“I spent sixty years repeating something I never checked.”
He looked at Eli.
“That sound familiar?”
Eli thought about Marcus dismissing the pond.
Then realized Warren was talking about himself.
“A little.”
The contractor removed loose debris.
The shaft was stabilized.
Approved material was placed according to closure requirements.
The void was properly sealed.
Compacted fill rebuilt the surrounding grade.
Drainage around the pond was reshaped so surface water would no longer concentrate over the former shaft.
It was slow work.
Expensive work.
The invoice made Marcus sit silently at the kitchen table for almost ten minutes.
Eli saw the number.
“Sorry.”
Marcus looked up.
“For what?”
“The cost.”
His father stared at him.
Then laughed once.
“Eli, if you hadn’t noticed it, someday I might have parked the tractor there.”
He folded the invoice.
“Or your grandfather might have driven the mower across it.”
Warren, reading at the far end of the table, said, “I heard that.”
“Good.”