Each parcel bore its own fruit: A mix of hardwoods on parcels 1 and 2; dense pine forests on parcel 3; natural springs and fine clay on parcel 4; garnet fields on parcel 5; quarries of quartz and granite on parcels 6 and 7; and acres and acres of hay on parcels 8 and 9. Parcel 10 sat in the center of it all and held the Dutton homestead. One could say its fruit was generations of Dutton children⏤some good, some bad, all wealthy, and all bestowed with unearned influence just for being born into the most successful family in West Vernal history. 

The quarterly numbers that Jennifer Dutton sent Harry were in line with his rough expectations, and affirmed his decision to purchase the coins and the royalty rights that came with them. In timber and hay alone he would realize more profit than in his highest-earning year as an excavator. One shrewd purchase had essentially put him at the top of the Dutton hierarchy⏤a bloodless coup. By neither sword nor marriage, he had somehow succeeded in taking the castle. Just as a writer watches his characters carefully in order to understand their next logical move, Harry simply followed luck wherever it led him, and it led him to the throne by way of the back gate.

Harry split his time pretty evenly between the coin shop and the transfer station, but he wasn’t about to ask Jennifer Dutton to meet him at either of these worn-out places. The transfer station was essentially part of the dump, and the coin shop, while scrupulously clean, was drab in the way that old libraries are drab. The usual meeting places in West Vernal were the coffee shop in town and the park by the cemetery, but the coffee shop was too public, and the park was too private. It was also too beautiful. 

To ask a beautiful woman to a beautiful place was risky the way leaning in to kiss someone is risky. If her mind was open to him, she would appreciate the beauty. If she saw him as just another working class man from West Vernal, she might be uncomfortable, or even insulted. Harry may have come a very long way from his roots, but his family tree was still a small oak with only a single generation of success.

You can look at yourself and see a King, but if someone sees only the poor kid you used to be, then that’s the only impression that matters. If he wanted to impress her, he knew he needed to show her a side of him she never expected. He asked her to meet him at parcel 5, the lot containing the garnet fields.

Copyright 2023 Kesel Wilson (entirely, 100% human-created)

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