Chapter Three
Since the night of the homecoming dance, Robbie worried that the farm was still under surveillance. He assumed all their mail was being checked, that all their phone calls and emails were being tracked and logged. Some force was trying to get its hands on Matt’s notes, but he didn’t know why. He assumed Heather Madher was involved, but didn’t really know how.
He thought about burning all the materials, but decided not to. Hiding them was essentially useless, too. He pondered the possibility of publishing the materials on the Internet. He decided he needed to think about it. He texted Tracy. “Hey, I need to talk to you. Can you come home?” Then he decided to go clear the trees around Samantha’s statue and open it up to the eastern horizon.
He drove the tractor over to the spot in the woods where the statue stood. The years in the shade of the trees left the stone covered with lichens. He decided to pressure wash and polish it.
He cleared away an arc of scrubby maples and underbrush, but left the really large trees alone. In a couple of hours he had a decent sized clearing and was satisfied the morning sun would hit the statue, but it was no longer possible to get an unobstructed view of the horizon from the spot since developments had gone in around the farm. It didn’t feel right to leave the statue staring at the back of McMansions.
Tracy waved at him and he heard her muffled, “Hey!” through his earmuffs. He took off his hardhat and gloves and sat down on the statue’s base.
He asked Tracy, “Do you think we should move her? I think she would like a clear view of the horizon.”
Tracy studied the statue’s face, and shrugged. “I don’t really know.”
Robbie said, “I think we should put her in the middle of the hay field. That’s the best view of the horizon…” He paused a minute, then added, “Anyway, that’s not what I wanted to talk about.”
“Fire away.” Tracy said.
“Demetria said she was supposed to steal Matt’s notes. Heather Madher knew about his work, too. I’m starting to wonder if she was involved in trying to steal the books. As far as I know, she’s the only other person who really knew about it.”
Tracy pursed her lips. “That’s weird. Why would she try to steal them from us?”
Robbie sighed. “Well, she was almost obsessed with the plans. She offered me a lot of money for them years ago. Maybe she was on a mission to get them from us.”
Tracy plopped down on a stump and gave him a skeptical look. “That’s really crazy.”
He said, “I’ve got a couple jobs for you. First, I want you to think about what we should do with the notes. Should we burn them? Hide them? Publish them on the Internet? Maybe do something else…”
She nodded and said, “OK. I need to think about that for a while.”
He agreed, “Of course! Actually, here’s how we usually handle this kind of thing, a few of us mull this problem over and we text or email or chat back and forth. This is a really big problem and it’s really poorly defined so it needs a lot of effort. I’m going to pursue this with Johnny, too. He’ll see what he can dig up on Heather. We need to know how she’s connected.”
Tracy started to smile. She was finally one of them. “I’m going to pursue a different angle on this.”
Robbie was smiling in return. In her eyes, she saw Matt’s searching expression. He asked, “What angle?”
“I’m going to try to contact Samantha and ask her.” She said matter of factly.
Robbie raised an eyebrow. He nodded thoughtfully. “I think that’s a good idea. I’m pretty sure that’s why I came over here, to commune with her in my own way. I am going to move the statue and polish it up. Do you want to help?”
“Sure!” She said. “Let me go change into something more appropriate for farm work!” She turned around to jog back toward the house.
Robbie said, “Hey wait! One other thing, your birthday’s rolling around and there’s some other stuff we need to discuss.”
“What else?” She asked.
Robbie said, “When your Mom and Dad left, they put me in charge of some money for you. You and I need to talk all that through. It’s actually pretty complicated and possibly fairly boring for both of us, so maybe later tonight.”
She was curious, “Money? How much are you talking about?”
“I’ve worried about telling you about this for a long time. I realize you’re level headed and responsible, but well, this kind of dough could go to your head.” He said.
“Well, how much?”
Robbie answered, “It started off as $10 million more or less.”
She whistled and said, “Holy shit! Why did you make me sell all the stuff in the attic?! There were some days when I didn’t even have money for food!”
He put up both hands. “If you just had it super easy, you’d have no idea what $10 million even means, right?”
She sighed, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it. Lessons learned. So you said it started of as $10 million, is there more or less, now?”
He groaned, then said. “Well, I’m not even sure what the total is today, but probably more. It wasn’t just $10 million in cash. There’s cash and some other assets. Plus, I’ve been plowing the money into promoting people and businesses that do good work. That’s where I’ve been most of the times I was away. I am hoping you can get involved and take it over completely when you want to.”
Tracy thought for a while. She finally said, “I remember Bethany Madher complaining about her dad’s money, which I assume is a whole lot more than $10 million. She said it turned him into nothing but a walking pile of digits. I don’t want to become that. I’ve just really started living my own life!”
Robbie rubbed his beard and said, “Here’s the other thing, the money was given to us by the Brotherhood when Matt and Telia left.”
Tracy scrunched up her nose and said, “That’s very strange. Man, I really don’t know what to think. My mind is completely blown.”
He said, “Yeah, sorry. I would have told you sooner, but I didn’t really know if you were ready.”
She shrugged and said, “I really wasn’t. I’m probably still not. Is it weird that I don’t think this is good news? It actually makes me feel a little sick.”
He gave her a big hug. “I’m glad you don’t think it’s good news, but don’t feel sick! I’ve tried to be responsible with the dough and just do good things with it. You can do that too. You can give it all away if you want.”
She waved the troublesome thoughts away and said, “Let’s talk about it later. I am going to go change! Let’s move her.” She smacked Samantha’s ass and jogged away.
Robbie said, “On your way back to the house, find a spot for her. Mark it with a shovel.”
Tracy walked around in the hay field looking for a perfect spot. She wanted Samantha to be visible from the house and the road and also to have a clear view of the horizon. She found a little hillock and was satisfied it would work. She rammed the shovel in the ground, then jumped up and down and waved at Robbie across the expanse of the field. He texted her a smiley face.
It took them the rest of the day to load the statue on a trailer and carefully drive to the new location. Robbie oriented the statue so Samantha’s arms and face were aligned correctly. Then, Tracy blasted the surface of the statue with a pressure washer. The statue changed from a mottled gray green to deep green and pink. Robbie buffed it with polishing compound so the surface had a smooth, shiny appearance. By the time the sun was setting, they were done.
As they inspected their handiwork, Robbie said, “We’ll be able to check the winter solstice alignment pretty soon!”
Tracy said, “I feel we should build a path to the road so people could come and look at her.”
The Chardon Chronicles: Season Two --- The Winter Page 38