Ruth filed the notice on March first. The Devlin bank received it by courier. Wallace received a copy. My mother received a copy. The notice said, in language so dry it could have been used to start a fire, that Thomas Vance, competent trustee, declined to amend, sell, merge, or otherwise encumber the press, and that any further approach to Geraldine Vance on the matter would be treated as interference with a trust.
Patricia Devlin did not call. Mr. Devlin did not call. Harris did not call.
My mother called on March third.
"You've made me a joke at the bank," she said.
"You made yourself a joke when you inflated my salary in writing."
"I will not forget this."
"I know," I said. "Neither will I. That's the first honest thing we've said to each other in years."
March fifteenth came an
