The Dilemma
The subject of the dilemma was Aucilla River Place (long known as Aucilla River Plantation, before that name became anti-Woke and unacceptable to the third wife of its owner, Ben's long- time client and friend, Harvey Haddock, known to his many friends as "Fish").
Since the name change it had been universally known as "The Place" and that call name a constant reminder that a hundred sixty years earlier it had been the residence of an enslaved
work force of two hundred black folk engaged in cultivating and harvesting cotton and tapping pine trees for turpentine.
Since 1885 it had been owned by members of one family, the Boston Haddocks, Robber Bartons, Captains of Industry, Brahmins, Investment Bankers, Super Rich Folk. From that start through Harvey's generation they had lived by the Smart Yankee Rule, Thou Shalt Not Spend the Principal. Would devotion to that Rule last another generation was an open question for the Haddock clan, as for every other, and the Haddock's extreme and still growing affluence increased the odds it would not.
The first Haddock had come to Thomasville by train (in his own private car) for the winter social season of 1885. At the time Thomasville was the southern terminus of the railroad and becoming a favorite Snowbird destination. He and his bride had stayed in the new Piney Woods Hotel that first winter but discovered The Place, then a patchwork of small cotton farms and longleaf pine turpentine forests, available for purchase for $6 an acre, thanks to a national financial crisis that like others created opportunities for Robber Barons. They were attracted by the surroundings, the winter climate, and by a bird, the bobwhite quail, which would become The Place's reason for being, from then to now.
Fish had two sons, half-brothers, one each conceived with his first two wives, each wife now a grass widow resident of Palm Beach and allies of one another and still friends of Harvey whose divorce settlements had left them well off. The two sons loved The Place but hated each other, why no one knew for sure. And therein lay Fish's dilemma.
In theory, it should not have been so. The Place encompassed 20,000 acres, plenty for two shooting estates, as they would have been called in Great Britain. Fish had long ago proposed to his sons an equal in-kind division of The Place between them. In light of this possibility, he had erected a second grand manor house on it, used now as a lodge for business entertainment guests while personal friends and family stayed with Fish in the other. But both sons had deemed division of The Place a bad idea, and lobbied with all their might to inherit it all from Harvey. They could not bear the thought of looking across a line fence at one another.
Fish's best friend (Ben and Sam Nixon MD were second and third best) was The Place's manager, Joe Bricks. Joe had been with Fish throughout his ownership, having grown up on The Place as the son of the previous manager who had worked for Harvey's father. Joe had served in the Marines in Vietnam, then returned to The Place to apprentice under his father.
When they were young, Fish and Joe had hunted (quail, duck, turkey, raccoon, deer) and fished (the Gulf for all its bounty and with fly rod for bream on ponds on The Place and for trout in Montana where The Place's pointing dogs and retrievers were trained in summer).
Joe was past retirement age but had no intention of retiring soon, which suited Harvey. Unknown to all, Joe held the secret to solving the dilemma of The Place's future. That secret was a teenage grandson of Joe, William, who was autistic. William's father and Joe's son had died in the service of his country as a Marine in Afghanistan, and William and his mother lived on The Place where she managed the main Big House for Harvey.
The solution to Harvey's dilemma with The Place was revealed in a Friday afternoon conference in Ben's library-conference room attended by Fish, Ben and Sam Nixon MD, Fish's personal physician. Each friend had before him a dram of The Macallan. What Fish should do with The Place on his death was the subject under discussion.
Sam had a special professional and personal interest in autism, which prompted a discussion of Joe Brick's grandson William.
Sam said, " I have a patient with a special interest in autism who might acquire The Place for dual purposes, half for his personal shooting estate, half for a charitable therapy and teaching facility for autistic children he would finance. His autistic grandson has benefitted much from therapy and training at a facility employing horses and dogs as therapy animals. "
"Tell me about him," Fish said.
That conversation led to the dilemma's solution. Fish met Sam's patient, who offered to found and fund the Autism Institute treatment facility if Fish would contributed half of The Place for it and he could on Fish's death buy the other half of The Place for his personal shooting estate. Joe Bricks and William's mother would be part of management of the Autism Institute which would be affiliated with a major medical research and therapy institution.
Both of Fish's sons would be denied inheritance of The Place, which gave Ben and Sam secret pleasure and Fish a sense of justice.
About the Author : Tom Word
Visit authors website | View more articlesTom Word is a lawyer who represents individuals about managing their assets and for amusement writes fiction and non-fiction about bird dogs and humans obsessed with them.
About the Artist : Leah Brigham
Visit artist websiteAfter graduating from Millersville University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelors of Science in Art Education, Leah began teaching Art to inner city Middle School students in Houston and later Dallas, TX. Leah has shared with her students her passion for art and nature. This passion has sustained her and continued throughout her life in the form of painting and drawing.
Leah was introduced to American Field Horseback Field Trails and has been able to experience the excitement of seeing her own dog, competing for the National Championship at Ames Plantation in Grand Junction, TN ...standing on point, head and tail held high. This has inspired her to create works of art depicting dogs and the wildlife associated with the sport and hunting.
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