Chapter 7: The Claim Form

Lyle Kenyon bought my mother's debt eleven days before she died. At six this morning the bank calls it against my land.

I laid the assignment flat under the lamp on the feed store counter.

The store's own copy of the note lay beside it. Garner's name and the date were written on the back in his own hand.

Garner came around the counter with a pencil behind his ear.

"I wrote that on there myself," he said. "I'll stand in that bank at six and say what I watched Dessa sign."

He said it loud enough to carry to the door.

The bell rang.

Lyle Kenyon stood in the doorway with a sack of new locks in his fist.

"Morning, Garner," Lyle said. "You're up early for a man with no lease."

"I'm up early for a man with a conscience," Garner said.

I turned the note over and read the back out loud.

"Garner signed this at four this morning. His name and the date, in his own hand."

"Ask me why," Garner said. "Go on, ask me."

"Why?" Lyle said.

"Because I watched your daughter write Carol Gentry's name on that paper," Garner said. "And I'll say the same words in that bank at six."

Lyle set the sack of locks on the counter. The metal clanked.

He looked up at the clock above it.

"Bank opens in forty minutes," he said. "I'll be standing right there to watch your land come to me."

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