The Whitakers listed the property the following spring.
Rural counties have their own newspapers, even when nothing is printed. Feed shops, barber shops, church parking lots, county offices, diners, hardware stores: the pair moves through them all faster than any formal notice. By the time his retirement property hit the market, everyone knew about the lake that was coming and going. Prospecting buyers asked about the drainage, the legal disputes, the neighbors, the border lines and whether the stone fence was “the famous fence,” which made me laugh the first time Ruth Ann told me.
The property was sitting for months.
When it was finally sold, it was for less than what they paid.
I don’t know how much they lost, and I never tried to find out. I didn’t want them to be ruined. Ruin wasn’t the point. The respect was. A limit is not significant because it destroys the people who cross it. It’s significant because it still stands after they try.
