“I wonder what this could be,” he said, “I hope it’s not a bill. He slipped a knife under the envelope’s flap.”
It was a legal document declaring the ownership for the farm. It was made out to Jerry Stillwater alone with no one else on it.
Roger’s face turned red and he looked at Jerry with contempt and said, “What do you know about this?” and shoved the letter at him.”
“I went to the courthouse last week when we were in town,” said Jerry, “to check on the property and the mortgage and all.”
“Without telling me?” Roger growled.
“Yeah, without telling you little brother,” Jerry said in a sarcastic way, “who do you think you are anyway, I’m the eldest brother?”
“I run this farm, that’s who I am,” said Roger.
“That’s a good way to put it,” said Jerry, “you might run it, but it belongs to me now.”
“Hell! You say. How is that possible?”
“Daddy didn’t have a will when he died, and mom isn’t around, so his property goes to the eldest sibling, and that’s me.”
“When did you intend on telling us this great news,” Asked Roger.
“I thought we could sit down and strike a deal.”
“What kind of deal?” Roger spit out.
“You and your wife and Amelia and Matt could all live here and continue on as usual with your lives. You will pay me rent, and I will be entitled to half the profits from the sale of the crops and livestock.”
“What will you do?” asked Roger.
“I’ll be the foreman like I told you, I don’t like farm work.”
“That hardly seems fair since you have been gone for 4 years and didn’t contribute a cent to keep this farm running or do any work around here.”
“That’s the law sonny boy, it says I inherit this farm and you don’t, so take it or leave it.”
Amelia thought the two were going to come to blows when she heard the angry tone of their voices. Nevertheless, Roger backed down, that was unusual for him. Matt left the table with a disgusted look on his face and mumbled something about barn chores and left.
Amelia and Deana cleared the table, did the dishes, and spoke quietly about the situation. “It’s not like Roger to back down from Jerry, basically Jerry couldn’t take a punch, and Roger has been whipping him since he was fourteen,” she told Deana.
“He must have something else in mind,” said Deana, “I’ll talk to him tonight.”
When Jerry and Rosalie went to their room, Deana asked Amelia to come with her to her and Rogers’s room. “We won’t get Matt into this yet, here’s my plan,” said Roger. “I’m going to go into town and check with Mr. Mc Dermott, he’s the lawyer dad used a couple of times when he had legal questions. I want to see if all that Jerry says is the truth. If it is, we will have to form a plan, if it isn’t the truth, when I come home, I’m going to ask him to leave, if he doesn’t, I’m going to beat the shit out of him.”
Roger came back from town late the next afternoon, looking like a whipped dog. “Mr. Mc Dermott says that he has to look into what Jerry did with Mr. Sampson the other lawyer in town. He’s sure Jerry is lying to us, because there is no such law that he knows of. When someone dies without a will they follow, something called the “Law of Intestate Succession.” That means that whatever is owned by the deceased is distributed according to the way the law defines it, in that state, in this state the widow gets the estate. Other relatives get other goods or property and it has a specific pecking order. In our case, since Lynn is not around it gets more complicated. Before we decide to fight this Mr. McDermott has to do some checking to see what Jerry is claiming. Then we will know where we stand.”
Two weeks passed before Mr. McDermott called Roger.
“I was able to find out that Jerry is claiming that your mother signed papers stating that if anything happened to your father, and she was not around, Jerry was to take possession of the farm. Roger, Matt and Amelia could live there, but wouldn’t be entitled to any profit from the farm, until it was sold. Then those proceeds would be split equally.”
“Jesus,” said Roger, “How can this be?”
“Apparently Jerry had some papers signed by your mother, once your father passed away the farm became her property and she could do anything she wants with it.”
“That doesn’t make any sense, I don’t think Jerry knows where she is any more than we do. I think the paper is a fraud.”
“That may be so, it probably is, but now that Jerry has made a claim and has documentation, even if it is counterfeit, it must be proven a fake and fought out in court.”
