“Yes, you can do the greeting, but don’t wander off remember the elves and the grumble bears. Why didn’t you tell me this before we left? We could have done something else today?”
“No, Mom, I like being way out here. It’s like we’re the last living people on earth. It would be more fun if Dad was here, but well, he isn’t.” Sybil pointed to the tops of the trees, “Look, we’re totally surrounded in white with green trees watching over us. Who wouldn’t want to be out here? It’s like we’re on our own planet.”
Sophia smiled at Sybil, “Donna and I will sled down to you. If you start getting too cold let me know and you can sit in the van with the heater. You know if you brought a book you could read it while we’re hiking back up to the drop point. How does that sound?” Sybil pulled her dragon book out of her parka. “I did bring my book!”
After four hours of sledding and getting wet, the three of them decided to drive up the mountain to eat their picnic lunch. The Puerco ski basin was overwhelmed with people and cars. After a quick vote, the decision was to head home. They could have the picnic on the family room floor.
Sophia studied the girls in the rearview mirror as she drove down the mountain. At some point she would have to explain the problems that involved all of them. Donna was busy smearing lip gloss all over her lower face while Sybil was again reading her book with the dragon on the cover. The book appeared to be endless.
Unloading, laughing with fresh fun memories the girls helped their mother place the food on the family room floor. The girls felt better after using the bathroom, changing clothes, and being back in the warmth of home. Sybil was the first to bring up the subject, “Mom, why isn’t Dad here? Where did he go?”
Donna stared at Sophia, with her mouth full of sandwich, she said, “Yeah, where’s Dad?”
Sighing, Sophia sat down on the floor between the two girls. She stuck a potato chip in her mouth, chewed, swallowed and tried to hold back tears, “We have a serious problem, girls. There appears to be conflict between Grandmother Margaret, Granger, and your Dad and me.”
Sybil lifted her sandwich, “I knew it. I just knew it! Mom, it’s about the reading of the will and Grandpa, isn’t it?”
“How did you know, Sybil?”
Before Sybil could answer Donna spoke up, “She read the papers in the living room. She found them this morning and she read them to me. I don’t have any idea what they mean, but I didn’t like them.”
“Oh, Sybil, what a nosey little girl you are!” Sophia hugged Sybil, “The problem is your father and I bought this property for our family, just our family. We needed some help with the money so we asked your grandpa to help us to get started.” Sophia had to stop and think how she could say this simply. “When your Grandfather died, your Grandmother Margaret wanted this property. She went to a lawyer and had him put this property in her name and then she gave it to Granger, legally that is.”
Donna put her drink down quickly, “You mean Uncle Granger the salamander?”
Sophia gasped, “What? What do you mean salamander?”
“That’s what Dad calls him. He says Uncle Granger is ‘the slimy salamander man of the Pino family who will do us all in’ that’s what he says, right Sybil?”
“Right,” Sybil put her hand up to stop Donna from talking, “Mom, but we live here not them. Do they want to live here, too, with us?”
“No, they just want the ownership of this property to belong to them, but they don’t want to have to pay the taxes or deal with the up-keep or the home owner’s insurance. They just want to hold the property in their name.”
The three of them ate in silence while they thought about the predicament. Finally, Sybil spoke up, “What can we do to get the ownership away from them?”
Sophia studied her daughters’ fragile faces. “If I divorce your father then Granger will give the property to your father.”
Donna jumped dropping all of her food on the floor, “NO DIVORCE! Carol’s father and mother got divorced and all she does is cry all the time. She hates her step parents and she wants to come and live with us! NO, Mom, NO!” Donna threw her body into her mother’s lap. Sophia let her tears fall with Donna’s.
Sybil sat there staring at the both of them, “Divorce is not the way out of this, Mom. You know this and I know this. So does Dad. Dad loves you forever and forever and forever and he will never leave us. He just won’t so we have to think of something else.”
Donna snorted, “Let’s kill Uncle Granger. They killed a salamander in Mr. Griego’s class and cut it up for a biology lesson. We could invite Uncle Granger to my school and have him visit Mr. Griego’s class!”
Sophia held Donna in a tight hug, “You know dissection might work, but he is much bigger than a real salamander. Our problem is not Granger, but the law. We need to find a way to make the law work for us not for them.”
Donna wiped her nose on her sweater sleeve, “Do we know any law people who could help us?”
“Donna, you have an excellent idea. Yesterday at the reading of the will two of your half-uncles were there and one of them is a lawyer—a contract lawyer—as a matter of fact. He offered to help us. Perhaps I just should give him a call?”
She started to get up and then stopped. “He certainly wouldn’t be home now although one never knows. He might live closer than his brother who said he was from Georgia.” Sophia handed Sybil her napkin and sandwich. She hurried to her purse in the front room. She found the printed card. Stuart Pino actually lived in Las Cruces, New Mexico. His home address was on Las Piedras and his office was downtown off of Grand Street. “Huh,” Sophia picked up the cordless phone and dialed his home phone number.
A woman’s voice answered, “Pino residence this is Phyllis. How can I help you?”
Sophia was impressed, “Hello, how do you do? Is there someone there by the name of Stuart Pino?”
A groan followed, “Sorry, Miss, but we don’t take business calls at home. You will have to call him during the week.”
Sophia quickly interrupted, “No, no, this is his half-sister, please is he there? I just met him yesterday at a reading of our father’s will and he asked me to call him if we needed help. Please, don’t hang up on me.”
The woman at the other end of the phone paused, “Don’t tell me you are the writer? Are you Sophia, the writer who did the film on languages of Europe during the Middle Ages?”
“Yes, yes, but more importantly I am just a person who is in need of assistance. Is Stuart there, please?”
Sybil and Donna were now standing next to their mother in the kitchen. Sybil put a blank notepad on the counter in front of her mother and Donna handed her mother a red marker. Sophia studied their hopeful faces and then whispered, “His wife has gone to get him for us.”
“Hello, Stuart? This is Sophia calling you for some advice. Oh, dear let me start over again. I am calling to let you know what a pleasure it was to finally meet you and to have a chance to speak with you, although the event was most unfortunate.” Sophia knew she was rambling and forced the words to stop.
“Hi, yes,” Stuart’s voice was very similar to her father’s voice, which for a moment surprised her. “If you need contract help please ask. I really don’t know very much about wills and probate. My knowledge is contracts and long term business agreements either federal of state level. But if I can give you advice, please ask away.”
Sophia took the lid off of the red marker writing down her questions as she asked them, “Well, both my husband and I were shocked to learn the property we held in a contract with Papa was given to Granger through arrangements with Margaret. We don’t know how to get our title back or what to do to get our investments returned. Would you know how we could achieve these goals?”
Stuart