Moving Serafina

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197 On the pavement north from Solitario, Clay practiced what he might say to Dobb and Yebbie about Henry Bennett’s open grave. Dobb’s much larger ranch sat to the east of Yebbie’s hundred and sixty acres, both just a few miles off the blacktop. He would bypass Yebbie and go straight to Dobb first because he knew Dobb was the key player in all this. If Dobb would go along with moving Henry’s gravesite, he knew Yebbie would also agree. The plan he devised as he turned off the pavement onto the two-track road running past Yebbie’s place was simple: he would ask Dobb if he and Yebbie would help him move Serafina, not days nor weeks from now, but today. He would insist. After all, the gravesite was already dug, he would argue. It would be a simple matter of going out to his old place when it cooled off, carefully opening Serafina’s grave and moving her into town. He would be firm but they would protest. They knew the moment she was out of the ground, it would then be legal for Agua Hondo to start drilling. But how could they refuse a lifelong friend this? And even if neither Dobb nor Yebbie would help him right away with moving Serafina, that would be fine. That was not his real intention anyway. Not today. C H A P T E R 20 Bob Cherry 198 He would just put them on the spot today and that would be enough to get Henry’s gravesite changed. At least he would be able to lock in that gravesite right next to Adelita now that Henry would be buried elsewhere. Clay could then get all the neglected paperwork in place for that spot to be Sera’s, pay whatever fees he needed to, and even offer to pay for moving Henry’s gravesite after the remainder of his money came in. How could they possibly refuse? “No way in hell,” Dobb said after Clay had parked in front of his house and found him in the cooler shadows of his barn. Dobb stood bent over with a currycomb as he worked on the side of his favorite gelding. “Ain’t happening.” He did not look up. “But why?” Clay said, baffled. He moved around and leaned over to look into Dobb’s face. “It just makes sense.” “Two reasons,” Dobb said. He stopped and looked at Clay. “Number one, Henry’s had that next gravesite lockedupforyears.Site’sbeenpaidfor.Paperwork’sbeen in place for years.” Dobb pursed his lips and squinted his eyes at the rafters, remembering. “It’s even in the county commission’s minutes somewhere, a resolution in honor of all his years of service. Says something like, County Judge Henry Bennett is hereby entitled to the very next one in the event of his death. ” Clay backed away. “But it doesn’t say that one, the one right there? Does it?” “Yep,” Dobb said. “Damn sure does. That one right there. It’s the only one left under that same old cottonwood that Henry planted himself, probably fifty years ago.” MOVING SERAFINA 199 Clay said nothing. He thought about all the times he had promised himself he would do the paperwork on Serafina’s plot. Dobb continued, “We had no selection, Clay. Don’t you see?” Clay leaned his butt against a hay crib. “You could put him on the other side of the tree.” Clay said, grasping. “Why couldn’t you just put him over there? He wouldn’t know now anyway.” “That ain’t the point. That ain’t where he wanted to be,” Dobb said. He went back to combing the horse. “Same reason you wanted your wife and daughter there on the east side maybe. Henry always said he’d rather see the sun rise than see the sun set.” Clay thought that no one in the graveyard would ever see the sun rise nor set again anyway, but he did not say it. “Why didn’t you just tell me about this, Dobb? Earlier? Where’d you think I was planning to put Sera anyway?” “Truth is, Clay, I just never thought about it. Figured a grave just nearby I guess. Maybe on that other side of the tree, just like you’re saying for Henry. Hell, nobody knew Henry’d up and die anyway...