A handwritten note beneath the photocopy read:
Gus may not know this.
Ask him what happened to Ruth’s land.
I looked at Dad.
“Did you buy this property from Ruth?”
“No.”
“Then why is your garden on land she owned?”
Dad stared beyond the rows toward Brent’s new gray house.
Because the eastern boundary did not stop at Dad’s fence.
According to the old deed, it continued another seventy feet.
Straight beneath Brent’s yard.
Dad whispered something.
“What?” I asked.
He looked at me.
“Ruth didn’t own just the garden.”
He pointed toward Brent’s house.
“She owned part of that too.”
PART 4 – The Forgotten Boundary
I expected the discovery to become a battle.
Perhaps that was because once you learn there is an old deed beneath a neighbor’s house, your imagination becomes theatrical.
Lawyers.
Survey stakes.
Arguments at the fence.
Brent accusing Dad.
