�And how was Australia and New Zeeland? I have always wanted to go but have never been able to get there,� Bill must have sensed something for he was all smiles. �Did the business get taken care of and was it in your and Mr. Beattleman�s favor?�

Aggie grinned, �Yeah we surely do own a lot of nothing down there, acres and acres of nothing.� She sat down and then they got the amenities over with. But when she said, �Bill, I have a check here and want to do a little investing and to set up a trust fund for my grand kids,� he was ecstatic for not too often does a Widow lady deposit a check for twenty-five million in a bank like his. �First things first, Mrs. Lane, your old home is now yours, free and clear and you own the building and land on which your son�s business sits and you are a 51% owner of his company.� Aggie smiled. �Your son was overly eager to get an influx of cash and I am afraid we overwhelmed him and he did not realize until later that he had sold 51% of his business.�

Aggie looked at the banker, �Did he part with the old home easily?�

Bill sort of grinned, �When a not too intelligent feller from out of town said his wife liked his house more than the new ones over on the hill, your son�s wife decided they could move over on the hill and out of that old house. Your son was reluctant to move but his wife rules the roost. And you my dear Aggie, hold the $300,000 mortgage you son has on his new house. His wife insisted on a $400,000 home over there.� Bill sort of snickered, �That daughter-in-law of yours is a snippety bitch!�

Aggie laughed, �I only met her once and I didn�t like her, but the son was smitten by her, and he seems happy, but what will happen when the screws tighten?� And Aggie, unlike her made a silly face and laughed.

�Thank you Bill, I appreciate it, how much did it cost?� she paused and added, �I am Aggie, remember, not Widow or Mrs. Lane, just Aggie, OK?�

�The old home was $142,000 including all costs and fees. The property and buildings for the business was $222,000, and the 51% of the business was $81,002, and $300,000 for the mortgage� Bill had a big sheaf of papers in a file. he said, �Oh the home improvements were $42,000 and no one has any idea where the money came from or who paid for them. It was Santa Claus. Well that is what Sam Stallington, who did the work said, and accepted.� he winked at Aggie, �The rumors are hot and heavy about you having a rich lover, and all sorts of things, how does it feel after all these years to be on the topside looking down?�

�Fine and he has no idea who bought the three items.� Aggie was feeling smug. Bill got a big grin on his face like a young kid getting ready to pull of a big coup. �The house was bought by Chauncy Enterprises, and the business and property were bought by Caroline�s Investments, along with the Mortgage which is A & B enterprises, of which you are the sole owner and president of.� Bill smiled for he did feel good, this had been fun.

�Very good, and Bill did you get your commissions for the transactions?� For Aggie was one who believed in fair pay where fair play could be used.

�Yes maam, you were charged the standard fee and the big thing is the bank got an infusion of new money.�

�Now I want you to set up a trust fund for each grandchild of two million each and one of one million for my son. The grandchildren will get theirs when they reach 25, if they have graduated from college. Their college costs with a flat fifty dollars a week allowance during school session will be taken from their trusts. And my son will get his on his 57th birthday.� Aggie now felt good.

�What about the remaining amount Aggie?� Bill wanted to keep that money in the bank.

�We, you and I will invest it as we see fit, but it will remain here in some T bonds or some other tax free investment until we see where we should invest, fair enough?�

�Yes maam, and I would recommend buying some land around for the town is going to grow and land is a good investment.�

Aggie smiled, �Bill look into that property where that crook Zeb Wilcox lives, I think that would be a worthwhile investment. Especially since he was the one who forced me to sell when Paul died.�

Bill could see that there was revenge and some hatred in Aggie for the way she had been treated, or rather maltreated in the town. But being a businessman, he just smiled.

Their business apparently finished, Aggie arose, and started for the door, she stopped, turned and added, and �Bill Have a hundred, no two hundred dollars a week in cash mailed to me, OK?� Bill smiled and thought a woman this rich and she is going to live on two hundred a week?

Aggie walked from the bank to the store, bought some staples, she walked to the other end of town to K mart and bought herself some new undies, real fancy ones and she went to the Red Wing shoe store and bought two pairs of women�s shoes. After which she walked home and marveled at her new house and its improvements. she took a shower, and put on her new undies, and did they feel good. she put on her new shoes and went to work for she had lots of wood to saw up and she had gotten flabby while traveling to Australia. She also made an appointment with a woman doctor on the way home, she must get this hump bit taken care of.

