Chapter 13

It wasn’t long after Tina came into our lives that I first met the soon-to-be famous Ben Hill Higgins. It was waiting on the front steps of the County Sheriff’s Office in Bartow where we both showed up at to bid on a bankrupt citrus grove. Ben was not the citrus baron he would be by Nineteen Seventy, but he was smart, rich and aggressive. In the year before his death, in Nineteen Ninety, Ben Hill Higgins was ranked two hundred and sixty first on the Forbes Four-Hundred list. By then was a huge force in Florida politics and agriculture.

We were introduced by Sheriff Cowell when it was clear that we were the only people who showed up for the sale. “Ben, this is Michael Ryan. You might remember his parents, Ed and Connie. They died in that awful accident last year. Michael is operating his father’s grove by himself and doing a darn good job.”

Ben sized me up, and I could tell he wasn’t impressed with a seventeen year old grove owner. The Sheriff put him straight before he might have said something unkind. “You’ll find Michael has a keen eye for the citrus business. His father was so impressed with Michael’s understanding of their groves that he stepped back and turned over the entire operation to him to run when he was just turning fourteen.

“This boy is going places. You two should know each other.”

The auction was scheduled for nine A.M. and when the clock struck nine, Sheriff Cowell banged his gavel and asked us to make an opening offer on nine hundred and seventy seven acres of poorly tended groves and all equipment, including two barns and some tractors and other motorized equipment.

I looked at Ben Higgins and waited for him to make an opening bid. When he didn’t it dawned on me that he was testing to see how high I would start out. Alistair had suggested a low-ball offer of fifty-five thousand dollars for everything, including the seller paying off all back taxes and equipment loans, so that’s what I bid.

Higgins gave the Sheriff a grin and shook his head to indicate that he wouldn’t offer a higher number. “SOLD!” Cowell handed me off to a clerk to handle the funds and invited us both to meet him for breakfast at a local diner. Not knowing Bartow at all, I followed Ben Hill Higgins, trying to look like I wasn’t following him.

Cowell was waiting when we arrived and hollered for the owner to bring us the morning special and hurry up. “You just hold your horses, Lawrence Cowell. I can’t cook good food fast, and I won’t serve poor food. Have some rest in your pants and I’ll get your breakfast on the table as soon as it is darn good and ready.”

“I could have eaten at home if I wanted a lecture, Mildred,” he laughed.

While we waited for our food, Lawrence looked at Ben, and said, “Now I’ve known you a darn long time, Ben Higgins. There is some good reason you chose not to bid on the old Malloy Grove, today. Out with it.” He spoke softly, but he had that special gift of making every statement sound like an order.

Higgins thought about lying. I could see it in his eyes. When he realized that I saw through his subterfuge, he gave it up and answered. “Lawrence, I knew Ed Ryan. Me and the wife think that what this boy is doing for the little orphan girl whose mother was killed was the action of a good man. If this boy wants that grove, he darn sure should have it.” He laughed then and smiled for the first time. “And he bid exactly what I thought would be a fair, low price for that farm.”

He turned his attention to me, then. “Michael, you are getting a reputation as a strong, quiet, mind-his-own-business, kind of young man and I want you to succeed. Polk County needs smart, decent and honest business folks to help us recover from that damned depression and obscene war. I want you to know that you can come to me and ask if you need help.

“My grove managers all know that I never offer advice to my competitors, but you are my one exception. Come anytime. I will find time to give you my best advice. More importantly, continue to be a good man, and this entire county will know your name one day soon.”

He never gave me a chance to speak. Like most hard driven and very successful people, Ben Hill Higgins was too busy to waste time in idle chat. He and Sheriff Cowell talked until breakfast arrived and he ate with a smooth urgency. After cleaning his plate, he excused himself and used the nearby phone booth. In the back of my head, I had the sneaking suspicion that Ben Hill Higgins arranged for the Sheriff to introduce us, not the other way around, but I was clueless as to why.

When he came back from his phone call, he had a mission. “Michael, I just spoke to my bride, and she wants you to come by when we finish up here. It seems my darling wife has a supply of clothes that would fit that little girl you saved. She wants you to come take it all away and put it to good use.” I was both surprised and honored that one of the soon-to-be richest men in the world even knew I existed, much less would worry about sharing some clothes with Tina.

I learned a great deal from that conversation. Ben Hill Higgins was a true gentleman and a deeply talented businessman. He didn’t know it, yet, but his granddaughter, Beryl Sandstrom, would be elected Florida’s Secretary of State and preside at the signing of the order officially awarding Florida’s twenty-five electoral votes to George W. Bush, after all the lawsuits following the two – thousand election.

I followed Mr. Higgins to his home amid the orange groves and was introduced to his wife, Eleanor, who immediately hugged me like I was one of her own. She talked incessantly as we walked upstairs where she had a double bed covered in clothes that she wanted me to take to Tina. “Mr. Ryan, I hope you will invite us out to your place one day soon to meet the little one you saved. My husband and I are very impressed with your kindness and decency.” Those were almost the exact words her husband used, earlier. “I’ve been buying up children’s clothes for some time, thinking I would have them when the hurricanes come ripping through, or people lose their homes to fires, or tornados.

“When Ben told me about you and your family taking in that poor, abused, child, I knew we needed to give these things to you. I’ve separated things into sizes so you’ll always have right sized clothes as she grows out of what she’s wearing now. It gave me a lot of pleasure to share these things with you, Michael Ryan, Take them in the spirit with which I gave them and let that sweet girl have some happiness from it all.” She sure cared a lot about a stranger. The tear in the corner of her eye tipped me off that she really did care, and wasn’t posturing.

Driving home in my pick-up, with the deeds to the grove I’d bought at the auction in my glove box, I had to sit very tight up against the door, because the seat beside me was full of never-before worn clothes that I would be giving to Tara to organize in Tina’s closet and drawers. The Higgins’ were wonderful to me and knowing of their concern about an orphaned teenaged boy, living with his three aunts and a needy, orphan girl was touching.

Tara drafted Cary to help her deal with Tina’s new wardrobe. “Michael, you know you’re rich, right? You could buy Tina the entire kids department and never miss a dime. Why would the Higgins want Tina to have all this?” She was skeptical where I was thankful.

“Sweetheart, the Sheriff introduced us and made sure that Mr. Higgins knew who I was before the auction. Then Mr. Higgins stood back and let me steal that farm. It was like he wanted us to have it as a reward for taking Tina in and raising her.

“You will love Mrs. Higgins. She hugged me like she’d known me forever and couldn’t stop talking about how pleased she was to have all this stuff for Tina. She did make me promise to invite them out for dinner, so they can meet her and the rest of you. I have their home phone number. You will need to call and make the arrangements, woman to woman. She’ll like that.”

I could tell that Tara liked it too.

By the time we went into town to pick up Tina, her room was back to normal and her new clothes were carefully folded and put away. She was going to be the best dressed little girl in Florida. Tara couldn’t wait to play dress up with her.

Tina was excited to have a closet and bureau brimming with new clothes. There were dresses for every conceivable occasion, in several different sizes. Tara thoughtfully hung and stored the bigger things in the spare room at the end of the hall for when Tina was older. Trying to hang all of that in one closet was a non-started from the beginning.