Was Arthur Mercer Senior and Arthur Vance Senior’s original handwritten 1944 sovereign survey patent:
THE MERCER-VANCE HOMESTEAD // PARCEL 10
ACREAGE: 40 MILES OF SUBTERRANEAN BEDROCK
STATUS: SOVEREIGN & UN-ENCUMBERED
HELD IN TRUST FOR THE LINEAL HEIRS // AD INFINITUM
INSCRIPTION: BUILT PLUMB. HELD TRUE.
BALANCE DUE: ZERO.
A pair of white-tailed sea hawks broke from the high canopy of the northern pines along the shore, circling high on the thermal updrafts above the water, their broad wings catching the sun as they banked clean, deep, and free across the limitless blue American sky.
I looked down at the hand-carved inscription on the arm of the cedar rocking chair beside my knee:
BUILT PLUMB. HELD TRUE.
MERCER-VANCE HOMESTEAD // ESTABLISHED 1944
A slow, radiant, permanent smile broke across Evelyn Mercer’s face—a smile that held zero fear, zero debts, zero lies, and zero graves.
I looked out over the forty miles of clean, sweet coastal water where my grandfather’s memory and my children’s future had finally taken root upon solid rock:
“The line is plumb, Grandpa,” Evelyn Mercer whispered into the morning breeze:
“The doors are locked from the inside.”
“The foundation stands upon solid stone.”
“The thieves are in their cages.”
“The house is clean.”
“And around here…”
I stood up from the chair, holding my children toward the limitless blue sky as the distant chimes of the harbor chapel began to strike twelve times across the peaceful water:
“…nobody ever, ever… throws my family out again.”