The Fox

Aggie was sitting having some breakfast, sipping coffee and eating toasted home made bread when she looked out the window and marveled at the addition to her chicken coop. She had Sam triple the size of her chicken house and the run for she now had quite a few chickens. And then it hit her, the first chickens she had and the spring of the big hatching. And all at once nostalgia hit her and she started to grin as she remembered the fiasco, for now it was very funny. It started when Aggie and JP had moved to the shack. They had nothing and after she had been sewing a lady in town had three old hens which had quit laying so she told Aggie, �Aggie, I either have to kill and eat those old hens or give them away, and they are like family to me, so please take them.� Aggie had appeased the lady all the while thinking she and her son would have baked chicken.

She had just taken them home and released them. A little later another lady had given her three hens and a Rhode Island Red rooster. She left them loose until they got in her garden so she had taken the old chicken house which was there and fixed it so the chickens could roost in it and then had made a make shift fence. Anyway the hens had laid a dozen eggs and one old hen had decided to set, so Aggie had put all the eggs under her and the old hen hatched ten chicks. Aggie was so proud and so she took care of them till one day she noticed a couple was missing, then she found some suspicious tracks and they were a foxes. So she started watching and waiting for that fox. When Paul had died he had an old twelve gauge, Damascus barreled hammer gun, which she still had. And she had it sitting by the front door, but had no shells for it. Aggie went to the hardware store to buy some shells and the man behind the counter laughed at her and replied, �But maam we only sell shotgun shells by the box of 25 shells.�

�Well how much is a box Aggie had asked?� The man had replied and Aggie had replied, �I don�t have that kind of money and I only have one fox to shoot.� The store manager had heard her and sold her four shotgun shells for 25 cents each from some loose ones in the back. Two were number nine bird shot and one a one ought buck shot while the fourth was loaded with number three shot. Aggie thanked the manager, and took her four shells home. She immediately loaded one of the number nine birdshot and the one ought buck shot shells in the old twelve gauge and set it beside the door.

Well she set four nights running and no Fox so the next night she just went to bed and didn�t wake up till about four-thirty in the morning. She got up and looked out and she saw this pretty red fox trotting down the path from her house toward the chicken coop. She grabbed the shotgun, opened the door and quickly aimed and pulled one trigger. Kaboooooooooom! And Aggie quickly got up from the ground to see what she had done. That durn fox hadn�t veered, so she grabbed the old shotgun, quickly pointed it in the general direction and fired. Again she went head over teakettle for that old twelve gauge surely did kick. She immediately jumped up and saw the fox still on the ground.

�Got you, got you, chicken thief,� Aggie hollered as she ran and lifted the fox up by its beautiful tail. Since Paul used to do some hunting, she immediately skinned the fox, keeping the head and nailing the pelt to a board, it was a fine specimen. The only damage seemed to be that one shot had entered the fox�s ear, which killed him. Aggie, happy with her prowess had gone about the rest of her day, thinking she had done away with another of the many problems she seemed to encounter.

A couple of days later, just after it got dark, she heard the chicken all riled up so she grabbed her flashlight and the old twelve gage, which this time was loaded with the bird shot and the heavier shot. Justas she got to the chicken coop she shined her light and saw something move with a still squawking chicken in its mouth, she threw the old twelve to her shoulder and fired, hitting the chicken house, then she fired at the critter with the chicken and bingo she hit it. Another nice fat chicken stealing red fox had met its maker. Well needless to say she just wrung the neck off the old hen and had it for dinner the next night. She also dressed this one out.

At the grocery store she told of her two foxes and a man said, lady I buy all sorts of pelts and hides. Aggie smiled for the next day she brought the two pelts in and the man paid her $36 each for the hides. Needless to say Aggie bought a box of shotgun shells and had Mr. Jenkins to do the remainder of the money in work on the chicken coop.

But the fox was tame till the day Aggie was picking cucumbers and as she leaned over to get a nice one she saw a coiled snake about three inches from her hand. She screamed, threw the basket up in the air and ran to get a hoe. When she got back it and gone and only later did she learn garden snakes are quite helpful. Aggie did go to the library and read up on snakes. She did get a kick out of these remembrances.

A few weeks later it was announced on the grapevine that a rich foreign millionaire had bought four large farms adjoining Widow Lane�s and a week later there appeared an old bum with a yellow Chevy pickup truck driving around town and it was seen out at the Widow Lane�s place. Needless to say rumors did spread.

