Curtis stopped at the edge of my field and could not meet my eyes. He admitted that the bank was close to foreclosing, and he had hidden the second page because the farm needed the house and land as collateral. He had planned to tell me after planting, once the loan was safe. Warren climbed down and said he had argued against it, and lost.

I read the page twice, then called my attorney, who confirmed it was signed and witnessed in Dale’s hand. Curtis and Warren had no legal way to hold the property. I told them I would not sue if they repaid the interest on the money they had used and signed the forty acres and house over to Hannah. Curtis nodded, grey in the face, and signed that afternoon.

Caleb stayed through the week and ran the planter beside me. By the end of May, both fields were green. Curtis came across the road on the last day, took off his cap, and said Dale would have been ashamed of him. I told him Dale would have forgiven him, and that was harder to hear.

Hannah now wears the seed cap to school sometimes. The two farms share equipment, though not Sunday dinners yet. Every evening I stand at the road and look at the rows, his and mine, running straight toward each other.