Day of Inheritance
It was a day, like any other. I went down to get the mail and walked past the dusty lawn that needed rain two months ago. I opened the mailbox and began to sort through the mail in my usual methodical manner. Junk, more junk, bills and then a hand-addressed letter for me. My hands were shaking as I slit open the envelope and took out the note inside. It read,” Dear Ms. Samantha, we regret to inform you of the death of your great aunt Carole. Your presence is required for a hearing of her will. Please accept our deepest condolences.” I stood on my weathered steps completely and utterly stunned. This was the aunt who was disowned by the family. She was the one who was talked about when family gossip was scarce and there was still plenty left to drink. She was the black sheep of the family and she was giving us her inheritance? It made no sense, why would she give her inheritance to her family who hated her from her birth. She would not have even known about me. I was born after she left, so how could she known that I even exist. I sat there puzzled until I remembered that needed to return to the matter at hand and I should probably send a letter back, letting the lawyer now that I would be attending.

Two weeks later, my nerves were drawn to the breaking point and I was on the edge of my seat. Over and over again I kept questioning in my head, how much will I get, how much will I receive. A few seats away sat Dave my cousin. I vaguely knew him and seeing that I knew no one else there, I waved and said hello. He turned, smiled and went back to his phone completely uninterested and dismissed me as a mere disruption to his life. A few minutes later, the lawyer stood up and glared at us until we meaning my relative, had all quieted down. Then he began reading in a low and grumbly voice,” The last will and testament of Carole R. Setten. Though I possess no love for my “family” I thought it would be fun and sporting to let everyone fight over my money once I am gone. Seeing as I would have known very few of you present, I devised a series of games for everyone to play so you can get to know your relatives better. Please note that if you complain about playing children games even once, you lose your chance to win my fortune. If you lose a game even once, you are obviously out. When you are down to the final two contestants, the lawyer will give each the same series of documents and you will have to use your brain and discover how I made all my lovely money. Thank you for your cooperation and have a fun game day. Let the tournament begin.” The lawyer then stated that there was a broken window so to be careful and avoid the broken glass until it could be cleaned up.

As the lawyer finished reading he pulled up an unobtrusive bag and began pulling out games. I saw Candy Land, Pictionary, Yahtzee, and even Crazy Eights. She really was not kidding when she said children games. The lawyer began putting us in groups and assigning us games. I myself was playing Pictionary with two other ladies and Dave. This game would be a breeze I thought, but after thirty minutes, I was so wrong. I was down by three points and I am pretty sure that the  two ladies were cheating together. There was no possible way, for a person to guess a drawing as quickly as they were. It seemed impossible and the only logical explanation for this was cheating. I needed to win if I was to stay in the competition and they were not making it any easier. Feeling a little dirty, I started to employ tactics of my own to help compensate for their obvious display of cheating. Five minutes later, with little time left on the clock, I was able to pull ahead and watched as the one of the ladies threw down the pad in disgust and watched as her companion, Dave and myself  moved on to the next round. Then putting Dave out of my mind, I went back into ultimate competition mode and lost myself in playing kid games with grown adults. Time flew by and I was still in. Nameless faces and people competed with me for the prize, but none could prevail against me. The clock abruptly chimed noon and we stopped to break for lunch. Afterward, I took part in an extremely competitive game of Candyland. In this game, it was necessary to win and the outlook was looking bleak. Every card I drew seemed to never work in my favor as if the characters themselves were plotting against me. Two minutes before the end of the period, I finally received the lucky break I needed to at last pull ahead and stay in the lead. An array of emotions raced through me and I felt alive as never before. Here I was, sitting and playing children games, and I found myself feeling like person who was tasting the sun for the first time, after a long, cold, and cruel winter I felt like a prisoner granted release from a prison. A glorious feeling of triumph surged through me I finally passed the last square. With a flushed face and a pleasing victory, I sat down, relieved that I had made it to the final round. However, before the final face-off though, the lawyer announced that there would be a 15 minute break leaving me with plenty of time to get good and nervous. During that time, I learned that Dave would be my opponent. As I went to get something to drink, I watched Dave move across the floor and open and close a door to a room I was pretty sure was supposed to be locked. I slowly walked my way across the floor, weaving my way through crowds of laughing people and as I crept closer to the door, Dave suddenly opened and closed the door, leaving me the only one who knew of this. He then walked back into the crowd where I lost sight of him. Just before the end of the break, he suddenly appeared behind me and I jumped a mile when he spoke. He smiled and wished me good luck and he hoped I would wish him the same. I gave him a noncommittal grunt and hoped that was enough to satisfy him. He stalked away looking extremely displeased and I allowed myself a small smile of success. The clocked then chimed quarter after and I hurried over to a small round table and seated myself opposite of Dave. The table was covered with papers and a musty old smell pervaded the room. Every time a document was touched, clouds of dust went up like dust storms in the desert. The lawyer called out,”You have ten minutes, starting NOW.”
Hurriedly, I began to pour over the documents, trying to glean information necessary to win, however I soon began to realize the hopelessness of my situation. There were just too many papers to deal with. Feeling frustrated, I grabbed a diary and read a couple day’s events. With the crushing weight of the papers seeming to weigh down on me, I chanced a glance at Dave, and saw him sifting through a pile of papers that looked suspiciously smaller than mine. Looking then at the clock, I jumped in my seat because I had even less time than I thought I had. With only one minute to go, I caught that imp looking at me with a smug grin and he even had the audacity to wink at me. Thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight, stop that, I mentally yelled at myself, you must concentrate. Twenty, ninteen, eighteen, I counted, and giving into despair, deciding to guess with what I had seen. “Stop,” shouted the lawyer and gave us directions to write our guess and read it outloud. Writing clearly and carefully, my paper said something like this”Carole, my aunt left this town to make her fortune elsewhere. While reading her diary, I chanced upon an entry that gave an account of her business dealings that day. Most curious, were the amounts of money she had made while in Washington. Apparently she had collected some money she lent old friend Sallvi Gondder, but in all account records, she never had that kind of money stored in the bank. Finally, the last piece of the puzzle was an old newspaper clipping that told of an unnamed treasure hunter who had uncovered a ship sunken at the bottom of the ocean while boating. This unnamed treasure hunter was my aunt Carole R. Setten. Sallvi Gondder unscrambled spells silver and gold, which is how she made her money. After mine was read aloud, the lawyer then turned and asked Dave to read his aloud. He gave some nonsense about selling real estate that made millions but one look at the lawyer told me I was right. The lawyer then announced that I had won and Dave uttered a single word that said it all. “How,”he said.
With a smile, I replied,”The documents you switched were fake. All the ones you switched in the document room were planted there by me. Last night, if you were listening the lawyer made a small mention of a break in, but you were too busy on you phone to listen.You were outsmarted while trying to outsmart me.” I left him stunned this time, with smile on my face that could only be described as one who is celebrating a calculated win over an enemy. I left that small and broken building to enjoy my millions, while Dave left it to despair over his loss of his imagined wealth.