Dad looked at me.
“Why?”
“We were worried.”
Grant muttered something.
Dad’s mouth tightened.
“Were you worried before or after you arranged for someone to evaluate my truck?”
No answer.
“Were you worried before or after changing my locks?”
Vanessa snapped, “We haven’t changed anything yet.”
Dad leaned back.
“That is the first useful sentence you’ve said.”
She went silent again.
Then he asked, “Who told you I left the house to you?”
“I saw the documents.”
“What documents?”
“Your estate papers.”
“My estate papers are not in the house.”
This time the silence was different.
Dad and I both heard it.
He slowly turned toward me.
Vanessa finally said, “What?”
“My original estate documents are with my attorney.”
Dad’s voice had become very calm.
“The copies in my office are old.”
Grant said something under his breath.
Dad heard enough.
“Grant, if you’re going through my desk right now, put your hands back in your pockets.”
“We’re not at your house yet,” Vanessa said.
Dad looked toward the clock.
6:38.
“Good.”
Then he ended the call.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
I stared at him.
He stared at the phone.
Finally I asked the obvious question.
“Why are they so certain you’re dead?”
Dad pushed his plate away.
“That’s what I’d like to know.”
There was a reason he had been at my house.
Two days earlier, Dad called and said his furnace had started making a strange noise.
He was seventy-three, stubborn, independent, and convinced that paying a professional for anything he could possibly repair himself was a moral failure.
I told him not to touch it.
He ignored me.
Twenty minutes later, he admitted the entire heating system had shut down.
A winter storm was coming.
I told him I was driving over.
He told me not to.
So naturally I did.
When I arrived, the house was already cold.
Dad had packed one duffel bag and insisted he would stay at a motel until the repair company could get there.
I refused.
He complained for forty minutes.
Then he climbed into my car.
Because I lived three states away, my visit had already been planned for later that month.
I had flown in for work nearby and rented a car.
After the furnace problem, I changed the plan and brought Dad back with me for a few days.