“Mr. McDermott, I will level with you, me and my wife, my brother and my sister have been working very hard, just to keep our heads above water. We don’t have any money to spend on legal fights.”
“I understand son,” said Mr. McDermott. “Here’s what I suggest, the claim Jerry made will take a while to go through the system. You hang in there and see what his next move is. These papers that your mother supposedly signed say all of you can stay on the farm. So, there’s no problem there. Meanwhile, I’ll keep my eye on the paper trail. If I were to take an educated guess, I would say he’s going to try and get the farm deeded to him.”
“Mr. McDermott, I appreciate all you have done for us so far, but I don’t have the money to pay you to follow up on all this. We’ll have to see what happens.”
“Son, the whole town knows what you kids have gone through and that you are working hard to make a go of it. I’ll send you my bill for our initial visit and follow the paper trail on my own. This has my curiosity up now.”
“Thanks, Mr. McDermott, I will talk with my wife, Matt and Amelia, and then we’ll decide what we have to do.”
Secret thoughts: (I’m so shocked at what Jerry is trying to do. He was never the best person when he was here but now it seemed he has turned evil. I have a bad feeling about all of this, but I don’t want to upset my family by saying so.)
[ Chapter 11 ]
At the end of the week, a man showed up in a taxi at the Stillwater Farm. He was dark complicated and had on traditional Mexican style clothing. He came up to the kitchen door carrying two suitcases, and asked in broken English, “Rosalie she here?”
“Yes,” said Deana, “come in.”
“Where is she? She takes a siesta?”
“Yes,” said Deana, “She’s taking a nap.”
“I’m Roberto, her brother and I come to visit.”
“Come in and sit down,” said Deana “would you like something to drink?”
“A beer if you have one,” said Roberto.
“No sorry we don’t have any beer,” said Deana. Just then, Amelia came in.
Amelia was out in the hen house collecting eggs. Deana said, “Amelia this is Roberto, Rosalie’s brother.”
“Hi,” she said to the stranger, “I’m Amelia, Jerry’s sister.”
“Si, hello, hello,” He said.
Deana went and knocked on the bedroom door.
Rosalie opened the door to the bedroom and said, “What you want!” Then she saw Roberto, she ran out to him wearing only a slip and threw her arms around him and kissed him on the lips. Deana and Amelia looked on in astonishment!
“Where is Jerry?” Roberto asked Rosalie.
“Out riding, he won’t be back for a while, come on in let’s catch up on what you have been doing, I missed you very much,” she said in Spanish.”
“I was going to get a drink from the senoritas I’m so thirsty.”
“I have plenty of beer in here,” Rosalie said, and she took him by the hand into the bedroom and closed the door.
Amelia and Deana could hear the children making noise but not clearly. After some time, Rosalie came out and asked if Deana would watch the children for a while so that she and Roberto could ta
lk.
When Jerry came back, he asked where Rosalie was because Deana was sitting on the floor playing with the children.
Amelia said, “in there with her brother and pointed to the bedroom door.”
“Her brother,” he said, “what’s he doing here?”
Jerry went to the bedroom door and made some noise before slowly opening the door. They heard voices, and some laughter, and then when the door was closed the rumbling of talking. Amelia and Deana looked at one another and rolled their eyes.
Amelia knocked on the door and called, “Rosalie.”
“What you want?” she said.
We have to go out and do our chores and don’t want to leave the kids out here alone.
“Si, si.”
Rosalie took the children into the bedroom and Deana and Amelia went out to the barn. As they walked, Amelia said, to Deana, “that greeting Rosalie gave her brother looked mighty bizarre to me, how about you?”
“That was gross,” said Deana, “talk about kissing cousins!”
“Since we have the stew made and the salad is already in the fridge, let’s go out and meet Roger and Matt and tell them what we’ve seen,” said Amelia. “All this doesn’t seem right to me.”
Roger and Matt were surprised to see them, and even more surprised when they told them about Roberto.
