Gathering Fallen Rocks Ch. 14

For several months, Gail and Howard had listened to Atwood's descriptions and explanations. However, they had not witnessed his theatrical performance. They sat as raptly attentive as the two men across the table. Gail was almost tempted at one point to applaud. For a moment she glanced at Jimmy and saw he was nodding as Atwood spoke. It was a slow methodical nod, as if he were telling Atwood to continue with his fascinating tale.

Atwood chuckled, "I'm going to venture a little guess here, as a way of explaining what happened next. If either of you gentlemen would like to offer your opinion, I'd certainly like to have it." He watched both men shake their heads, so he continued. "My theory, which someone could research if they so desired, is that the husband died and the wife took the long strip including her side of the land by the river, the Blaze side, and she let their only surviving child, a son, have some of the riverfront land on the other side of the strip, the Pleas side. The amount of acreage is about one-fourth to the son, which left the wife with her own community property half plus one half of the remaining land. And therein begins the problem which we must clarify."

There was a pause in Atwood's presentation as Alex asked a few questions to clarify some notes they had made on their copies. Jimmy asked several questions that dealt with the strip of land between the two largest pieces of property. During their discussion, Petra appeared with a fresh pot of coffee. She also gave Atwood a bottle of water. He had been talking for a long time and was beginning to wear down, although he was still quite relaxed.

Some friendly conversation passed across the table while the participants cleared their minds of the complicated land transactions Atwood had been describing. Both sides offered a few interesting comments they had read in the documents and challenged each other on how to properly pronounce Maguna-goikoetxea.

Alex laughed at himself as he tried to twist his tongue around each of the syllables. "I called a Basque expert in Boise, Idaho, where there's a pretty big representation of Basque families. He wasn't any better than I am. He finally said he'd get back to me after he checked with some people he knew, including a contact in the mountains in Spain and another in France. He was going to check with both of them and record their answers. If he ever sends the recording, I'll share it with you."

Alex shifted his attention to Howard, "I think Magoo is about the closest I can get to it, too. It's funny how our mind only wants to work with something it already knows. In college, I wanted to toss my books at a professor who kept saying, "Think outside the box." I caught myself telling that to someone the other day and wanted to wash my mouth out."

With answers to their questions and a little comfortable conversation, the two men across the table relaxed in their chairs so Atwood could continue with his presentation.

"All right, gentleman," Atwood nodded at Gail and smiled, "and lady. Let's get a little curious. We are going to play a game of 'What If and If, Then What' and the more participants we have in the discussion, the better.

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NOTE: The final chapter, along with an Epilog, will be posted in a few days. Please comment or send feedback to let me know if you enjoyed this story. A specialThank you to Erik Thread for a magnificent and patient job of editing.