She Offered Me Cash Beside The Buses I Cleaned

I sent the message to Ruth.

“Don’t meet her alone,” she said.

“I’m not meeting her.”

But Celia came to the bus yard the next afternoon.

The office called me in from a row of seats I was wiping down. She stood near the counter, holding a pale blue folder.

“I asked you to call my lawyer,” I said.

“I’m trying to give you a way out.”

My shift lead, Luis, stayed at his desk. He had heard enough from my calls about court dates to understand why I did not sit down.

Celia placed a check on the counter.

Fifteen thousand dollars.

Under it was a release. Ruth’s name appeared nowhere on the page.

“You sign, I withdraw my claim, and we stop hurting each other.”

“You want the will changed too?”

“I want an agreement that makes sense.”

The release gave up my right to contest the sale and any claims about money she had handled. A second page required me to keep the matter private.

I took a picture.

Celia reached for the paper, then stopped.

“Don’t make everything a weapon.”

“You brought it to my job.”

Luis stood.

“Mara’s due back on the floor. You can leave your number with the office.”

Celia looked at him.

“This is a family matter.”

“She gave you a place to send it.”

She took her check and left.

For ten minutes, I could not get the same seat clean. I kept wiping a mark that was part of the fabric.

Luis held out a fresh cloth.

“Start at the next row.”

I did. That was enough to get me through the shift.

On Saturday, Ruth and I sat with the estate’s repair estimates. She wanted me to understand what keeping Juniper Court meant.

“The court can decide ownership,” she said. “It can’t make the work disappear.”

The roofs needed eighteen thousand nine hundred dollars in repairs. Two water heaters were old. The gravel lane needed better drainage.

The seven rented homes brought in four thousand five hundred fifty dollars a month when everyone paid. Insurance, taxes, utilities, repairs, and loan payments used most of it.

I wrote each cost in a notebook.

“Can the place pay its bills?”

“It can, if it’s managed carefully. Recovering the loan money would make a major difference. There’s no promise of that yet.”

For the first time, the inheritance felt like eight kitchens, eight bathrooms, and a roof I would have to keep dry.

I drove to Fallon that afternoon.

Tess was shaking crumbs from a small rug. Owen sat on the step doing sums.

He moved his paper when I sat beside him.

“Are you good at these?”

“Some.”

He pointed to a division problem. I showed him how I broke the number into smaller pieces.

Tess watched from the doorway.

“I can pay the rent,” she said. “I just can’t pay a new deposit somewhere else on thirty days’ notice.”

“The estate is honoring the leases,” I said. “Mr. Pike sent everyone letters.”

“I got mine. I read it four times.”

I understood that.

Nola brought out a chair and handed me a screwdriver.

“If you’re staying awhile, this arm keeps coming loose.”

I tightened it. Then I checked the other arm.

We sat for a few minutes without talking about Celia.

On the drive home, I stopped at the cemetery. Mom’s stone was small. I had saved for the last part of its cost after I started working.

I told her about the apartments.

I told her I was angry with Grandpa and missed him anyway.

Then I told her what Celia had offered me.

“I didn’t sign.”

The words came out quietly. There was nobody there who needed me to make them sound brave.

The later hearing was set for six weeks away. During that time, records came in and witnesses gave sworn answers. Ruth sent me copies and explained the parts I did not understand.

Celia’s lawyer received the same evidence. Nobody would be seeing a secret page for the first time in court.

One evening, Ruth called as Edie and I cleared supper.

“Her lawyer wants to limit use of a statement at the hearing.”

“Whose statement?”

“Your aunt’s. She gave it under oath last week.”

I put down a plate.

Ruth read the question first.

“Did Hal Vale know the money from the property loan was going into your personal account?”

Then she read Celia’s answer.

“No. I expected him to be gone before it came due.”