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She began skipping up to the ranch house with Teddy in tow, and Isaac watched her with bated breath.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Peach reached the door of the ranch house. Isaac saw her knock on the door, then get her phone out her pocket as planned. The moment that Aunt Meg opened the door, Peach pressed a button on her phone, and Teddy started running around and yapping like all hell had broken loose.
“What’s going on?” Isaac heard Aunt Meg cry. “Get that dog under control!”
But Peach couldn’t control Teddy, because she had started to play the PAW Patrol theme tune on her phone, and apparently, whenever she did that, Teddy became extremely hyper. In fact, he was so overexcited that he ran right into the ranch house, as Peach predicted that he would.
“I’m so sorry!” Peach exclaimed.
And without skipping a beat, Aunt Meg ran into the house after the dog.
Peach turned and gave Isaac a thumbs up, then she went into the house after Aunt Meg.
Now was Isaac’s chance. He headed straight for the cattle, taking photographs of their half-starved bodies and their terrible living conditions. It was nerve-wracking wondering how Peach was getting on inside the house, and he knew that he had to work quickly. When he had a dozen or so pictures, he stopped. That would be enough.
But there was one more thing he wanted to do before he left. There was a chance that the plan might not work, and if it didn’t… he wanted to see his parents’ graves one last time.
He ran from tree to tree, trying to blend in, until he reached the back of the ranch house. And the moment that he saw his mom and dad’s graves, he felt the bile rising in his stomach. What a mess. Aunt Meg had treated them with total disrespect. They were full of weeds and trash. It was hard to look.
“Mom,” he said sorrowfully, “Dad. I’m sorry. I’m gonna make this right.”
He knew, there and then, that no matter what happened, he was going to get this ranch back. And when he did, he wasn’t going to make this place into any kind of investment. He was going to make it into a home.
Just then, he heard a scream inside the ranch house. He looked through the back window and saw Aunt Meg holding up a rolling pin, trying to batter Teddy with it.
“No!” Peach screamed. “Stop!”
He ran over to the house and knocked on the window. “Aunt Meg!” he yelled. “I’m the one you ought to come after! Because I’m the one that’s about to get this whole place shut down!”
Aunt Meg ran over to the window, and, without thinking, she bashed it with the rolling pin, smashing the glass.
“You piece of shit, Isaac!” she yelled. “Just like your father! Trying to take something that doesn’t belong to him!”
Isaac looked at her squarely. “What are you talking about?”
Aunt Meg paused for breath. Then, she wheezed: “Your father, my brother. He wanted my Jeffrey’s land. Before he died.”
Isaac looked at her through the broken glass. Her face looked twisted up by years of bitterness.
“Uncle Jeffrey used to own the pastureland next to this one,” said Isaac. “But… the land was no good. Nothing would grow on it. And the animals kept dying.”
“The land,” said Aunt Meg, screwing her eyes tight shut, “had anthrax on it. But Jeffrey and I were dealing with it.”
“Wait,” said Isaac, his head reeling, “so why did my father want the land? Did he know about the anthrax?”
Aunt Meg hung her head. “No. Your father didn’t know. He just wanted to expand his ranch. Said we were making a meal of the land and offered to buy us out for a pittance.”
“You can’t blame my father for wanting to expand the ranch, can you?” Isaac asked.
“Your father,” said Aunt Meg, with gritted teeth, “was greedy. Just like you. You know what he did? When Jeffrey wouldn’t sell him the land, he called animal control. Got Jeffrey into trouble. Jeffrey was forced to give up the land, and your dad bought it for peanuts.”
“I remember dad buying that land,” said Isaac, trying to piece this together. “That was about a year before he died.” Just then, it hit him like a freight train. “Wait. So Uncle Jeffrey’s land had anthrax on it? And my father’s didn’t?”
Aunt Meg scratched her cheek furiously. “He asked me to put some of the soil on your dad’s land. I didn’t know it would… I didn’t realize that your parents…”
Isaac’s blood began to boil. “You’re responsible for their deaths?”
“It was Jeffrey’s idea,” said Aunt Meg, her voice starting to waver. “And he was the one who destroyed the will. I just…” She dropped the rolling pin, and bent-double, crying. Then, she looked up at Isaac, her eyes narrow and mean. “It’s been a great burden to live with this, Isaac. But you know what? You’ve hardly suffered. In fact, you made money out of this. You left the countryside and made your fortune in Miami. Everything you have, all of it, is because of what I did.” She folded her arms. “So now you know the truth. Maybe you and your weirdo wife will get off my property and stop bothering me. Because you’re both just as bad as me. And I’ll deny what I just told you until the day I die.”
