He was quiet for a second. "Good."
She heard paper moving on his end. "Casey, if the deepest areas are holding through this dry spell, that's more interesting than if the entire field stayed flooded after constant rain. But do not jump to the conclusion you want. There could be perched water, groundwater influence, restricted drainage, multiple things happening at once."
"I know."
"No, you know the phrase. Now do the hard part and live by it."
She smiled despite herself. "I don't know yet."
"Exactly."
Odell reviewed the records and forwarded them, with Warren's permission, to a mitigation bank operator named Claire Benton whose company had worked on agricultural restoration sites in the watershed. Claire did not call the next day. She did not call that week.
Warren assumed the silence meant the idea had failed.
He went back to worrying about grain prices, debt service, and whether he could carry another season without selling land. Casey kept measuring anyway.
Eight days later, Odell called shortly after five in the afternoon.
Warren answered from the machine shed, wiping grease from his fingers with an old rag.
"I've got Claire here with me," Odell said. "She reviewed Casey's records."
Warren leaned against the workbench. "And?"
"And she thinks the site is worth a formal look."
Warren said nothing.
Odell continued carefully. "Not a guarantee. Not an offer. A real evaluation. She wants soils, historic aerials, drainage history, agency screening, and a site visit with her technical team."
"How much is that going to cost me?"
"We'll talk structure before anybody spends money."
"Odell."
"Yes?"
"Do you think this is real?"
There was a pause.
"I think you need to stop calling those eighty acres a loss."
Warren looked through the open shed door toward the lower field. The evening sun reflected off water that should not have been there, turning a strip of it bright enough to hurt his eyes.
For the first time since May 7, he did not look away.
Three weeks after Odell told Warren to stop calling the eighty acres a loss, Cornerstone Agricultural Bank sent a certified letter that made the calendar feel suddenly smaller. The account, it said, had moved into heightened review because projected farm income no longer supported the ratios required by Warren's operating agreement. He was given a deadline to bring the note into compliance, provide additional collateral, or present a restructuring plan acceptable to the bank. If he could not, Cornerstone reserved every remedy available under the loan documents, including foreclosure.