He carried the original notebook too.
She made a clean copy of the overlay and placed it inside the local history collection with the old soil survey.
A handwritten note identified it:
Voss Farm Homestead Well Site, Rediscovered 2023 by Eli Voss.
Eli stared at his name.
“You didn’t have to put that.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Why?”
“Because forty years from now somebody may wonder how we know.”
She tapped his notebook.
“This is how.”
Dale and Otis told the story differently depending on who was listening.
At the diner, Otis claimed he had suspected the well immediately.
Dale usually interrupted.
“You called the boy Indiana Jones.”
“I was encouraging him.”
“You laughed for ten minutes.”
“Supportively.”
Eli learned to ignore them.
The important change was more subtle.
When he pointed something out now, adults paused.
Not always.
Not automatically.
But more often.
Marcus did not become the kind of father who accepted every idea his son produced.
If anything, he questioned Eli more carefully.
“Show me.”