A few weeks later, Thomas Garrett came by the ranch on a Saturday morning and knocked on the front door. Raymond let him in, and they sat at the kitchen table and drank coffee. Garrett was a different kind of neighbor than Donna Marsh had been: a man who asked questions before drawing conclusions, who listened when he got answers, who seemed to understand that living near someone was not the same as owning them.
He asked Raymond about the ranch, about the well, about the water access agreement that his family had signed decades ago. Raymond walked him through it. He explained how the agreement had come to exist, what it provided for, and what it didn't. Garrett listened carefully and took a few notes. He said he appreciated being educated on the history. Raymond said there was a copy of the agreement on file with the county attorney's office and that he was welcome to pull it anytime. Garrett said he would.
Before he left, he stood on the porch and looked out at the ranch—the cedar breaks in the distance, the tank pond catching the morning light, the equipment barn with its doors open, and the smell of grease and dry grass coming out of it. He said it was a beautiful piece of land.
Raymond said it had been in his family for over 50 years.
Garrett said that was something to be proud of.
Raymond said he supposed it was, though pride was not exactly the word. It was more like responsibility. The land had given the family everything, and the family had tried to give it back what it needed. He had not come here to own something. He had come here to take care of it. That was the whole of the arrangement.
Deputy Wallace stopped by a week after that, not on official business, just to check in the way people who know each other in small counties tend to do. He and Raymond stood at the fence line near where the repair had been done and looked at the filled trench, which you could barely see now that the soil had settled and the grass was already starting to come back at the edges.
Wallace said the incident report was closed and the matter had been referred to the county attorney's office for review of the original call. He said he expected nothing further would come of it on the law enforcement side.