2. Mae: Leaving City Life

Mae – Leaving City Life

Chapter two

"What?" Mina and I say in tandem. We can't have heard that right.

"You heard me. I used up some money I've been saving to buy a farmstead in Sonoma County."

Mina slams her phone on the table. "You can't be serious."

I give her a stern look. She may be surprised, but that's no way to speak to her great-grandfather.

She seems to understand and backs down with a murmured apology.

But it's not like I'm thrilled with this news, either.

"Grandpa, I can't just up and leave my firm." Not after all the hard work I'd put in to get there.

"Why not? I already sold my townhouse to cover the down payment and used some savings, so altogether I have a pretty small mortgage left."

I can't believe he's only just now telling me this. How did he even manage to sell his house without me knowing? "Well…for one thing, we're right in the middle of preparing for a huge case."

"What? For that weasel, Mr. Scrappy something or other, who didn't want to pay his taxes?"

"Lil' Scrap," Mina corrects him.

"Whatever." Grandpa brushes off the name with a wave of his hand.

"Yes, that's the case. If I do well, I could be promoted to partner." It's the title I've been chasing after for the last five years.

"Okay, so what then? You work more than you do now? Sweetheart, your daughter will go off to college or whatever else she wants to do after high school in four short years. You know how quickly time passes by when it comes to your kids."

He makes a good point there. "But the money, Grandpa."

"You can always make more money. What you can't ever get more of is time…. time with your family."

Darn. Grandpa makes another great point. Still, there's no guarantee that this farm idea won't be a money pit. And if that happens, we'll all be sorry I quit my job.

"So, what does the place look like?" I ask. I can't believe I'm even entertaining the idea.

"Oh, it's beautiful."

"Okay…do you have any pictures?"

"No, but I figured you could find some on that computer of yours." He takes a crinkled piece of paper from his worse-for-wear wallet and hands it to me. "The address is 2034 Lily Lane, Santa Rosa, California."

Mina types that into her phone and shows me.

"Wow, grandpa. I have to give it to you. This farm is really beautiful," I say. And it is. All rolling green hills and baby blue sky. "But why can't you just live there alone? Without us."

"Mae, I'm eighty-five. I can't manage and run a large plot of land alone. I have a hard enough time getting out of a dang chair. Look at this." He demonstrates and takes an exaggerated amount of time to get up.

"Okay, I get it. But this is a huge decision. We need to think about this before we just up and dramatically alter our lives." Grandpa Bob might be retired, but Mina and I both have a life here.

"Why? I was going to be a doctor until my pops told me I should join the Army instead. Took me no time to change my mind."

"That was different," I protest.

"How so?"

"Well, you were what…seventeen? I'm thirty-two, with an established career and teenage daughter to consider."

"But what is there to consider? Would you rather continue your uptight job where you already know you aren't recognized for all your amazing work? Remember when they let that fresh new pipsqueak take your office with the view, and you were forced into one without any windows?"

"That was just because I was technically part-time back then." That feels like a lifetime ago. I cut back my hours because Mina was having trouble with bullying at school, and I wanted to be there for her.

"Okay, but are you, or are you not, in that exact same spot now?"

"…Ok, yes, I am." It's tough to admit. I asked for my old office back but was told it didn't ‘fit my current position.' Yet another reason I have to do well on this Lil' Scrap case.

"Exactly," Grandpa Bob says, like he's won the argument.

"Fine, let's say we do go. What are we supposed to do for money?" I ask.

"We have over fifty acres of land to work with. We'll work that out," Grandpa says, like it's no big deal.

"And if we don't?" I ask.

"We will." Sometimes, I wish I had the same confidence Grandpa seems to overflow with.

Mina and I exchange suspicious looks.

"I don't know…" I trail off. Could we really uproot our lives and move to a farm?

"At least come see the place in person with me tomorrow," Grandpa encourages.

"I can't," I say, "I have a deposition." A deposition where I plan to wear a turtleneck.

"All day?" he asks, one eyebrow raised.

"Maybe."

My grandpa gives me a look.

"It's hard to know how long these things will take," I say.

"Well, fine. We'll meet there after work."

"What if I'm running late?" I ask.

"Don't," Grandpa says, giving me a look that doesn't allow arguing.

"I—" Before I can say anything else, he gets up—far too quickly for the aging man he was trying to portray earlier, might I add- and walks away.

