PART 19

In October, a letter arrived from the county addressed to the property owner at Sycamore Ridge Road.

It contained a routine notice about drainage maintenance along the public right-of-way.

I read the pages, filed them in the binder, and felt a strange satisfaction at how unremarkable it was.

For so long, every envelope had seemed like an accusation.

Now paperwork was just paperwork again.

That afternoon Patricia came to help me plant a young hickory at the edge of the orchard.