When Destiny Calls

by Eric Asher

  I know Mum is trying to keep a brave face on it all, Jenny was her sister. Jenny had been slowly getting worse and we knew it was only a matter of time. It never stopped me going to see her though; she still smiled when I walked through the door and that meant a lot to me.

  Today we are meeting Auntie Jenny’s solicitor for the reading of her will. She doesn’t have a husband or any children. So Dad, Mum and me go to the meeting after having had a nice lunch in town.

  We had the funeral yesterday, it was very sad. Some of Auntie Jenny’s friends from the home where she lived were there and the nurses who looked after her. They were all crying and saying it was so sad to lose one of the good ones. So many people really loved her.

  Mum is holding it together very well. She broke down at the funeral but managed to pull herself together in time for the wake back at Auntie Jenny’s house.

  We walk up to Clover Solicitors and when we get to reception we ask for Mr. McMahon, Jenny’s Solicitor. We are asked to wait and we take a seat and wait.

  When we are called into Mr. McMahon’s office we follow him down the corridor and into his office. He is a stout old man who starts by telling us how sorry he is for our loss and how much he liked Jenny.

  “I had many a meeting with Jenny before and also during her illness. She always talked very fondly of you Faith and you too Fionnula” he says nodding at my mum.

  “This is the last will and testament of one Jenny O’Carroll” he continues to read all the legal jargon. I’m not really listening and he clears his throat to gain my attention.

  “Sorry” I say nodding at him.

  “I leave my house and estate to my sister, Fionnula and her husband Oliver.”

  I hear mum gasp, she already has her own home. What is she going to do with this one too?

  Mr. McMahon continues. “I leave the contents of my bank account and safety deposit box to my beautiful niece, Faith.”

  I gasp just like Mum did. I don’t know if Jenny had any money but just the thought that she would leave me whatever she had squeezes my heart.

  “I want my household belongings to be given to charity and the money raised to be given to Macmillan Cancer Support.” Mr. McMahon takes a sip of his water. “My jewelry collection is to be divided equally between my sister Fionnula and her daughter Faith. Sell it, keep it, or auction it. Do what you want with it and I hope you enjoy the beautiful pieces that I have.”

  “Wow” mum says. “She had so much jewelry it’s all beautiful.”

  Mr. McMahon continues. “I leave my car to my wonderful brother in law, Oliver. You have helped me so much during my life that I want to give you this beautiful machine. I can imagine you are thinking that I didn’t have a car, but I do. Mr. McMahon will give you the details and the keys. Thank you all for everything you have done for me in my life and I will be waiting to repay the favour in the next life.”

  Mr. McMahon finishes by reading the rest of the legal jargon and then he puts the papers down, he shuffles them to straighten them out. He looks up at us and asks “any questions?”

  “Yeah we have lots of questions. We just need to digest this information first. Can we come back tomorrow and ask about everything?” Dad says to him.

  “Of course you can, can we say about three o’clock tomorrow.”

  He walks with us back out to reception and shakes all of our hands. “See you tomorrow” he says and walks back down to his office.

  The three of us leave his office and into the pub next door. Dad goes to the bar and orders us all a vodka and coke and brings them to the table we sat down at. With our glasses raised Dad proposes a toast to Jenny and we clink glasses “to Jenny” we all say in unison.

  Mum is the first to speak. “I can’t believe she left us her house. She didn’t have a mortgage on it – it was fully paid up. We don’t need her house; we have one of our own. What will we do with it Oliver?”

  Dad looks at her and says, “I think we need to look at all the options; selling, renting or moving into it ourselves.”

  “I never thought of moving. We have a lot to think about.”

  “What about Auntie Jenny leaving me the contents of her bank account, that was very kind of her. Bless her she was kind to the end. I wonder what she has in her safety deposit box? I didn’t even know she had one.”

  “I know she wasn’t short of a few pennies Faith, but don’t hold out hope that there is a lot there. Her care in the last couple of years cost quite a lot of money.”

  “I didn’t want anything, I’m just curious that’s all. Mum she had some lovely jewelery, I always admired it.”

  “I know and some of them were given to her a long time ago. She was a very beautiful woman who had a lot of men after her. They were always giving her presents, she must have kept it all.”

  We finished our drinks and then we went home, Mum invited me for dinner so that we can talk about what happened today. I realize that I need to ask Jake for time off again tomorrow so that I can go back to the solicitor. He wasn’t overly happy about me taking a few days off for the funeral, but she is family.

  While I am driving over to Mum’s I ring Jake. It rings for a while then he answers the phone “Yes Jake speaking.”

  “Hi Jake it’s Faith I’m just ringing to ask if I can have the rest of the week off, something has cropped up in the will that needs to be looked at in more detail and I have another meeting with the solicitor tomorrow.”

  I hold my breath for the onslaught I know is coming.

  “Faith you have already had three days off this week and she was only your auntie, not your mum or anything. I suppose if you need the time off then you can have it, but just understand that you won’t get paid and Sasha has been doing your work while you are not here and she is very good. Do you understand me Faith?”

  I can feel the tears starting to come into my eyes but I won’t let him know how much he has upset me. He just doesn’t care.

