Just last week when I was on my way home from town, I drove by Colm’s place, a small cabin he’d lived in ever since he’d moved to Rio Mesa. And in the lot across from his property, I saw a doe and a fawn feeding in that soft glow of dusk. I slowed my vehicle just to watch the whole thing, and then I realized that the For Sale sign was gone.
Tom Moyer had owned a number of lots around town, including the one across from Colm. One night after dinner, when Joseph and I were straightening up the kitchen, I got a call from Tom. He said a contracting company that wanted to run a pipeline through the property he owned south of town had approached him. I knew the property he was talking about, a hundred-acre parcel abutting the Grand Hogback, and full of artifacts we had yet to map and explore. When Joseph was young, Tom would let me take Joseph down to that property, and we’d spend hours splitting open shale and discovering fossils. Tom knew I had a vested interest in his parcel for all of its historical implications and wanted to know how I thought he should proceed. We talked the matter over, including him contracting a private archaeological consultant. I gave him a couple of names to follow up with. But before we got off the phone, I asked him about the lot across from Colm’s property. “What about that lot you own over on Third?” I said. “I thought you had that piece on the market.”
“I did have it on the market,” Tom told me. “I was asking thirty thousand. Colm paid me twenty-eight thousand in cash.”
“Colm bought it? I had no idea,” I said.
When I got off the phone, Joseph had already put the rest of the dishes away. He was sitting at the kitchen table with the sweetest damn smile on his face.
“What?” I said.
He slouched down in his chair and leaned his shoulders against the paneled wall. “He likes you,” Joseph said.
“Who likes me?” I said.
“Sheriff McCormac,” Joseph said.
I leaned my backside against the kitchen counter and folded my arms. “Why would you say that?” I said.
“The way you two act with each other, like you two like each other or something.”
“I wasn’t on the phone with Sheriff McCormac,” I said.
“I know you weren’t on the phone with Sheriff McCormac,” he said.
“Then what made you say that?” I asked.
“Because you were talking about him, and you wanted to know about that lot. He likes you, Mom. That’s why he doesn’t have anyone else.”
“He just got divorced.”
“That was like a year ago. You should go out with him. You’re practically going out with him anyway.”
I walked over to the table, pulled out a chair, and sat down. “How did I get so lucky?” I said.
“What do you mean?”
“Just look at you. All grown up and giving me advice. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I hope you know that,” I said.
He looked bashful all of a sudden.
“I’m serious, Joseph. I’m real proud of you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Then I said something about Joseph having homework to finish. I told him I was going to be out in the field all the next day and should probably turn in soon. He leaned over and gave me a hug. “Love you, Mom.”
“Love you, too, son.”
I stayed at the table a while longer after Joseph went back to his room to study. I thought about what he’d said about Colm. I was twenty-six when I had Joseph. Aside from Brody, Todd was the only other man I’d ever been in a relationship with. And yet, maybe Joseph was right.