“Wow that’s goofy,” said Roger. “That adds to our problems with another mouth to feed. I have been talking to Deana’s father and told him all about our plight, he is willing to have us come there and let us work on his farm, while his brother looks into what Jerry’s trying to do to us. His brother is a lawyer two counties over, he’s is going to call Mr. McDermott and see if he can help. We think that if we leave and stop doing all the work here, and feeding them, Jerry won’t know what to do. He won’t work himself so how will they be able to get food and stay here? The other two hardly speak English, so they won’t be able to find jobs easily. It means we’ll have to move. This brother coming here made our lives even worse. Roger turned to Amelia, “Amelia the problem is there is only room for us and Matt, I’m sorry to say the house will be overflowing already, I was wondering” ….
“No stop!” said Deana, vehemently, “Amelia will come with us, she is like my sister now, and she will come with us,” Deana declared as she began crying. “She’s been so good to me and tries to do all the work, so I don’t have to work hard.” Deana said, “And if she can’t go neither will I.” Amelia went to her and hugged her.
“You are so sweet Deana, I love you,” said Amelia hugging her.
“I was only going to suggest that she ask Ida if she could stay with her until we smoke Jerry out.”
“I had a brainstorm,” said Amelia, “I’m going to go to see Ida and find out if she can help me get into one of the colleges that I got acceptance letters from. We have to see if the scholarship offer is still open for me. If so, it will pay for tuition and I can work for my room and board, then maybe I go to college that way. That will be one less mouth to feed for you.
“That would be wonderful!” said Deana, “as much as I would miss you, I know how much you want to go to school.”
“Sounds great Amelia, I’ll be so happy if you can do that,” said Roger. The sad part is that I never thought our very own brother would ever do anything like this to us. That part really hurts. We’re not going to say a word to Jerry or anybody. Matt chimed in, “in the next couple of weeks, I’m going to try and sell the livestock off, and we will have some money to start out. We’ll have to think about a way to get money for clothes and transportation and stuff you’ll need for college, if you get a spot,” said Matt, “we’ll do our best to help you, Amelia.”
“After supper, I’ll go over to Ida’s and see if she can help me with the paperwork, first I have to see if they have a spot for me, it’s pretty late and all the slots might be taken.”
Amelia got to Ida’s and explained the situation. Ida hugged her, “Let’s get started honey we have a lot to do.”
After talking to Ida, Amelia wrote to Chad. She told him about her family situation. Chad your mom is so sweet, she wrote, she immediately told me that I could come and stay with her. I would love to do that, but I have to help at Deana’s family farm and do some chores after work and it would be hard to travel back and forth, to say nothing of the cost of gas. I love her for extending the invitation to me without a second thought. Wish me luck, she wrote, it’s sad that we have to do this to get away and that Jerry is being so hateful, it might turn out OK for me, if I get to go to college.”
Secret thoughts: (I must tell Ida what we’re up to. I know she understands what Jerry has been doing and that because of his bad behavior we have to do something, to move forward. I just don’t want her to think we are just being mean. The best part of the plan for me is that my work on the farm will be much less and with Matt selling off the livestock, they will be OK without monetary help from Deana’s parents. They are doing so much already by letting all of us live there. I’m hoping that maybe I can go to college after all. Roger wants me to use some of the money for transportation and a few things I need from selling the animals, but I still need to work all summer. I must hold all these plans to myself in my head as I don’t know what I would do if I was disappointed again.)
It was the end of March, and they had to move fast if Amelia was going to make it for June and get everything in order. Her grades and SAT scores were no problem, applying for grants and scholarships and finding a part time job that paid enough for room and board was the tough part. Ida emailed Chad and told him first the sad news about Jerry then the good news that Amelia was going to be able to go to college. “I hope I don’t sound like I’m gossiping,” she wrote.
