Chapter 6 - “I Want to Go”Ruth found her father sitting at the table with three things in front of him.
The newspaper.
His savings book.
A cup of coffee gone cold.
“What happened?”
James tapped the chair opposite him.
“Sit.”
He explained foreclosure.
Not simply as a bank process.
As a consequence.
Bad harvests.
Debt rolled forward.
Interest.
The difference between owing money and having no remaining way to repay it.
Then he told her about Clyde Calloway.
Ruth knew the name.
She did not know the whole story.
James told her about becoming sick.
About Abilene.
About Clyde paying the bill.
About wages that continued while James recovered.
“Did you pay him back?”
James shook his head.
“He wouldn’t take it.”
“Why?”
“Because Clyde believed help stopped being help when you turned it into a leash.”
Ruth looked at the savings book.
Then the legal notice.
James opened the account page.
Ruth’s eyes widened.
“Dad.”
“I’ve been saving a long time.”
“For what?”
“I didn’t know.”
He looked at the newspaper.
“Now I do.”
Ruth understood slowly.
“You’re buying their farm?”
“I’m trying.”
“You’re going?”
James looked away.
His health had worsened again.
Not hospital-level illness.
But enough that a long drive and a stressful day were bad ideas.
“I can’t.”
Ruth’s disappointment appeared immediately.
Then James looked at her.
“I need someone who can.”
Ruth stared.
“Me?”
“Thomas will drive.”
“I’m fifteen.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“You expect them to let me bid?”
“Thomas will have legal authorization.”
“Then Thomas should do it.”
“He can.”
James paused.
“But I think you should.”
“Why?”
“Because one day this money will be partly yours anyway.”
Ruth frowned.
“That doesn’t explain it.”
“No.”
James leaned back.
“The real reason is that I want you to understand what money is for.”
She looked again at the savings book.
James continued.
“People spend years chasing it and start believing keeping it is the same as using it well.”
He tapped the foreclosure notice.
“This is using it well.”
Ruth thought about a widow she barely remembered.
A dead farmer who had once helped her father.
A farm two hours away.
“What if the price goes too high?”
“Then stop.”
“What if people laugh?”
“They probably will.”
“What if I’m scared?”
James smiled faintly.
“You will be.”
That answer annoyed her.
“You’re not very encouraging.”
“I’m trying to be useful.”
She kept reading the notice.
Finally:
“I want to go.”
James nodded as though he had expected nothing else.
Over the next several days, documents were prepared.
A notarized authorization.
Financial proof.
Thomas named as legal guarantor.
James taught Ruth how foreclosure bidding worked.
He also told her what not to do.
Do not reveal the full amount.
Do not argue with people trying to provoke you.
Do not bid because of pride.
Do not confuse courage with recklessness.
The morning Ruth left, James stood beside the Ford.
He looked pale.
“Stay calm.”
“I know.”
“Don’t show them what you have until they need to see it.”
“I know.”
“And Ruth?”
She looked back.
“Don’t come home with that farm in somebody else’s name.”
For the first time, she smiled.
May you like
“I know.”
Then she got into the car.
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