The Bonus Mum

Whit wasn’t sure where he was going. The gravel road wrapped around the mountaintop like a drunken ribbon, dipping here, climbing there, branches sometimes scraping the sides of the SUV. There was a lot of virgin forest this high, which meant the trees were tall and huge, nothing appropriate for a Christmas tree. Still, trees fell and new growth always emerged. He wasn’t looking for perfect trees, just two that had little chance of making it on their own.

In the meantime, she answered another question. “It was kept primitive for a lot of years—no electricity, no hot water. But my brothers and I got into it last year. To start with, we built a solar oven...”

“You’re kidding.”

“Well, I built most of it. Of course that’s not what they’d tell you, because they can’t stand it that I’m pretty good with power tools. Tucker put in an on demand water heater, and Ike built the current kitchen table from reclaimed heart pine. Our grandparents never had a generator. I bought that. Once I planned to stay here for quite a while, I needed a way to store food at safe temperatures—not counting needing computers and printers and a phone. Living alone never bothered me, but I definitely needed a way to work and a way to communicate with the outside world.”

No matter what he asked, she answered...but that turned into a tit for tat. She had questions of her own. Not over personal subjects, just friendly queries about their lives. Yes, they lived in Charleston, partly because Zoe adamantly loved city life—and both of them wanted an area with great schools.

Pepper piped in, just to make sure they knew she was listening in. “Aw, come on, Dad. You know we think school is b-o-r-i-n-g. We could move somewhere else if we wanted to. It’s not like there aren’t schools all over the place.”

The girls listened just as intently when Rosemary asked him about his landscaping business. He had a handful of regular employees and hired temporary help during the planting and growing seasons. “I really like doing larger scapes, like for businesses, community centers, university planning...but overall, I’ve always loved working with dirt, more than sitting at a desk chair. I’m just lucky to have found something I love, with a lot of variety and something new every day.”

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