The Iron Stakes of Deadlines and the Unyielding Ground of the Cul-de-Sac
CHAPTER 1: THE RESISTANCE OF THE CLAY The dirt didn’t care about neighborhood bylaws. Two inches down beneath the bright green sod that the homeowner had watered to a deceptive, velvet softness, the ground turned to the gray, packed clay of the Piedmont. It was old seabed stuff, compressed by half a century of heavy…