About a week later, Bill came out to the house to talk some business with Aggie, and when it was done, �OH Aggie I nearly forgot this,� and he pulled a small package out of his pocket and handed it to her. It was one of those small boxes, which were covered with silver foil. She looked at him, �A present for me?� And she opened it to find a compact cell phone. �What the . .. . �

Bill grinned, the Board of Directors authorized them for themselves and a few key depositors, and you are a prime one.� he took a small box out of the other pocket, �Here is the charger, so at night just put the charger by your bed and let it charge, during the day carry it around in your pocket, and you can leave it turned off if you wish but only I know your number and I would appreciate you leaving it on during the day for me to call during the day relative to business.�

Aggie grinned for she was a proud as a peacock for she had seen them and thought them neat. �Thanks Bill, my birthday present.�

�When is your birthday Aggie?�

�Only I know and I think I forgot.� Bill left and Aggie sat down and read the instruction book. she called Joe, who had one. � Guess what I got , I got a present, and the number is 1234567,� she hung up.

In a few seconds her new cell phone rang and she and Joe had a big laugh. she put it in her pocket and went back to work. Aggie was pleased and smiled, �Now I am of the modern generation, I have a cell phone.�

The walking to and from town was something Aggie had done for years, not by choice but out of necessity, so Joe convinced her she should get a truck and drive. �But Joe, I never learned to drive, I did learn to ride a bicycle but never learned to drive a vehicle.�

�I will teach you,� Joe volunteered, and little did he know or realize the task at hand. So on Sunday Joe came over and gave Aggie her first driving lesson and she proceeded to wipe out three pieces of fence and do some damage to the front and side of Joe�s old truck. Joe did not think about something with an automatic transmission, which had no clutch. It was so funny for when Aggie got behind the wheel of the truck A & B went around to the backside of the house like they feared for their lives.

�What about a bicycle,� Aggie said as they repaired the fence and neither of them could laugh much more. �Lets face it I don�t think I can learn to drive.� Joe just nodded his head in agreement.

�What about one of those four wheelers?� Joe said but they found they could not be licensed and if licensed, the driver was required to have a driver�s license.

�I have my old red wagon,� Aggie said, guess I will have to just pull it.

Joe remembered those three-wheeled bicycles that a lot of old folks have in California, so the next day he ordered one and three days later Aggie had wheels, a three-speed bicycle with a large basket on it. She was so proud of it and pedaled it all around the place and the adjacent county roads, when she loaded it and started to town, it was overloaded and she could barely pedal it.

Joe happened to be talking with Mr. Jenkins who was the school janitor and the town handyman and he said, �Oh I can put a motor on it and it will just putt right along, centrifugal clutch and by state law it requires no vehicle license or driver�s license to operate.�

�And you can do it for me? How much will it cost?� Joe was tight with his money.

�Who is it for Joe?� Mr. Jenkins asked. �You?�

�It is a present for Widow Lane, so she doesn�t have to tote that stuff to town or pull that old wagon.

Mr. Jenkins smiled, �For the Widow, I will do it for nothing, you just pay the cost of the motor, and if it is too much for you Joe, I will pay half, for that Widow Lane is a nice hard working god fearing lady.�

Joe bit his tongue, �You do it Mr. Jenkins and I will scrape up the money,�

�Well now a new motor will cost a hundred dollars or more and about twenty five to hook it up, but I should be able to find something a little less expensive.� And he was serious.

�Go ahead and do it Mr. Jenkins,� and Joe pulled out his wallet and handed the man five twenty dollar bills and said, �I will give you this and I will come up with the rest as soon as I can.� Mr. Jenkins put the tricycle in his old pickup and took it home.

Four days later Mr. Jenkins delivered it to Joe and showed him how to run it and when Joe asked, �How much more I owe you,�

Mr. Jenkins reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope and handed it to Joe. �The itemized bill is in there.�

Joe as he opened the envelope nearly laughed for when he looked at the bill, it came to $27.85 and there was $72.15 in the envelope. �But you said . . .. . .,�

Mr. Jenkins just smiled, �Yeah but I found the lawnmower for two dollars, so I rebuilt it from parts I had and had to buy a belt and some stuff. If that is too much.�

�No sir it isn�t,� and Joe handed him two twenties, �This is for the labor.�

Mr. Jenkins took one twenty, �I will split it with you, for the Widow is a nice lady.� Little did Mr. Jenkins know that that deed would not go unnoticed and he would be amply rewarded.

