer. Susan spent her first full day home on the phone with her high school girlfriend. Lu was glad to have her home, but quickly recognized adjustments would need to be made by everyone.
They were moving between the kitchen and the patio, setting the table, when Susan said, “I think I can get a job at the mall for the summer, Mom, but transportation is going to be an issue.”
“Why would you think of working at the mall? It’s weekends and late nights, I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” Lu asked, handing her the napkins.
“Well, where else can I get summer work around here?” Susan asked.
“You’re majoring in journalism. Why not try a newspaper or an ad agency? There ought to be something that would help prepare you for your future. Working at the mall probably won’t help your résumé.”
“I’m not so sure I’m going to keep journalism as my major for one reason. I don’t know what I want to do. I’m hoping a summer job without too much pressure will give me time to think, that’s all.”
“Oh,” Lu stopped what she was doing and stared at her. “I didn’t know you were thinking about changing your major. When did this happen?”
“My counselor says it’s fairly common for students to change their major after their first year. She suggested I think about it over the summer,” Susan said quietly.
Lu heard the hesitation in her daughter’s voice. Apparently, this was not easy for her to talk about. She squelched her first impulse, which was to point out that ‘time to think things over’ was a luxury a good many young people didn’t have when it came to career choices. She also knew that arguing wouldn’t accomplish anything except a bad start, and summer could be long if they were at odds with each other, so she chose her words carefully.
“Your counselor may have a point. Is there anything else you might want to do? I mean, do you have any inkling at all?” she asked as they went out the door to the patio.
Susan sat in one of the wrought-iron chairs at the table. “Well, I could switch to pre-law or something.”
Lu brightened immediately. “Oh, my! Well, that’s news now, isn’t it? I was afraid you were going to say you wanted to sell tie-dyed T-shirts or something.” Looking over at Zach, grilling dinner, she quietly continued. “I’ll speak to Dad; let him know what you’re considering.” Susan nodded her appreciation.
The sun, which had delightfully warmed the air all day, hovered in the western sky. With a flourish, Zach pulled the sizzling steaks from t
he grill. “Dinner is served!” he announced.
Lu was relieved and happy. She loved her backyard and the colorful potted plants that accented the borders of her patio.
“Mom, you should have waited until I got home. I would’ve helped you with all those plants,” Susan said.
“I know you would have, but the whole idea was to have it done before you got here. You know, as a welcome home.” Lu patted her hand. “Besides, getting my hands dirty and watching things grow really helps relieve my job stress,” Lu said.
“I’ll drink to that!” Zach raised the wine bottle. Lu held up her glass.
“What would you think if a young college gal you knew was considering changing her major to pre-law?” Lu asked him.
“Is that true?” He was clearly delighted.
“Well, maybe,” Susan said. “Problem is, I have to find a job for the summer or I won’t have any school clothes.” She gave a fake mocking glare to her mother, who gave her a smug look in return.
William rolled his eyes. “That’s just what we need, a mouthpiece in the family,” he interrupted. Susan made a face at him.
“Well, if I knew a little bit about law, maybe I could help sell granddad’s farm, so there.” Susan smirked.
“Actually, I’ve been thinking,” Lu said to Zach, “while I was planting all the flowers. There’s so much about the estate that needs to be cleared up. If for no other reason than to protect Miss Pearl’s interest, I need to go back down.”
Zach looked surprised. “You’re thinking of going to Florida?” he asked, laying his fork on his plate.
“Mom, can I go?” Susan eagerly piped in.
Lu turned to her, “No. What about a job? You can’t possibly go if you’re working this summer.”
Susan’s face fell.
“What I’m thinking about is making a quick trip. I can fly down, rent a car, and be back in a couple of days,” Lu explained, reaching for her wine.