Mister Jack Miller Ch. 08
Date: 27.11.2008Keywords: Jack, Miller, Ch., 08, Mister,
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"By way of introduction, let me say that if you haven't read the first chapters of this story, then much of the next few pages will mean very little to you. So I suggest you go back and read "Mister Jack Miller: Chapters 1 thru 7" to get the background on this tale. That having been said, please...read on..."
******
The voice on the other end of the phone was Alex's, but sounded nothing at all like someone who had been partying as hard as we had done the previous night.
"She's dead, Jackie. Nana's dead."
I sat up like a shot and was as awake as Alex sounded in a heartbeat, "Oh, no..." I dropped the phone and Shari felt the urgency in my voice, and I repeated to her the same five words I had just heard.
Shari shouted, "NO!" and collapsed into my arms in tears.
"She died last night, about an hour after she left the ballroom."
"Why the fuck didn't anyone tell us?" I shouted, now mad at not being informed until now.
"Apparently there was a message waiting for Mom when she got to her room, and she decided to wait till this morning so as not to spoil our evening."
I was both mad and thankful to my mother at the same time, but I understood. I tried to regain my composure and said as calmly as I could, "So now what?"
"Well, her lawyer is going to be at the breakfast this morning. Apparently Nana was pretty sure she wouldn't even make it this long, and had planned this reunion as a will-reading, so it's already set. They're gonna feed the kids in a separate room this morning, and the adults are gonna meet with the lawyer. Apparently she had it all planned out like this."
I listened intently and thought, "That sounds exactly like the way Nana would have done it," then said to Alex, "We'll meet you downstairs in a little bit."
"You better hurry up, it's supposed to start in, like, fifteen minutes."
I looked over at the clock and started, "Okay, we'll be right down...WAIT...you've got my key and all my clothes are in the room. Why don't you guys come down here and bring me some clothes, and we can all go down together." After getting an okay from Alex, I hung up the phone and stood up, grabbing Shari by the hand and leading her towards the shower, where we washed up quickly. Shari started to dress just as the knock came on the door. I opened it quickly and the girls came in, handing me a pair of black pants and a simple white dress shirt. They had remembered shoes and socks but not underwear, but I wasn't particularly picky at the moment. I suppose under circumstances like the one last night at the hot tub, I would have gotten a huge boner being naked in front of the girls, but all I could think about was Nana, and wanted to make sure I honored her memory. My cock seemed to understand, and stayed obediently flaccid all morning.
Apparently, not everyone had gotten the message that Nana had passed during the night, or they were still feeling their grief, because as we walked into the ballroom, we heard a murmur of voices, and rising up above them every few seconds, we heard sobs and tears, most of them from female voices. I saw Warren as he walked to a place to sit down. He looked like his whole world had caved in, so I went up to him and shook his hand, saying, "Nana was awesome, wasn't she?" He hugged me. I think it was exactly what he needed at that moment, because he perked up a little bit, and the next time I saw him he was in much better spirits. I joined Mom and the girls at the same table we had taken last night. Mom looked like she had been crying all night, so I held her in my arms for a long moment, then we all sat down together.
The lawyer, whose name was Barnes, stood up to a podium and tapped the microphone. "Good morning, folks. for those of you who do not already know, Ida Rae Sedgewick died last night at a little after 10:00. She has arranged something for all of you that she ordered in her will to be shown at this occasion should she not make it through the week. Lights?"
The lights came down and the blinds were closed, and a screen came down from the ceiling. A video began to play. it was Nana, and she was sitting in her living room at the old house--the house I grew up in...the house with the treehouse in the backyard. She cleared her throat and spoke into the camera:
"Well, hello, everyone. If you are watching this, then I must have passed onto the great beyond at some point during this reunion week. First of all, let me say that I am so very pleased that you all could make it, and I hope that you not only HAVE been having fun, but that you will continue to enjoy yourselves as the week finishes up. Please don't let my death put a damper on the festivities. Have fun at the dance, Enjoy the pool party. I give you this week because I love you all."
