My Parents Laughed When I Entered Family Court in My Navy Uniform to Fight for My Grandfather’s 84-Acre Farm

standing.

I keep the compass on the desk in the shed office now, next to the ledger. Every so often, when the paperwork gets ugly or the weather turns or somebody from the family surfaces with a new version of the past, I pick it up and turn it in my hand until the needle settles.

It always finds north. It never once cared who was talking loudest.