Gideon Signed The Refund Terms At The Empty Sorting Table

"No," I told Mara.

I was standing in my kitchen with Gideon's release on the table. Five thousand dollars would not cover the move and my legal bill. It would leave twelve people chasing me for money he still had.

"That's my answer, too," she said. "I'll send a written rejection and our terms."

"Can he make the customers my debt?"

"Not by writing it on a page you don't sign."

I ate toast over the sink and went to work.

That afternoon, Mara asked me to meet at the old workshop. Both lawyers would be there. Saskia wanted to inspect the building once more before deciding whether to end the purchase.

I took the folding table I used for hand sorting. It had never been on Gideon's equipment schedule. We needed somewhere flat to spread the papers.

Gideon watched me carry it through the door.

"You always did make things difficult for yourself," he said.

I unfolded the legs.

"This will do."

The room sounded different without the drum and fan. Every page turn seemed loud.

Saskia's lawyer laid out the revised sale contract. Mara laid out our settlement. A separate packet held a refund agreement for each customer.

"No one signs for anyone else," Mara said.

I read everything, including the lines she marked for me.

One page still said my company would supply the old deposit orders. I pushed it back.

"That comes out," I said.

Gideon opened his mouth, but his lawyer crossed out the line. Mara required a clean new page, not a change squeezed between sentences. We waited while the office down the street printed it.

Gideon checked his watch twice. I had once signed a repair form in a hurry because he was late for lunch. This time I let him wait.

Gideon would acknowledge that the eleven units belonged to my company. His equipment counterclaim would be dismissed with prejudice, so he could not bring that same claim again.

Our lawyers would submit an agreed final judgment on equipment ownership for the court to enter.

We would end the old lease on June 30. My rent was paid through then. He would waive later rent and any claim for removing the listed equipment. I would return all keys, with the room's condition recorded.

His company would return my $3,500 deposit and pay the $6,000 in agreed moving and legal costs from closing funds.

"No personal check?" Gideon asked.

"Escrow," Mara said.

The twelve refunds would also come from escrow. Each customer would receive the full amount paid, then release the deposit claim after cleared payment. No one had to place a new order.

The closing agent had agreed to those written instructions. The money would stay in the closing account until it was sent to the named recipients.

Gideon tapped the page with the total.

"Twenty-eight thousand one hundred."

"That's what these lines add up to," I said.

"On top of taking forty-two thousand off the price."

Saskia looked at him.

"You aren't giving me $42,000. You aren't selling me the equipment."

His lawyer spoke to him in a low voice. I stepped outside so they could talk.

The tide was coming in under the dock. I had watched it rise from this doorway for eleven years. I had thought leaving would mean I had lost those years.

Now my racks stood somewhere else. The years had gone with them.

Saskia joined me.

"Will you really buy it?" I asked.

"At the revised price. I can make two small workrooms and a place for field classes. That business will take time to build."

"You won't have a turnkey operation."

"I will know what I have."

She asked if I would sell her a small sponge display someday, with the grades named.

"At the same price anyone pays," I said.

"Send a quote."

Inside, Gideon had uncapped his pen.

He signed the ownership terms first. Then the lease surrender. Then the escrow instructions.

I checked every signature before signing for my company.

It took longer than he liked.

Over the next two days, all twelve customers approved their own refund papers. Mara sent copies to the closing agent. Nobody's consent was guessed or filled in later.

At the final walk through, Gideon tried to give me a second set of keys.

"In case you need to come back," he said.

"No. Count those with mine."

His lawyer wrote down six keys. Gideon signed that receipt, too.

He asked if I would leave a forwarding address. I gave him Mara's office address for notices and the new shop address for ordinary mail. Neither place came with a key for him. I watched his lawyer copy both onto the surrender form.

I carried my folding table out for the last time.

On Thursday, Mara sent me the entered judgment. The list of eleven units was attached, with my company's name beside the word Owner.

Below it was her message: Title Is Settled. Closing Funds Are Next.