And today you will see the Widow Lane riding her lawn mower powered three-wheeled bicycle to town with her goods in plastic containers in the back. Some folks call it the �Widder�s surrey.� And what is even funnier, when she loads it up for her deliveries, the dogs bark at it and bark all the way to the gate at the road; then they lie down there and wait or go back t the house, but as soon as they hear her coming down the road they are at the gate barking, and they bark until the thing is emptied.

And when Mr. Jenkins retired from the school system he was hired by the big Mojo as the farms equipment man and wouldn�t you know it old tightwad Joe and he became the best of friends.

Within three months, the land just East of Aggie, a hundred and some acres of oak forest with a lot of trash on it was purchased by A & B enterprises. the land across the road from Aggie, a section (540 acres) of old gravel pit which had been used as a dump for much of everything was bought by Caroline Investments, and the Old Grover farm to the West of her (700 total acres) which had been the home to a half dozen old trailer houses was purchased by Chauncy Enterprises. It seems that Zeb had become in arrears of his taxes and his home, his business and the property were bought up by this A & B Enterprises for the tax liens. No one saw anything strange about these purchases and they did not pay much attention when the properties were cleaned up of all the trash by order of the county Health Department. No one asked who paid for it, just assuming it came from somebody else�s pocket.

Folks didn�t take notice of much except a few people wondered what damn fool had spent money on that Widow Lane�s place, for that old woman was humpbacked and was always working. Even her son laughed when he heard they had done a lot of work out at his mother�s place. �Wish she had done it when I had to live in that squalid place,� he told his shop foreman as they were analyzing the sudden increase in the lease, it had doubled. And her son could not find out who had bought the property other than some investment company and all dealings were done with that shyster Pete Larson who was a wheel at the bank. Little did JP Lane, known as Jake P. know that his mother was starting to put the screws to her son and make his life miserable, and even more so the life of his wife.

As Aggie was returning home from her deliveries into town and her weekly purchases she saw Lisle Hoffbruger in her yard and Aggie just ignored her and kept walking. she started to laugh, and turned around and waved to Lisle, �Hello Frau Herr Captain Von Hoffbruger, it is a lovely day. Sorry I was daydreaming.� Aggie was chuckling for she remembered Lisle. One morning in the winter when there had been an exceptionally heavy snow, the next morning, Saturday morning Widow Lane had not gotten into town to deliver her bread, eggs and goats milk till nearly noon. When she knocked on the back door of Captain Von Hoffbruger's house his wife came to the door, looked at Aggie covered in snow, said, �Why can't you get her on time, you should have been here at eight o'clock, so I do not want your bread and eggs,� and slammed the door. Aggie wanted to choke the arrogant snob, but she just looked at her and said, "Very well maam," turned and walked away.

At the next house, Mrs. Venable insisted she come in and have a cup of hot soup and warm up, for Mrs. Venable appreciated this woman walking four miles in the snow to deliver her wares. And Mrs. Venable bought the extra bread and eggs, which Frau Hoffbruger did not want. The following Saturday it was a bright sunny cold winter day and Aggie had not stopped at Frau Hoffbruger's and again Mrs. Venable wanted the extra bread and eggs. Mrs. Venable told Aggie that the Frau had told her that she would not take the bread and eggs because they were late and she would show those people that they should have been on time. Mrs. Venable laughed and told her, "Frau, you loss is my gain for I now get your bread and eggs and I pay the lady extra for both." Mrs. Venable laughed and said, "And she hasn't been back all week, what a godsend."

Aggie thanked her, laughed and went on for she never spread gossip nor did she ever say anything good, bad or indifferent about anyone else. She learned years ago what a malicious bunch housewives were.

Aggie laughed for the Captain Von Hoffbruger's were as far as she could tell the biggest farce in town, next to Mrs. Livingston. She knew Jimmy Hoffbruger when they were kids and they had played together. Jimmy's dad was the local wood and coal dealer. He hauled coal and he bought wood from wherever he could and cut and split it and sold it for stove wood. There were nine Hoffbruger children and Jimmy was the middle one. The six boys all worked and after Hans was thirteen he pretty much took over because Mr. Hoffbruger was a drunk. He was a hard worker when sober but libations were his downfall. They had lived upstairs over the shed where the business was. Jimmy had run off joined the Army, and had received a battlefield commission. He also had received a Silver Star and a DSC. Jimmy had made Captain and had been shipped to Germany where he happened to find some old relatives.