I turn to Mina. "What are your thoughts on all of this?"

"I don't know, mom." She's back to scrolling on her phone, so I grab it.

"Seriously, I want to talk about this."

She rolls her eyes.

"Wilhelmina Louise Dale. Please tell talk with me."

"I mean, part of me doesn't want to leave my friends, Mom, but those bullies still come after me sometimes. So maybe living in the country wouldn't be so bad." By the end, she's talking so quietly that I can barely hear her.

"They do?" I frown. "You never told me that." I want to reach out and hug her, but I know that would only make her want to squirm away. She used to love my hugs. As a teenager, though, she seems to like them less and less.

"That's because the last time I did, you almost quit your job just to hang around my school and try to intimidate them or something," Mina accuses.

"I wasn't trying to intimidate them, honey. I'm a grown woman. That would be pathetic. I was just ready to stand up for you if I needed to."

"Either way," Mina huffs, "It was embarrassing."

"Well, maybe you'll have your own kids someday to embarrass," I say, mainly to defend my actions.

"Anyway, I think it might be kind of cool to live in the middle of nowhere. We've lived in apartments my entire life. Plus, having you around a little more would be nice," she says.

Mina's confirmation, more than anything Grandpa Bob said, makes me ready to pack my bags.

As hard as it is to find the right man in the city, I doubt I'll ever find one out there. Not that I'm looking, of course. Whoa! Where in the world did that thought come from? I haven't even been entertaining the thought of dating. Actually, I haven't seen any gorgeous guy to interest me. Not among the stuffy suits I work with, anyway.

"At least then I know I won't die from eating moldy casserole," Mina says, interrupting my reverie and grabbing her phone from my hands as she flounces off to her room.

I roll my eyes. Teenagers.

***

As I suspect, the deposition of the primary investigator lasts almost all day. I make it a point to leave on time, but not until after a long tirade from my boss about ‘being a good teammate' and ‘appropriate work attire' that really boils down to, ‘don't leave before your bosses, and don't wear another turtleneck.' Somehow it makes me smile to walk away while he's still ranting.

After I escape, I input the address into my phone and make the drive out to the new farm.

Grandpa and Mina are already there when I finally pull up.

He's standing proudly with his arms crossed, surveilling his land, and my daughter's snuggling with quite possibly the largest dog I've ever seen. They're both wearing big smiles I haven't seen on either of them in a while. Grandpa and Mina. Not the dog.

"What is that?" I ask her, after getting closer.

"He is called Boris. He's a Great Dane," Mina says, squeezing the dog even closer.

"He comes with the place," Grandpa Bob says.

"Wonderful," I say sarcastically. Ever since Mina was a little girl, she's begged me for a dog, but I've never been an animal person, and the idea of a pet coming into my house and messing it all up is more than I can handle. The thought of walking a dog three times a day is also not something I planned on for my immediate or long-term future. I suppose on a farm with as much space as this one, neither is an issue. It probably runs around wherever it pleases.

"Well?" Grandpa asks.

"I mean, it is beautiful." The farm is beautiful. Even more beautiful than the pictures. The land is green and gold, with the occasional clump of trees. It looks like a postcard. "It's just a lot," I say. "How are the three of us going to handle all of this?"

"We can always hire farmhands to help us." I'm beginning to think that Grandpa Bob has been thinking about this for much longer than he is leading Mina and me to believe.

I give him a funny look. "We'll need to figure out a way to make money to provide for ourselves before we can start thinking about that," I interject.

"True," Grandpa admits. "But I have faith we'll discover something very soon."

I hope he's right.

"You haven't even seen the best part, Mom. Well, other than this gigantic sweetheart…" Mina ruffles Boris's floppy ears again. "Come with us."

Mina leads us to a red building that looks like a barn. She opens the doors and, for a moment, I think I'm on Noah's Ark. Initially I see sheep, goats, a few cats, and several bunnies hopping all over.

I only have a moment to take in the animals crowding the building before I notice the chicken… which is flying directly at my face. I actually didn't think chickens could fly, but I am obviously very wrong. It appears that my antics to swat the bird away was the afternoon entertainment for Mina and Grandpa who both stood, bent at their waists, sobbing in laughter. "Some help here?" I scream, to little avail.

What has Grandpa Bob gotten us into?