He wrote back and said, Amelia had written to him and told him all about Jerry. I never did like Jerry, ever since I knew him in school. He was always trying to get out of work of any kind. Mom I want to help Amelia, the sergeant in my squad comes from that part of Pennsylvania and I will ask him about jobs and housing. Please tell Amelia how glad I am that she is getting to go to school, I’m thrilled for her, and I will write to her as soon as I can.
One Saturday evening, Roger, Deana, and Matt went to town to the movies. Amelia didn’t want to go. She was headed over to Ida’s to work on her college preparations. When she came home from Ida’s she foraged in the kitchen for a snack and sat on the sofa to read. Jerry and Roberto were sitting on the porch. They had been drinking beer all evening and were drunk. The kids and Rosalie were asleep. Roberto came in to get something to eat and more beer, which they now kept openly in the refrigerator. He saw Amelia on the sofa. She had dozed off while reading. She woke up with a start when she felt strong hands on her breasts. She screamed and saw Roberto, she slapped at him and kicked wildly, when he tried to kiss her and succeeded in kicking him in the groin. He let out a howl of agony and Jerry came running in to see what happened.
“He was touching me and tried to kiss me,” said Amelia, “and I had to fight him off.”
“Did you have to kick him in the balls,” asked Jerry?”
“Yes, I did,” said Amelia, “I would think as my brother you would take offence to him touching me.”
“You’re just like all the other women”, said Jerry, “prancing around teasing men, and then crying rape when you probably asked for it.”
Amelia pulled back her hand to slap Jerry. He grabbed it and twisted her wrist.
“Stop it,” she said, “you’re hurting me.”
“If you ever try to slap me again, I will hurt you,” he said.
Dropping her hand, Jerry went over to Roberto who was still kneeling on the floor, whimpering in pain, he helped him up and walked him into the bedroom.
Amelia was upset and crying in her room when Roger, Deana and Matt got home. She told them what happened.
Matt said, “If he ever touches you or Deana agai
n Roger and I will beat the shit out of both of them.”
“That means we have to speed up our plans and get out of here sooner than we thought. It isn’t safe for you, Amelia or Deana either. Neither of you should ever be alone with him again,” said Roger. “I’m going to give you dad’s revolver. Keep it where you can get to it quickly, at all times. You never know what he is capable of when they have been drinking, I think now, you have an idea it wouldn’t be very pleasant, and I don’t think Jerry would make any effort and try to help either of you.”
They all plugged away and worked very hard covertly to get ready to leave. They knew that if Jerry learned of their plan, he would intervene and make it miserable for them. Roger sold off most of the livestock and the buyers agreed not to take delivery until after the family left the farm and were safe at the Lane place. Amelia and Deana took all the chickens and canned goods, dried fruits and bacon over to Deana’s parent’s place. Jerry, Rosalie, and Roberto didn’t even notice the changes in the barn and cellar because they never helped with the work and had no need to go into either place.
[ Chapter 12 ]
The family waited until Saturday, two weeks after the Roberto incident. Just at dawn, they loaded up the pickup trucks and the stake body truck as quietly as possible. They worked as noiselessly as they could and knew that Jerry, Roberto, and Rosalie had a lot to drink the night before and would be sleeping soundly. After they packed up everything they could, they drove away. The Lane household would be full to the brim with all the extra people, Deana’s father made a place in the barn for Matt and Amelia. She would sleep in the loft and Matt on a bunk bed in a cleaned-out stall. It wasn’t much, but it was clean and dry. There were no animals in the barn it was used for storing hay, farm equipment and other supplies, so it didn’t smell bad and had a small bathroom with a shower.
Rosalie was the first to get up and when she didn’t smell coffee brewing, she went out to the kitchen to see why there was no coffee and no breakfast. Not seeing anyone in the kitchen, she opened the refrigerator and gasped, there was hardly any food in there. She pulled open several kitchen cabinet doors and found empty shelves, except for some spilled flour and children’s cereal. Rosalie ran back to the bedroom and screamed, “Jerry, Jerry, vamoose, gone, gone?”
Secrets of Amelia Page 6