There were fresh sobs throughout the room as she paused on the tape, then silence again as she continued:
"There are some of you in this room today whom I had hoped to be able to meet with privately during this week. If I have, then so be it. If not, Mr. Barnes will be contacting you today to speak with you about some matters which concern you.
"As to matters of inheritance, however, I want to tell each and every one of you what has been set aside for you."
You could hear a collective catching of breath from everyone in the room. Everyone, that is, except for those who had already met with Nana earlier in the week.
"Well, what I have done is this. when each of you were born, from my eldest child to my youngest great-great-grandchild, I opened a trust account for you. Each month, I arranged to have the interest I'd earned from the various investments I've made split equally and placed into each of those accounts. Needless to say, my brokers have invested wisely, and I've developed quite a portfolio, as they say.
"Well, for as long as those accounts have existed they have regularly been deposited into, and they have also been earning interest. What Mr. Barnes and his assistants should be doing at this moment", and they were," is giving to each of you documents related to these trust accounts.
"Each of you, when you reach the age of thirty, will begin receiving checks from my accountancy firm every birthday in an amount that represents two percent of the fund that is currently being held in your name. When you reach the age of sixty, all remaining moneys, representing the remaining forty percent, plus any interest accrued in the interim, will be given to you in a lump sum.
"If any of my direct descendants has passed on before me, and there are several, the funds that had been set aside for them will be divided equally among THEIR direct descendants, and so on. All of you have been provided for in the exact same manner as one another."
Leave it to Nana, I thought. Nobody has a reason to bitch, because everyone gets the same thing. Of course, those of us who had meetings with Nana earlier in the week were presented with other gifts, but since they were not technically an inheritance, and were distributed to us by Nana when she was still alive, were not a subject of dispute. Man, I thought, she really was a shrewd businesswoman. My admiration of her rose yet again at her cleverness.
At this point, she said a few more parting words and then "talked" to the lawyer, who shut off the video and told everyone that there was a form to be signed in each envelope that would have to be returned to him within thirty days. That would give those of us who wanted to have their lawyers go over it time to do so, but would also give people the opportunity to sign right away if they felt the desire.
Then I started hearing the gasps as people started opening their envelopes, and seeing the figures that had been set aside for them. Nana's only living child, my Great-Aunt Florence, had received nearly twenty five million dollars. Ben's two-year-old twins each received 1.2 million. And everyone else got amounts somewhere in between those two figures. I was, quite literally, blown away myself. Though I didn't immediately look at the amount I had inherited yet (I just signed the paper, folded it quickly and handed it to the lawyer), I learned later that this amount was almost thirteen million dollars, which, when added to the forty-seven million dollars Nana had given me yesterday morning, made my net worth over sixty million dollars.
But, of course, I was careful to make sure that the girls, and any others in the room who were still filled with grief, would have my shoulder to cry on as long as they needed it. There was a shriek from one end of the room, and I heard Victoria (the twin) shout "How did she know?" I later found out that she was two and a half months pregnant, but hadn't yet told anyone about it, not even Nana. but Nana had still included her unborn child in the distribution. Wow, I thought, incredible. Absolutely incredible.
Florence stepped up to the mike to say a couple of things, one, to let us know that tonight's dinner had been cancelled, and had been replaced by a memorial service, which was to start at 8 pm that evening. And second, to remind us what Nana had said about having fun, and to not let our sadness over Nana's death prevent us from having the fun she had brought us here to have. "On that note, I expect to see each and every one of you at this afternoon's pool party, because you know Nana wouldn't have missed it." I thought about Nana and those swimsuits of hers, that looked like the kind of thing bathing beauties from the roaring 20's would have worn. A little sexy, but fashionable and modest. and she always had a parasol that matched the suit perfectly. What a classy lady.
As the morning broke up and we all picked at our breakfast, I went back up to the room, and lay down on the bed. Alex and Mom were still talking, so I had the room to myself, and as soon as my head hit the pillow, I started to cry. Deep, wailing, childlike sobs that started and kept on going like they'd never stop. This was it, I thought, so I'd better get all of it out now, because other people would need me to be their strength later, no doubt.
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Keywords: Jack, Miller, Ch., 08, Mister,