  “Yes Jake I understand. I’m sorry, you know I don’t like taking time off when you are in the office.”

  I only ever take holidays when he is on holiday because he doesn’t like me not in the office to do his work for him.

  “Ok well you do a good job Faith so it will be ok this time, but I hope this doesn’t happen again. You are always so reliable, I rely on that and need you to stay reliable. Can I rely on you coming in on Monday morning?”

  “Yes Jake, of course you can and I am sorry.”

  “Good, see you Monday Faith.”

  He hangs up before I have he chance to say goodbye. I realize that I have pulled up outside Mum and Dad’s house, so I wipe my eyes and get out of the car. I walk into the house and see that Mum is already there and she has the kettle on.

  Mum looks up at me “everything sorted with work Faith?”

  I smile at her “yeah Jake said it was no problem and that I should take the rest of the week off.”

  It’s only a little white lie!

  “Mum, dinner was spectacular as always. I love your pork chops, potatoes, veg and your own special caramalised onion gravy. Yum yum.”

  “I know you do sweetheart, you always have done. Now lets clear the dishes and we can start looking at what we are all going to do with Jenny’s will.

  We all get up and clear the table, then we wash and dry the dishes together just like we always did before I moved out. This is family time and I love this time we have together.

  Once everything is cleared away, I grab the wine glasses and dad opens a bottle of wine and we all go and sit at the dining table. I open my laptop, ignoring the emails that are glaring at me from my work email account. I have it sent to my laptop so that I can work in the evenings if I need to catch up on anything.

  The first thing we do is Google house prices in the Castleknock area. After a couple of hours we have decided that mum and dad want to stay in this house and sell Auntie Jenny’s house, they are then going to use that money to build an extension on this house and modernize it a bit.
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  We have looked at Jenny’s bank accounts and I can’t believe the amount of money she had. You would never have said that she was a wealthy lady; she never came across that way. She was always very generous but never flaunted it. She has left me a total of €562,500 – we couldn’t believe it. Now we are even more curious to see what is in the safety deposit box.

  All I can think about is this is the opportunity that I have been waiting for to make Jake look at me differently. For him to see me for the sensual woman that I really am. Mum and Dad are telling me that I should make some home improvements and then buy a small house and rent it out to make myself a little income on top of my salary. I’m thinking I can do that and I can make some improvements to myself as well, maybe a little bit of cosmetic surgery and a personal shopper experience to dress more sensually. I smile to myself as I start to have visions of Jake falling all over me on a night out.

  I am going to the bank tomorrow with the necessary documents after I’ve been to the solicitors and I am going to get a chance to look in the safety deposit box. I’m excited; we have had a lot of surprises this week so far.

  We all have a toast or three to Auntie Jenny. It’s so sad that she isn’t here anymore and I wont be able to visit her, but she has been amazing to all of us.

  After we finish two bottles of wine we all go up to bed and it takes a while for me to fall asleep, as I can’t wait to get on the phone tomorrow and start the ball rolling on some cosmetic surgeries.

  When we enter the solicitor’s room Mr. McMahon asks us to sit down, he wants to know what questions we have if any. We all sit there for half an hour asking general questions about getting the ownership of her property moved over to mum and dad and about moving her bank account into my name. When everything is done, he hands me the key to the deposit box and gives me a letter to take to the bank explaining that I am now the key holder of this account.

  We all take it in turns to shake his hand and then we leave his office. Mum is coming with me to the bank and Dad is going home to have a look around the house to see what work they need doing on it. He is then going to go to Jenny’s house to have a look around and see what needs to be done there too. Dad is a builder by trade so he has lots of contacts that can help him out.

  We park the car then walk to the bank on Grafton Street to see the Bank Manager. Mum links arms with me and we chat about what we think might be in the box.

  “I just don’t know what it might be for” mum says totally bewildered.

  “Auntie Jenny has surprised me so much this week, it could be anything. It’s exciting though trying to guess and waiting to see.” I say excitedly.

  We both laugh as we walk into the bank and go to reception where a lovely blonde girl tells us to sit down and the bank manager – Mr. Duffy – will be with us soon.

  A really handsome man walks over to us smiling and holds out his hand “good morning, you must be Ms. Noonan.”

  I extend my hand to shake it; he has a really limp handshake. I hate limp handshakes I believe it shows a weakness in character.

  “Good morning, yes I sure am.”

  Mum shakes his hand as well. “I’m Jenny’s sister, Fionnula.”

  He tells us to follow him and he takes us to a side room at the end of the counter. The door closes behind us and only then can he open the door in front of us. We walk through the door and he walks up to another door where he puts a code into the panel on the wall by the door.

  I look at mum; this is all kind of surreal. She smiles at me and we follow Mr. Duffy through the door into a secure room.

  “Ms. Noonan, do you have the key?”

  I look at him wondering what he is on about and then I remember the key from the will; I open my bag and start looking for it. I eventually find it and take it out and give it to Mr. Duffy.

  “There you are. I’m very nervous, sorry.”

