Words had been his entire power.

And now, at last, he had come up against a thing that words simply do not touch.

A deed does not care how confidently you speak.

A county stamp does not soften because you smile.

The paper says what it says, and it had said, since the day I signed it two years before, that this house was mine and mine alone.

I have thought since that this is why people like him fear documentation so much, and avoid it, and prefer to keep everything verbal and vague.