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| Rabbit Run |
When he turned twenty, Jack Taylor married his high school sweetheart Bonnie Weatenly and it wasn't very long before they had children, Brandon and Marigold. Jack built a modest 4-bedroom ranch house, dark green siding with white trim, with an attached two car garage, 200 feet back from Rabbit Mountain Road. He snuggled the house as close to the gentle stream called Rabbit Run as possible, He used a dirt road built by the previous owner as a driveway and that road follows Rabbit Run all the way to the bridge at the rear of the property where, according to local press, John Shenk of Shenk Auto died when he fell off the bridge while intoxicated and fracture his skull on a rock.
Of course John Shenk's family found empty beer cans that were pierced all over and his pistol had been fired, and a tuft of black bear fur was lodged between his teeth. Did he bite a black bear before he died? Why was the gun empty of bullets? Besides, John needed a case of beer to get drunk enough to fall off the bridge he built himself, his family concluded. Some questions never get answered.
Behind the house, Jack built a 4 bay garage with a loft- man cave perpendicular to the house- with identical siding and trim. He bought 4 ATV's, 4 Snowmobiles, several rifles and pistols. He built an inground swimming pool in the backyard of the house and built a small bathhouse in the corner of the detached garage with a doorway to the pool area. He added 6' high privacy fence between the house and the garage. Then he hired landscapers to to tie everything together with mulch, trees, rocks, and plants.
The Taylors were proud of their homestead and careful with their money. They decided that it was no one's business where the money came from. They made modest donations to their Church and their favorite charities, placed their children in public school, and Bonnie got her Bachelor's Degree in Art Design online while Jack opened a gun and tackle shop at the old Batchelor Market, a few hundred feet south on the State highway from the Grinold Township building.
Of course, people talk in small towns and Jack's sudden purchase of a large tract of land, a dilapidated Storefront property in the center of a rural township, a new house built to spec, several adult recreation toys, a new Ford F-350, a complete remodeling of the Batchelor building, an all new inventory of guns and fishing gear, jackets and ammunition, hats, boots and hunting knives, and a year later, the addition of an indoor gun range, as well as a diamond ring on Bonnie's finger the size of a Kansas cow, and a modest donation to the Diffle County Food Pantry of $75,000 so they could afford commercial refrigerators- well that raised a few eyebrows and soon enough the gossip train left the station.
Jack didn't build his empire overnight. Jack Taylor was 29 years old when stopped by the Township office to talk to Big Don about the State highway permit he needed for the shop that was painfully slow in arriving, holding up Jack's Grand Opening. It had been 11 years since he received his first inheritance check. Without fuel, even the gossip train slows back down over time. Jack Taylor didn't talk much and Bonnie was alrighty fine with that. Still, Big Don had to ask,
" Jack, I'll call the State and see what I can do, but they aren't a friendly bunch, Mind if I ask you a personal question?"
Jack smiled, "Sure, go ahead. I may not answer if its too personal."
Don smiled back, "Did you rob a bank? You may be the wealthiest young man in Diffle County! I saw your dad last night at the Willow Inn, he was his usual self, a bit tired and muttering about a stolen inheritance. I'm told he's been drowning himself nightly in beer and whiskey, always talking to himself and others. I know that can be hard on family. If there is anything you need..." Jack interrupted him.
"Don, I never stole a penny in my life. My dad needs help but until he admits he needs it, there isn't much I can do for him. Yeah it's sad and at times I get angry but mostly I miss the dad I remember. That isn't the guy drinking himself to death at the bar. I don't know that man. " Jack paused for a moment before speaking in a quieter tone,
"As for the money, and I tell you this confidentially, I was blessed with an ancestor from long ago who chose me without knowing who I am, on the chance that the alcoholism in his family wouldn't carry through more than three generations. He held his fortune from civil war in trust on a prayer that one day our family would have an heir worthy of his fortunes. Don, I don't drink or smoke, I don't do drugs. I never will and we will do great things with the money."
For moment Big Don was speechless. He nodded his head as Jack's words sunk in. "Jack, that sounds like a lot of money."
Jack picked up his coffee and sipped after blowing on it to cool it down. He stood up and smiled at Don,
"The gesture is greater than the result. My responsibility is to make the result greater than the gesture. We are blessed for it." With that Jack readied himself to leave, but leaned in close to Big Don and whispered " Billions, not Millions" and then Jack Taylor looked at Big Don with concern,
"If this gets back to me I will know it was you. But if you can keep this to yourself, there's a chance that Grinold Township will receive a blessing as well." Jack winked at Big Don, who laughed, a merry smile on his face.
"Jack, I don't know how you do it." Big Don stood up and stretched and the two men nodded to each other. "See ya 'round Mr. Taylor."
"Don't forget my driveway permit, Don." Said Jack as he walked out the door,
A few months later Big Don was sitting , well.... where he pretty much sits every day, behind the big desk in the meeting room when town secretary Julie Winters walked in and handed him the mail. Big Don opened the mail, as he had done the past 15 years. Inside one envelope with no return address was a check from the Taylor Foundation and a deed to the old Hasker farm, directly behind the Township building.
Don stared at the check for several minutes then, chuckled softly to himself, saying to no one in particular, "I don't know how he does it." The check was made out to Grinold Township in the amount of $250,000. On the memo line there were instructions that read...
Build a park with a playground. -Jack and Bonnie
Next Week ---Chapter 3 - Good Neighbor, Bad Neighbor
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