Jimmy traced the family lineage and found that they were direct descendents of the Von Hoffbruger's who were royalty and had been well off. The family had dropped the Von and some had actually just become Brugers. Anyway Jimmy had met Lisle Homm, and they had fallen in love. she had fallen in love with Captain Jimmy, United States Army. So they were married and when Jimmy was shipped back to Viet Nam, Lisle had come to the states. Jimmy had been wounded and was given a disability discharge. Lisle had convinced him to change their name to Von Hoffbruger's and so she became the "Captain Von Hoffbruger's" the laugh of the town. When Jimmy was discharged, he came back and went to college and became an accountant and set up his own accounting firm and became the CPA of the town. But Lisle�s head had grown with their prosperity and she was worse than Hyacinth on Keeping up Appearances, the British Comedy with Patricia Rutledge. Although Jimmy had stopped her and asked to get back on her list for bread and eggs, the Widow Lane said she was sold out but would put him on her list for when she could.

The son�s grand life, which had begun to center around the country club, golf and entertaining was to receive a stark bit of reality. A few days later the son received a writ to show cause from his partner Caroline Investments. The company, which had bought into his, company and put up the money for the expansion. He was to account for the expenditures and the decrease in profits over the last six months. He was getting shaky for part of the expansion money had gone for a big swimming pool and cabana at their new house on the hill, which they had moved into after they dumped the old home which was nearly paid off.

Aggie went to see this woman doctor and found that her years of hard work, and a good diet had kept her in fine mettle, and the hump was not due to bone loss but rather a nonmalignant tumor, which was just under the skin. She called it some funny name, nonmalignanttumoralfattistheristslugg. And it was taken off and when Aggie took a shower she looked at herself in the mirror and decided she wasn�t bad off for her age and the work she had done. Matter of fact she was impressed enough by her own body to buy herself a couple new skirts, a blouses and a pair of regular woman�s shoes pumps, low ones of course.

Joe had been coming over once or twice a week for dinner and they found that they both enjoyed Scrabble, and Spill and Spell and of course Anagrams. Aggie had the games from before Paul died and she had nearly worn them out with use, playing by herself over the years.

�Aggie, oh Aggie, you are something else, you sit down and repaint the letters on the die and on the anagram tiles when you can buy a whole new set for $8.88.� Aggie reached over and tapped his shoulder, �But these have fond memories and I can�t afford to waste that much money.� both laughed.

Every night when Joe came for dinner, he would bring two bottles of Mountain Rhine and they would usually drink a half and on rare occasions a whole bottle so Aggie had a big shelf of wine in her root cellar. Joe did bring her a barbeque grill, which he adapted and hooked up to the natural gas, which she now had. And he had brought her a new washer and dryer after Aggie had done his washing before he got moved in. Joe could not believe that a woman would scrub clothes on a washboard as Aggie did. They were just two good friends, genial warmth between them but no overt signs of affection or caring; well that is unless you studied facial expressions and smiles.

Joe on the other hand after the purchase of all the land had moved into one of the seven houses on the property he had bought. He actually preferred the second smallest house on the place for it had been crafted by a real artisan and the inside was unbelievable, not too large but ooh so nice. Folks knew Joe as the caretaker for the farms. Joe said he was the lackey of some rich dude who had made a jillion dollars in cyberspace and bought all of this land and wanted more, hoping to convince his wife to move out in the sticks. And he had the locals convinced that this rich �Mojo� as Joe called him, was planning a 30,000 square foot castle with three houses for the caretakers. Joe enjoyed this for he looked like an old bum and of course he drove that beat up old yellow Chevy four-wheel drive and was genial and pretty tight with a dollar. Also some people realized Joe knew nothing of farming or of agronomy in general, so he fit the lazy bill to a t.

Joe had hired tenant farmers for each farm, and had the tenants working together for their profits; unbeknownst to anyone else their salary was independent but their bonus was tied to the profits of all of the farms. The tenants loved it because they did an honest days work for a base salary and got a generous bonus for productivity. The tenants if asked who their boss was would reply, �Some rich Mojo, but Joe relays the orders and Joe is a good fellow.�

Joe had a lady to come in twice a week to clean, dust and do the laundry. She thought it a shame that the poor old Joe lived by himself and all he had was that computer and stereo for entertainment. Heck he did not even have a television. But he did have a lot of books and his pride and joy was in his study, or book room he had the best Lazy Boy Recliner he could buy, custom made with brown cowhide covering and he had brought in a lightening Engineer to design the lighting so he could read with minimum eye strain. End part three