Moving Serafina

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130 “Well in Texas, it’s called the Rule of Capture.” Henry Bennett was speaking from behind his battered oak desktop in the county commission’s office, just across the street from the Hotel Solitario and downstairs from his living quarters. He yawned, sipped on what was once a white porcelain mug, now stained brown inside and out and cracked. He looked out the front window where long morning shadows were withdrawing back across the empty street into the sunrise. “Is that all you two got me outta bed for?” “What’s that mean?” Dobb Campbell said. “Doesn’t sound very legal to me.” “Me neither,” Yebbie echoed. “Oh it’s legal,” Henry said. “And it’s been on the Texas statutes since the Republic was founded and that makes it older’n dirt.” “Just like you, Henry. But come to think of it, I’ve seen dirt look better than you do this morning,” Dobb said. “You okay? Maybe you need a wife.” “Just get on with it, Dobb,” Henry said. “You two seem to be doing just fine without wives and family and so am I. Hell, I’m eighty-eight years old and ain’t no woman’s gonna put up with me now. I like living upstairs right here, by myself. It’s worked for me and C H A P T E R 13 MOVING SERAFINA 131 the county for all these years and besides, I got all these county and state documents to keep me company. And they don’t nag me like a wife.” He gestured to long rows of gray bound documents lining the shelves in the office. “Friends,” he said. “Ever damn one of them.” “Okay, okay, Henry,” Dobb said and held up both palms toward Henry. “You don’t need to read the whole shelf. Just tell us how the hell that law works.” “Like I said, that Rule of Capture is legal. You wanna see the statute?” He rose to reach for one huge binder of documents behind him but he wavered in mid-stance. “Sit down, Henry, before you fall. We don’t need that, dammit. Just tell us how it works, okay?” Dobb said. “I think as county commissioners, Yeb and I both need to know about it.” “Fine,” Henry said. He sat back down. “But why the hell you need to know all about it at six A.M. on a Tuesday morning in May beats the hell outta me.” “Because we just might want to put it on the agenda at the next meeting,” Dobb confessed. “For discussion.” “Discussion?” Henry said. “Why?” “Goddammit, Henry,” Yebbie said. “Just walk us through it. And then you can get on back to bed. We don’t wanna look like idiots in front of the whole damn county if it comes up or something.” “Why would it come up?” Henry said. He coughed and sipped the stale coffee. “And the whole damn county ain’t in my lifetime ever been at a single one of our meetings anyway. We’re lucky to have two rangy cowhands show up and they usually just wander in after Bob Cherry 132 somebody’s kicked them out of a bar somewhere.” He coughed again, a rheumy rattle from his chest. Dobb looked at Yebbie and then back at Henry. “You sure you’re all right, Henry?” “Yeah, I’m okay,” Henry wheezed but the other two looked at each other again, unconvinced. “Okay, it’s like this,” Dobb continued. “Clay’s sold his place, right?” “Yeah,” Henry said. “That’s what I been hearing. But they ain’t been no deed transferred yet in this office. And I’d know about that. I also know it’s been tough on him, his wife and all. I don’t blame him a bit if he’s got something in the works.” “Well, the new owners-to-be made a big earnest money payment and Clay’s already spent it on some of Adelita’s medical bills. The rest of the money comes to him after the deed transfers.” “And that don’t happen till midnight of the fifteenth of this month,” Yebbie said. “And now Clay wants to bring his daughter into Solitario and bury her with her mama but if he moves her before—” “To cut it short, Henry,” Dobb interrupted, “they plan to drill deep down into the aquifer out...