The Inheritance

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It was only crickets in the room after the lawyer read the will. We all blinked at one another, too stunned to speak at first. I could feel beads of sweat forming on my temple in the stuffy conference room. 

After the initial shock, everyone swiveled around in their seats to look at me, as if I might have known this was coming. "Hey! I don't know anymore than the rest of you all!" I threw my hands up and shook my head emphatically. I was just as surprised as everyone else that I was the sole beneficiary of my Uncle Leo's estate. 

My cousin Allegra just rolled her eyes in disgust and started typing into her phone with a scowl - searching up "how to contest a will," no doubt. My other cousin, Wilhelm, kicked me hard under the table while giving me a very meaningful look. Just to make sure I got the point, he rolled his meaty shoulders under his too-small jacket, and flexed his arms as best he could in his too-tight sleeves. 

Aunt Eloise wasn't looking at me at all now.  She had turned away and was quietly contemplating a bad painting of some fruit behind the lawyer's head as if none of this was happening. Typical Aunt Eloise behavior, in other words. 

As for me, I was just beginning to feel the slightest flicker of excitement. 

After my parents disappeared on a weekend hike in the wilderness, my uncle and aunt had raised me. But I never fit in with their family and my cousins always resented me. I wasn't exactly a well-behaved model student during my teen years, either, leaving my relationship with my aunt and uncle strained to say the least. Was I finally about to have the means to start over in life? To figure out who I might have been if my parents were still here?

But the lawyer had one more bomb to drop. "There is one other critical detail I need to mention," he intoned, without looking up from the papers he was shuffling in front of him. Uh-oh. Why did his lack of eye-contact make my stomach flip flop?

"The property is located in a remote area, in the wilderness really. There is a small cabin there, so you'll have shelter. But under the terms of your uncle's will, you'll need to stay there until you "find the hidden thimble," or you'll forfeit the inheritance to your cousins. 

"What was that?" Aunt Eloise snapped her head around to look at the lawyer, her usually vague expression overwritten with alarm. "Allegra, Wilhelm, you are not to get involved with this, do you hear me?" My cousins looked at one another, equally shocked at their mother's reaction. 

I looked back and forth between my aunt and the lawyer, nonplussed. "What was that about a thimble?" I asked. The lawyer just shook his head. "Unfortunately, I don't know. Your uncle didn't provide any more detail I'm afraid."

"It's a silver thimble, it isn't valuable." Aunt Eloise cut the lawyer off. "It's hidden somewhere on the 1,000 acres. Your uncle didn't hide it there, his great grandfather did. Your parents couldn't find it either, presumably. We never heard from them again after the property was left to them when your grandfather died." 

My parents were looking for the thimble when they died? My stomach lurched. Aunt Eloise continued, "The finder is supposed to inherit not only the property, but great power. What kind of power, I don't know as Leo would never discuss it. What I do know is I want no part of it now that he's gone."

Aunt Eloise abruptly stood up. "Come, children." She beckoned to my cousins. "There's nothing for us here." As Allegra and Wilhelm filed out of the room, looking confused, Aunt Eloise stepped over to me and looked me straight in the eyes. "Marcos, I know we were never close, but listen to me this one time." Her bottom lip trembled as she paused to take a deep breath before continuing. "Don't claim your inheritance, it isn't worth it. There's so much you don't know." And with that, she too left the room, leaving me and the lawyer to stare at one another across the table. 

My head was spinning and I could taste bile in the back of my throat. I had so many unanswered questions, but there was only one way to handle this. I fished a quarter out of my pocket. "Heads, I claim the inheritance. Tails, I'm out of here and this whole thing ends with me." The lawyer shrugged one shoulder; he'd seen it all now. With a flick of my wrist I set the coin spinning on the table in front of me. My life was, once again, in the hands of fate and somehow, I suspected it already knew what it planned to do with me.

#Inheritance

#Magical Realism

#Flash Fiction