Nora pointed her index finger at the bottom right corner of the yellowed page.

“The township planning commission turned down the expansion request entirely,” she said.

I leaned down and took the yellowed page from her lap.

A heavy rectangular stamp sat right over the town signature block, its dark red ink slashing through the black typed text.

I stared at the official ink, reading the exact denial code the township clerk had written three months earlier.

My thumb rested just beside the red rejection stamp on the yellowed survey document in my hand.