  He puts the two keys into the door of the safety deposit box and opens it and then he pulls it out and carries it over to the table in the room where he puts it down. I notice it is clean and not dusty like I thought it would be. He puts the two keys into the side of the box and the lid opens. He takes his key out, leaving my key still in there. “I’m going to leave you both alone to view the contents, just pick up the phone and dial one and I will come back and put the box away. If you remove any of the contents you will need to sign a form, not claiming what you have removed, just that you have removed something.”

  I nod at him and say “ok thanks” then he turns and walks out through the door we came in by. I look at mum and we both put our hands on the box.

  “I wonder what is inside? Don’t open it yet please Faith” Mum says. She looks pensive and she smiles. “Jenny was always a secretive woman and I suppose it doesn’t surprise me that she had all this money and jewelry and I didn’t know about it. I wonder where she got it all from? I suppose I’m hoping that the answer is in this box.”

  I put my hand on top of mums and say “Auntie Jenny was a wonderful woman, she was beautiful and was obviously loved by so many people. She is giving us a gift, a gift that she wanted us to have. I don’t know what is inside this box but it obviously meant so much to her and she is trusting us with this small piece of her.”

  We look at each other and take our hands off the box. I slowly open the lid and we both sit there staring. There’s not much in there at first glance: a children’s book; some envelopes tied up with a beautiful yellow ribbon and a small red velvet pouch.

  Mum picks up the letters and smells them. “Oh my god I can smell Jenny’s perfume that she used to wear.” I can see she is getting a little bit weepy and I take the envelopes and hold them to my nose to smell as well.

  “Yeah they still smell of Coco Chanel’s. Ah the memories that smell brings back mum. I wonder who they are from? They are all addressed to Auntie Jenny.”

  “I’m not sure we should open them Faith, they are private.”

  “But why would she leave them in this safety deposit box for us to find if they were private? She wanted us to find them, to read them. I don’t know what she wanted us to find in them, but I want to find out.”

  “Me too. Come and stay with us tonight and we can have a bottle of wine and read them and see what we can find out.”

  “Definitely.” I say putting the envelopes down to one side of the box.

  Next I pick up the pouch, it looks like a jewelry pouch. It is lightweight, red velvet and I slowly open it and pour out its contents onto the tray in front of the box.

  Mum and me both gasp at the same time. On the tray is what looks like a wedding ring, an engagement ring and a note that is well folded and crumpled. We look at each other and I say “wow, I’m scared to open the note mum.”

  She reaches out and takes the note and very carefully opens it. She reads it and puts her hand over her mouth “oh no.”

  She takes a deep breath and reads it out:

  “Faith,

  I wanted you to have a piece of me to remember for the rest of your life.

  You have made my life so much more memorable. You have given me hope; joy and even more than that, you have given me unconditional love.

  I have only ever had that once in my life before and that was with Philip.

  I loved him for a long time when I lived abroad. We got married and before I could tell anyone back home, he died.

  I never got over him, he was my soul mate and no one could ever replace his soul.

  You filled the void that he left in my life.

  He gave me these treasures and I want to give them to you and when you find your soul mate I hope you use them and think of me.

  I won’t be able to be at your wedding, but I will always be looking down on you.

  Love as always,

  Jenny”

  Mum can’t speak; I don’t know how she got through reading it out loud. I have tears falling down my face. “Mum did you know she had married?”

  “No, this is the first I’ve heard of it.
I wonder who he was? I can’t wait to read those letters tonight. These rings are beautiful Faith, so beautiful.” She is touching the rings and trying them on.

  Next I reach in and take out the children’s book. It is a very old copy of a book by Hans Christian Andersen. “Oh Mum, this is the story that Auntie Jenny used to read to me whenever she babysat me. I love this story.” I hand it over to mum for her to see.

  “The Ugly Duckling, I remember this story. This was Jenny’s favourite book as a child, she loved it.”

  She opens it and gasps. Inside there are three inscriptions. “Look Faith, there are three messages. The first one is very faint and says

  “Til Riborg,

  Jeg elsker dig mere end du nogensinde vil elsker meg.

  H C Andersen.”

  “I wonder what it says.”

  I pull out my phone to use the translator but there is no Internet connection in here. “We can check it when we get home.”

  “There’s a second inscription let me read it.” Mum says and I can feel her excitement.

  “Jen,

  My beautiful little swan.

  You are the reason I breathe, the reason I live.

  I love you in this life and I will love you in the next.

  Yours forever,

  Philip xx”

  “That is so beautiful to know that she did find that special bond with someone when we all thought she hadn’t. I wonder why she never told us?” Mum looks sad to think that her sister didn’t tell her all about her one true love.

  “There’s another inscription and it’s for you.” She says and starts to read it out.

  “Faith,

  I had true love and it slipped through my fingers.

  Look beyond the words and find their true meaning.

  You will find your true love and when you do don’t let go!

  Auntie Jenny xx”

  “Wow Auntie Jenny was deep” I say laughing. “I wonder what she meant by that.”

  “I loved her so much Faith, she was such a giving woman. Now that she has gone she is still giving.” Mum starts to cry and I reach across and pull her closer to me so that I can hug her.